Tensions escalated in Ban Nong Chan in Sa Kaeo province today when illegal Cambodian settlers dismantled three notice boards, erected yesterday by Thai officials to warn settlers to move out now or face legal action, in accordance with the Thai immigration and forest laws.
The officials, accompanied by Thai border troops, went to the two Thai border villages to install six notice boards, written in Thai, English and Cambodian and featuring a map, warning the Cambodian settlers that they are encroaching on Thai territory.
Trespassing on national forest land is subject to maximum imprisonment of five years and/or a fine of 50,000 baht on conviction. If trespassing on more than 4 hectares of the forested land, however, the penalties are 2-15 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht on conviction.
Under Thai immigration law, illegal entry is subject to two years of imprisonment and a fine of up to 20,000 baht on conviction.
The action by the Cambodian settlers prompted the Thai army to send more troops and border patrol police to Ban Nong Chan to control the situation, but they were instructed to exercise extreme caution and to refrain from confrontation.
Sa Kaeo Governor Prinya Pothisat said that he has notified his Cambodian counterpart, in Banteay Meanchey province in Cambodia, seeking his cooperation by urging the illegal Cambodian settlers to dismantle their dwellings and to move back into Cambodia, claiming that the two villages are on Thai territory, in accordance with MOU 43.
There are 135 houses in Ban Nong Chan and 35 houses in Ban Nong Ya Kaew.
Both Nong Chan and Ban Nong Ya Yaew were used by the Thai government to house Cambodians fleeing the war in their country more than four decades ago. After the war, though, some of them did not return home and have continued to live there. Thai authorities had not taken any action to evict them to date.
It wasn’t until late July this year, when a limited war broke out between Thai and Cambodian forces along the common border, in Thailand’s northern provinces of Ubon Ratchathani, Si Sa Ket and Surin, that the Thai Army decided to erect barbed wire fencing in the two border villages, in an attempt to reclaim the land.
