The Anutin government may not have an endgame scenario for the ongoing deadly border conflict with Cambodia as charged by several international affairs and defence experts, but the Royal Thai Army appears to have a fixed idea on how to deal with the Cambodian armed forces.
Gen Chaiyapruek Duangprapat, the army chief-of-staff, made it clear in an exclusive interview with Thai PBS that the ultimate aim of the Thai army is to make sure that Cambodia will no longer pose a threat to Thailand’s national security “for a long time to come.”
To achieve that, he said, Thailand would need to disable Cambodia’s military capabilities. He added that the way the Thai armed forces are conducting the border fighting represents a departure from past operations and is designed to achieve that goal.
“In the past, our aim was only to reclaim lost territory and nothing more. But now we need to disable Cambodia’s military capabilities by targeting their military hardware and infrastructure. We will do it to a point that Cambodia will not pose a military threat to Thailand for a long time,” he said, referring to Thailand’s bombing of arms depots, fuel storage sites and military installations inside Cambodia in recent days.
“We understand that they have mobilized all the hardware to the frontline. And if we are able to destroy them, it would take them a long time to recover,” he said.
According to the general, Cambodian reinforcements moving to the frontline have also been targeted as part of a deeper-penetration military operation by Thai forces.
“In short, whatever military hardware intended for the frontline will be our targets,” he said and added: “But we have no intention of going all the way to Phnom Penh as has been widely speculated.”
Gen Chaiyapruek was referring to speculation that the Thai military intends to escalate the border dispute into an outright war against the Hun Manet government.
“Thai forces still in self-defence mode”
Insisting that the Thai military operation remains in the self-defence mode, Gen Chaiyapruek said the Thai armed forces have no intention of infringing upon Cambodia’s sovereignty despite Phnom Penh’s claim that Thailand is waging a war of aggression.
“Our only aim is to prevent Cambodia from being a threat to Thailand’s future security,” he said, insisting that the Thai military will do everything to achieve that aim “without violating international laws and while also taking into account the views of the international community.”
When asked how long the ongoing armed conflict will last, he said: “We will try to complete the mission as soon as we can within the objective we have set. We want all Cambodian forces to leave Thai territory so that we can make our border safe for the people.”
Gen Chaiyapruek said it was Cambodia which triggered the new round of clashes with Thailand with its provocative acts in violation of the peace accord, including laying of new landmines, firing into Thai territory and moving of troops to border areas.
The general, however, did not rule out a third-party mediation to end the border dispute but cautioned about its timing.
“The last time the ceasefire came too soon,” he said, referring to the fragile ceasefire agreed between Thailand and Cambodia in late July. Military sources said the ceasefire was enforced just as the Thai armed forces were making military gains.
Gen Chaiyapruek said any mediation should come only after Thailand is able to secure its border.
“A ceasefire that is enforced while the border situation is still tense, the armed forces of the two sides are still confronting each, and all the fundamental problems are still not resolved is not practical,” he said.
