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Associated Press

Long-festering tensions over border territory have escalated into armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, leading to dozens of deaths on both sides and displacing tens of thousands of people.
Neither side is prepared to claim responsibility for the first volley on Thursday, and they each blame the other for the continuing skirmishes.
While regional and international allies and organisations have called for a ceasefire, scant attempts at mediation had resulted in no peace talks as of early Sunday.
It is a grim situation, but there is some light amid the darkness. On both sides of the border, some people are working around the destruction, intent on creating a safe space or finding normality.
Shelter from the storm
A temple in Thailand’s northeastern province of Surin has something most of the country’s 27,000 active Buddhist monasteries do not: a concrete bunker to shelter from bombs and shelling.
The temple, which asked not to be identified by name because of safety concerns, is about 10km (6 miles) from the border with Cambodia.

The temple’s abbot, Phut Analayo, said the decision to build a bunker was made shortly after a brief armed clash between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in May inflamed cross-border relations, culminating in the current fighting.
Phut Analayo said donations paid for materials and equipment for the bunker, and the temple’s monks and nearby villagers built it in four or five days.
Construction was speedy because the bunker is made from large precast concrete drainage pipes a little over 1 metre (3.3 feet) in diameter, protected by mounds of earth, metal frames and sheeting.
It is divided into two tubular rooms, each about 4 metres (13 feet) long, and wired with electricity. There is a kitchen with a kettle, an electric rice cooker and basic cookware.
It is a tight fit, but because most of the nearby residents have fled to safer areas, there is enough space for the temple’s six monks and the dozen or so villagers who sleep there every night.

“When we need to use the bathroom, we have to wait to make sure if things are quiet. If it’s quiet out there, we will go out,” Phut Analayo said.
He said his temple had ceased religious activities for now but that the remaining monks stayed out of concern for the monastery and the people it served.
“If I leave, the people who rely on us will lose their spirit,” he said. “I’m scared too, but I’ll just stay here for now, when I can.”
Thai monasteries frequently serve as sanctuaries for stray dogs, and the more than 10 living at the temple are seemingly unbothered by the crisis.
“If I leave them behind, how will they live? What will they eat? So I have to stay to take care of them. Every life loves its life all the same,” Phut Analayo said.
Dancers rush to rescue
Learning ballroom dancing is how some senior citizens in northeastern Thailand usually spend their leisure hours, but the latest border conflict has motivated them to try to help some of the thousands of people displaced by the fighting.
About a dozen members of the Ballroom Dance for Health of the Elderly of Surin Province club went on Saturday to a shelter housing about 1,000 evacuees, where they handed out clothes, toiletries, blankets and pillows.
Retired civil servant Chadaporn Duchanee, the ballroom teacher, initiated the project. On Friday, she gathered her friends at her home to fill small yellow plastic bowls with toiletries and other goods to give to the evacuees.
The 62-year-old posted on social media about the donation she made on Thursday, and her students proved happy to participate too.

“We want to help,” Chadaporn said. “Everyone left in a hurry, without bringing their belongings, just trying to escape the line of fire, so they fled empty handed.”
Prapha Sanpote, a 75-year-old member of Chadaporn’s donation team, said she hoped the conflict would be resolved quickly.
“Our people couldn’t go home. They had to leave home, and it’s not just the home they had to leave. It’s their belongings, their cattle, or their pet dogs, because they left without anything. How will those animals live? Everything is affected.”
Provisions for the people
It looks just like your typical roadside stall found commonly all over Southeast Asia, but this one seems exceptionally well-provisioned.
Also, it is not selling anything, even though there are boxes of bottled water, plastic bags filled with fruit and vegetables, and the occasional packet of instant noodles.
It is there to solicit donations of food and other essentials to give to evacuees escaping fighting along the border. It also gives handouts to members of the armed forces headed in the other direction, toward the front lines.
This pop-up operation is at the border of Siem Reap, home to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex, and Oddar Meanchey province, which is an active combat zone. It is a one-stop shop on a key road that convoys of police and military vehicles roar along with sirens blaring.

Chhar Sin, a 28-year-old self-described youth volunteer, runs the stall, which is located in her home Srey Snam district.
“We’re used to seeing people bustling around, we’re not surprised by that,” she said, between handing out parcels to eager hands.
But even here, 100km (60 miles) from the border with Thailand, she senses that people do not feel safe, as the streets seem emptier than usual.
She and other volunteers are spending the weekend collecting supplies from ordinary Cambodians to dole out to the less fortunate. Families drive by on tractors to donate vegetables, while others swing by on motorbikes carrying bananas, dragon fruit and rambutans.
“For today and tomorrow, we are standing here waiting to give gifts to the people who are displaced from war zones and are seeking safety,” Chhar Sin said on Saturday. “We will provide them with food because they have nothing, and some of them come with only a few clothes and a hat.”
When she woke up on Saturday morning, Kim Muny made the decision not to open her convenience store, but instead to cook rice for members of the Cambodian military and fleeing civilians.
“Cambodians have a kind heart. When we heard that soldiers and displaced people needed help, we decided to help with an open heart,” the 45-year-old said after donating parcels of rice wrapped in banana leaves at the stall. “We know our soldiers don’t have time to cook, so we will do it for them.”
Monks keep vigil
Alone in a mostly evacuated pagoda, Tho Thoross began a Buddhist chant to express gratitude for all that is good in life.
The 38-year-old is one of the last monks in the city of Samrong, the provincial capital of Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, which is on the front line of the cross-border fighting.
Most civilians have fled the town, spooked by the sounds of artillery and what they suspect was a Thai military drone hovering above them.
All but seven of the 40 monks at the monastery have left. As chief monk of Wat Prasat Samrong Thom, Tho Thoross ordered more than a dozen of the temple’s novices – young monks in training – to evacuate to displacement camps farther from the border with Thailand, which is 40km (25 miles) away.
The temple is the largest in the town of Samrong, as well as the oldest, dating back over a century.

