Cambodia army says 88 Thais dead in two-year border clashes

PHNOM PENH — A senior Cambodian army official said Wednesday his troops have killed at least 88 Thai soldiers over the past two years in clashes near an ancient temple on a disputed frontier.

General Chea Tara, a Cambodian deputy commander-in-chief who oversees military operations in the area near the Preah Vihear temple, said that 38 Thai soldiers were killed in October 2008 and another 50 in April 2009.

"We helped them to find the bodies but they still hide the figure," he said at a briefing of government officials and lawmakers about developments in the border spat. He said only two Cambodian soldiers were killed in the clashes.

The Thai military has previously said that only three of its soldiers were killed in the 2009 gunbattle. Thai army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd denied the new claims.

"The information is not true. If that many Thai soldiers were killed, it would have been big news since then," he told AFP.

Chea Tara said that soldiers on both sides have remained on "high alert", but added that the situation near the temple was now quiet.

"Cambodian troops have enough ability to protect the territory and we have all kinds of modern weapons to counter Thai soldiers," he added.

Cambodia and Thailand have been locked in nationalist tensions and a troop standoff at their disputed border since July 2008, when Cambodia's 11th century Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status.

The Thai-Cambodia border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia, which ended in 1998.

Earlier this month Cambodia mounted a rare public test of rockets to protect against "invaders", while Prime Minister Hun Sen has made several fiery speeches accusing Thai leaders of infringing on his territory.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand. The exact boundary through the surrounding grounds remains in dispute.

Relations deteriorated further in November after Hun Sen appointed ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as his economic adviser and refused to extradite him to Thailand, which he fled to avoid a jail term for corruption.