Evacuees: End border fighting

THAILAND (AFP) — Artillery rounds echoed in the distance as Thai rubber tapper Boonkerd Yoodeerum settled into a folding bed, sheltering with his family under a bridge near the Cambodia border where fighting has erupted once more.

The 64-year-old was working when he heard explosions on Sunday near his home in eastern Thailad’s Surin province, just a short distance from the border.

“My first thought was ‘Oh no, not again’,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.

“Then we rushed here under the bridge for safety,” he said as his wife and nephew rested on a bamboo frame in their makeshift shelter.

They fled to the same place where they had sheltered five months prior — and years before, during previous outbreaks of deadly violence between the Southeast Asian neighbors.

The family are now among half a million evacuees seeking safety on both sides of the long-disputed border.

At least 14 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed, officials said, while jets, tanks and drones were waging battle.

Both sides blame each other for instigating the reignited conflict, which has expanded to five provinces of both Thailand and Cambodia, according to an AFP tally of official accounts.

Having seen similar events play out before, Boonkerd said he was frustrated that the decades-old territorial dispute again rumbled on with no end in sight.

“They said negotiations would bring peace,” he said.

A truce was reached in July following intervention by United States President Donald Trump, “but you can see how long that lasted. I don’t trust it anymore,” added the Thai farmer.

On the other side of the border, in Cambodia’s Srei Snam, an open roadside area with makeshift tents houses hundreds of families, including many women with children.

Yin Bei, 30, fled home with her husband and their two-month-old daughter as soon as they heard loud blasts ringing nearby on Monday.

“Having such a war is very difficult for us. I have a baby so I am suffering,” she told AFP. “I want this war to end quickly.”

Chea Chong said it was his third time being displaced as a result of the conflict.