Its distance from the border does not keep it protected from artillery and aerial attacks, but it nonetheless is considered a relatively safe place. Most Cambodians and Thais are Buddhists.
Nine monks from other temples that felt more insecure are also staying at Wat Prasat Samrong Thom.
In the Buddhist tradition, temples are community centres and almost always places of sanctuary, and on Thursday, several displaced villagers stopped by briefly on their way to a government-arranged safety zone. Tho Thoross provided them with food.
He said the latest fighting was “10 times bigger” than prolonged clashes over similar issues in 2008 and 2011, when the fighting was confined to certain areas.
“But today, the fighting is happening everywhere along the border.” said Tho Thoross, who has lived in Oddar Meanchey for nearly three decades.
“As a Buddhist monk living in a province bordering Thailand, I would like to call on both sides to work together to find a solution that is a win-win solution for all,” he said on Saturday.


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Thai-Cambodian border conflict brings out quiet acts of heroism in ordinary people

Chadaporn Duchanee (left) and friends pack goods for Thai residents who fled homes following clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Surin province, Thailand, on Friday. Photo: AP

Abbot Phut Analayo (right) and other monks who fled clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers take shelter in Surin province, Thailand, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Abbot Phut Analayo (left) and a dog named Jumbo in front of the shelter in Surin province, Thailand, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Chadaporn Duchanee (bottom right) and Prapha Sanpote (bottom left) distribute shirts to Thai evacuees at a crisis centre in Surin province, Thailand, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Cambodian youth volunteer Chhar Sin (front right) welcomes villagers providing donations for the displaced people in Srey Snam district in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Cambodian Buddhist chief monk Tho Thoross at the Wat Prasat Samrong Pagoda in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Gunboats deployed as Thailand-Cambodia conflict spirals with 33 dead

HTMS Chang (front) and HTMS Chakri Naruebet of the Royal Thai Navy. It is unclear which ships were deployed to patrol the coast. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

A Cambodian soldier stands on a truck carrying a Russian-made BM-21 rocket launcher travelling along a street in Oddar Meanchey province on Saturday, the third day of border clashes with Thailand. Photo: AFP

HTMS Chang (front) and HTMS Chakri Naruebet of the Royal Thai Navy. It is unclear which ships were deployed to patrol the coast on Saturday. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

People rest inside a temporary shelter in Thailand’s Srisaket province on Saturday, amid the border clashes with Cambodia. Photo: Reuters

Cambodians flee their homes in Oddar Meanchey province on Saturday amid the third day of border clashes with Thailand. Photo: AP

Thailand warns Cambodia fighting could turn into ‘war’, declares martial law in border areas

A Thai mobile artillery unit fires towards Cambodia’s positions in Surin province on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Cambodian soldiers stand on a military truck with an anti-aircraft gun in Oddar Meanchey province on Friday. Photo: AFP

Evacuees take shelter in a gymnasium on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University in the Thai border province of Surin on Friday. Photo: AFP

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Evacuees displaced by the ongoing conflict between Thailand and Cambodia rest at an evacuation centre in the Thai border province of Sisaket on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Royal Thai Army soldiers are transported on the back of an army truck in the Thai border province of Si Sa Ket on Saturday. Photo: AFP

People gather to receive water supplies in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia, on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Thai-Cambodia conflict: woman saves cats by braving artillery fire

Pornpan Sooksai holds one of her cats as they take shelter in a gymnasium amid fighting between Thailand and Cambodia. Photo: AFP

Pornpan Sooksai holds her cat, Kung Fu, at an evacuation centre on Friday amid the Thai-Cambodia border conflict. Photo: AP

Evacuees pet a cat named Kung Fu as they take shelter during border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia on Friday. Photo: AP

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Residents evacuate from the Thai-Cambodian border area in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia, on July 24. Photo: Xinhua

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

People on both sides of the border are working around the destruction to create a safe space or find normality


People on both sides of the border are working around the destruction to create a safe space or find normality.


Cambodia

War and conflict

Thai-Cambodian border conflict brings out quiet acts of heroism in ordinary people

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}People on both sides of the border are working around the destruction to create a safe space or find normality

Shelter from the storm

People on both sides of the border are working around the destruction to create a safe space or find normality