Thai soldiers rolled out razor wire and erected tall black screens along stretches of a once-open frontier, cutting off Cambodian villagers from homes and fields they say they have worked for decades, the BBC reported after visiting affected communities.
The move followed months of tension that erupted into five days of artillery and aerial exchanges in July, leaving around 40 people dead, displacing thousands and forcing a fragile ceasefire. Residents in villages such as Chouk Chey say they were given minutes to leave on 13 August and have been prevented from returning. "The Thai soldiers came and asked us to leave," Huis Malis told visiting reporters. "Then they rolled out the razor wire. I asked if I could go back to get my cooking pots. They gave me just 20 minutes."
Cambodian officials and residents argue the border should follow century-old stone markers and a French-drawn map that Cambodia has long cited. Thai authorities say they are securing territory amid the conflict and have posted signs warning Cambodians they are illegally encroaching. Both governments have traded accusations, and social media-fuelled nationalism has heightened tensions on both sides.
The fighting hit cultural and economic targets. At the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple, perched on a cliff near the frontier and recognised by Unesco as a World Heritage Site, visiting reporters saw shattered stairways, pockmarked walls and dozens of rain-filled blast craters. Cambodian officials said they had recorded more than 140 blast sites in and around the complex and pointed to unexploded cluster munitions, which the Thai military has acknowledged using. The Thai military denies firing on the temple and says Cambodian forces used the complex to position troops, an assertion BBC reporters said they saw no evidence of.
The human and economic toll is extensive. Provincial Governor Oum Reatrey in border areas estimated customs revenue losses of about $1 million a day because checkpoints and crossings have effectively closed. Bilateral trade worth billions of dollars has slowed to a trickle, hundreds of thousands of Cambodian workers have returned home from Thailand, Thai tourist numbers have collapsed and the new Chinese-built terminal at Siem Reap airport stood largely empty.
Rough temporary camps hold many of those displaced. Reporters described a camp of roughly 5,000 families living under tarpaulins with limited sanitation; a communal kitchen served potato soup as evening meal. By contrast, shelters on the Thai side were reported to be in better condition and most displaced people there went home within days of the ceasefire. Fear of further attacks, the presence of unexploded ordnance and a wave of disinformation — including unverified claims of chemical attacks — have deterred many Cambodian families from returning.
Both capitals have lodged formal complaints and shown evidence to international bodies. Cambodia has complained to Unesco about damage to Preah Vihear and described 18 of its soldiers detained shortly after the ceasefire as hostages. Thailand has presented evidence it says shows Cambodian forces have laid landmines that injured Thai soldiers, arguing such actions undermine the ceasefire.
Another strand of the dispute is political. Independent research cited by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found a pattern of military reinforcement along contested border areas in the months before full-scale fighting began, largely by Cambodian forces, the report said. The conflict intensified politically after a leaked June phone conversation between then-Cambodian strongman Hun Sen and then-Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, in which she appeared to offer concessions and criticise elements of Thailand's military. The leak contributed to a domestic political crisis in Thailand that culminated in Paetongtarn's suspension and later removal by the Thai Constitutional Court, a development Bangkok and Phnom Penh blame on each other and which has hardened positions.
"You cannot make an ant go up against an elephant," Suos Yara, spokesman for Cambodia's ruling party, told reporters, arguing Cambodia is the smaller neighbour and calling for Thailand to accept the century-old map and International Court of Justice rulings. Thailand and nationalist commentators have rejected that framing and accuse Cambodia of provoking the standoff.
The dispute also reflects unresolved legal and historical claims. The International Court of Justice recognised Preah Vihear as Cambodian territory in a 1962 ruling, but it did not definitively settle other sections of the frontier. Access to the temple has historically been easier from the Thai side; the newly built steep road up the Cambodian side shows the logistical difficulty of positioning heavy weapons at the site, a point Cambodia's officials highlighted during the visit.
Explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions and landmines, remain a practical barrier to returns. Cambodian demining teams showed reporters unexploded ordnance in fields and forested areas near the frontier. Thai officials, meanwhile, have pointed to mine injuries among their troops as evidence of Cambodian bad faith.
International mediation and cooling of nationalist rhetoric will be required for displaced people to return and trade to resume at previous levels, humanitarian workers and local officials say. For now, many villagers remain under tarpaulins a short distance from the razor wire that now marks a hard border where people once crossed freely.
