The affair at the Surin church brings back memories of a pre-ah vihear-related dispute that lasted for decades.
PUBLISHED: 18 Feb 2025 at 20: 09
Cambodian border officials have a disagreement over a group of Cambodians signing their national hymn at an old church in Surin territory, but Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has downplayed the situation.
” It’s nothing”, the elite said on Tuesday when asked about a video of the incident that made some Thai people feel uncomfortable.
Ms. Paetongtarn announced that she would be in Cambodia quickly. ” There is no problem”, she said.
A group of 25 Thai women were captured in traditional attire in the movie, which was shot at the church in the Phanom Dong Rak area of Surin on February 13. The phrase” All Khmer people are happy to sacrifice their lives when the country is at war and shed blood” is reportedly sung by them in an AFP report.
A Thai government commander got into a heated argument with the group after Thai soldiers stopped them.
The 11th-century Khmer church was located on Thai land, according to Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, but borders separation issues have been raging. Cambodians are permitted to visit the church in Thailand, but it is prohibited from doing so in terms of symbolic movements.
The incident brings to mind the decades-long conflict over the Preah Vihear church, which precipitated a small military conflict in 2008. The International Court of Justice decided five years later that the property to the south, west, and south of the church was Thai and the property to the northwest was.
The Suranaree Task Force expressed its disapproval of the Thai leader’s fourth military region’s activities in a second petition sent on Tuesday to the Suranaree Task Force.
Maj Gen Somphob Pharawet, the captain of the Suranaree Taskforce, instructed soldiers at the church to keep things from happening again in the future.