The leaders of and agreed on Monday to a in more than a decade.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet met on Monday morning at the official residence of Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
International pressure on Bangkok and Phnom Penh to end the fighting had been growing ahead of the mediation meeting in Malaysia, which currently chairs the .
What began as an exchange of small arms fire , with rocket launchers, fighter jets, and drones deployed during a five-day flare-up.
Ahead of the ceasefire, which is expected to come into effect at midnight (17:00 UTC/GMT), the governor of Thailand’s Surin province, Chamnan Chuenta, said the was volatile amid intensifying skirmishes across several districts.
Surin hosts an evacuation camp where more than 6,000 people have sought refuge from the border clashes.
Samit Yaekmum, a local administrative officer and sheriff in Baan Sawai in Surin’s Kap Choeng district, described the fighting from his bunker earlier on Monday.
“I’m in the bunker right now, but there’s still a signal,” he told DW. “The fighting has been ongoing from 3:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. today. Several BM-21 rockets landed in Kap Choeng District, about 20 kilometers from the mountain, but fortunately, no one was injured.”
Taking shelter in bunkers
Concrete bunkers protected with sandbags have long been built in Thai villages at border crossings with Cambodia for fear of conflict breaking out.
Boonlert Atyingyong has spent the past five days living in a bunker in the village. Even though conditions are currently damp at this time of the year in Thailand, the 60-year-old decided not to be evacuated like the majority of people in his village.
“I just want to live a normal life like everyone else. I have pets and responsibilities. If I walk away, there’s no one else to take care of them,” he told DW. “These days, we have to live very cautiously. If we hear any unusual sounds, we have to stay inside.”
Surin also has the second-highest number of civilian deaths since the conflict broke out on Wednesday morning, with at least four fatalities and ten injured. Some of those injured are being treated at Surin Hospital.
On Sunday, suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was visibly emotional after visiting the hospital to speak with some of those affected, not all of whom are civilians.
One Thai soldier was fighting at the frontline on Wednesday morning at Ta Moan Thom, an ancient Khmer-Hindu temple near the Thai-Cambodia border.
Mike, who comes from Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand, described his role in the military as a secret commander — so he wasn’t allowed to provide his full name for security reasons.
He has been hospitalized with injuries to his leg and arm from an explosion.
“I was stationed on the frontline, doing my duty,” the 35-year-old told DW. “I heard small arms gunfire at first and then it gradually escalated along the line, until it reached my position, around the Ta Moan Thom temple area.”
“There was return fire; we fought back,” the soldier added.
“It was hard to see clearly because we had to take cover. They were using heavy weapons. They had more soldiers, around 30 to 50. And then there was a loud explosion, about 20 meters away. I got hit by shrapnel, my thigh was injured, and a blood vessel was severed.”
“I hope both countries can find peace and coexist peacefully,” said Mike, who is expected to recover.
As Thailand and Cambodia approach the unconditional ceasefire, thousands of people living in temporary shelters are hoping the truce will bring an end to the conflict.
Surindra Rajabhat University’s vast campus is now home to thousands of fleeing Thais, who sleep on blanket-laden floors, tents and hammocks.
Onuma Luelong, a middle school teacher in Surin, was in the vicinity when Cambodian fire was heard nearby. She and 20 of her family members had to evacuate at short notice because of the proximity to the fighting.
“The bombs hit near to my home and school. We moved here because it wasn’t safe there,” she told DW.
But for some families, it’s not only people they are worried about. For Pornthip Srijam, a 48-year-old farmer in Surin, the sudden evacuation has made her feel helpless. She sits looking worried outside the main evacuation center, clinging to her pillow.
“I’m really worried about my cattle, I have more than ten and I’m concerned for their safety,” she told DW. “My husband is still back home. When the situation escalated, he stayed.”
Monday’s mediation meeting in Malaysia followed pressure from US President Donald Trump, who warned that Washington may not proceed with trade deals with either country if hostilities continued.
Edited by: Keith Walker
The post As Thai-Cambodia truce nears, evacuees speak out appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
