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Further clashes on Thai-Cambodia border

Thailand - Villagers are evacuated in Surin province
Thailand - Villagers are evacuated in Surin province

There has been further fighting along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, a day after clashes in which at least six soldiers were killed.

Both sides blamed each other for exchanges of artillery and gunfire.

Indonesia, which has been negotiating peace talks between the two neighbours, has called for an immediate ceasefire.

Thousands of villagers have been evacuated from the thick, disputed jungle border area around the Ta Moan and Ta Krabey temples, about 150km west of 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple which saw a deadly four-day standoff in February.

Thai army Lieutenant-General Thawatchai Samutsakorn said one Thai soldier had been killed. At least 13 others were wounded, according to the Phnom Dongrak hospital in Thailand's Surin province. At least 32 soldiers on both sides have been wounded since Friday.

The Cambodia Defense Ministry condemned ‘n the strongest terms these repeated deliberate acts of aggression’and called on Thailand to permanently cease ‘hostilities’ against Cambodia in order to resolve border problems.

‘The apparent goal of Thailand's attacks against Cambodia is to take control over these temples of Cambodia,’ the Defense Ministry statement said.

Sovereignty over the ancient, stone-walled Hindu temples - Preah Vihear, Ta Moan and Ta Krabey - and the land surrounding them in the Dangrek Mountains has been in dispute since the withdrawal of the French from Cambodia in the 1950s.

Ta Moan and Ta Krabey, perched on a 10-metre escarpment about 12km apart in landmine-riddled jungle, were built in the 12th century during the Khmer empire that once stretched across parts of Thailand and Vietnam before shrinking to present-day Cambodia.

Thailand says the two temples reside in its Surin province according to a 1947 map. Cambodia rejects that and says they are in its Oddar Meanchey province. Before yesterday, they jointly patrolled the area largely without incident.