Thai and Cambodian troops were ending a month-long standoff yesterday as both sides continued to withdraw troops from disputed territory around an ancient border temple, a Cambodian official said.
The pullout from the Preah Vihear temple area began on Friday and was continuing yesterday, said Hang Soth, director-general of the Preah Vihear National Authority, a government agency managing the historic site.
The standoff erupted near the 11th century shrine on July 15 after UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, approved Cambodia’s application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site. Both countries have long held claim to the temple, but the World Court awarded it to Cambodia in 1962.
About 800 troops from Cambodia and 400 from Thailand have been facing off in the area for a month.
The Cambodian military refused to answer questions about the pullout and it was not certain when it would be completed.
The attempt to minimize publicity appeared to be a face-saving gesture after weeks of overheated nationalist rhetoric on both sides.
On Thursday, Cambodian Deputy Defense Minister General Neang Phat said the two countries agreed to a gradual redeployment of troops from the area ahead of talks between their foreign ministers on territorial disputes next Monday in Thailand.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had backed Cambodia’s World Heritage site bid, sparking demonstrations by anti-government protesters who claimed it would undermine Thailand’s claim to the surrounding area.
The protests left Samak politically vulnerable, and he sent troops to occupy another disputed temple compound adjacent to Preah Vihear to appease his nationalist critics. Cambodia responded with its own troop deployment.
The border dispute has not been resolved despite two rounds of talks since last month, with the countries referring to two different maps.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
RSS