Thursday, 5 May 2011

All evacuees return home, border fighting silent: Cambodian PM

http://news.xinhuanet.com/

via CAAI

PHNOM PENH, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday all remaining evacuees due to the latest border clashes with Thailand have returned home, and there was no weapons explosion at night of Tuesday until early Wednesday.

"The remaining 200 evacuated families, whose houses are closed to the fighting zones, have all returned home by Wednesday morning," Hun Sen said during an inauguration ceremony of premises in a Buddhist pagoda in Phnom Penh.

The premier added that the night of Tuesday until early Wednesday morning was the "first night" that there was not the sound of weapons explosion since the fighting from April 22-May 3 at Ta Mon temple and Ta Krabei temple in Oddar Meanchey province.

"Now both sides' front-line military commanders agreed to a ceasefire, they built a mutual trust on each other," he said.

The latest series of bloodiest fighting between Cambodia and Thai troops had killed 18 people on both sides including nine Cambodian soldiers, eight Thai soldiers and one Thai civilian; and it forced nearly 100,000 civilians on both sides to flee home for safe shelters.

Both sides blamed each other for firstly triggering the attacks.

Prime Minister Hun Sen will lead a high delegation to attend the 18th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) on May 7 to 8 in Jakarta, Indonesia, according to the media release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

"The summit will discuss a wide range of issues...specially the situation at the border between Cambodia and Thailand," said the statement.

Cambodian and Thai border has never been completely demarcated. The conflict has occurred a week after Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

Editor: Chen Zhi

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