13/12/2025
✨| Landmines Seem to “Rest” During the War 🇰🇭🇹🇭
After the ceasefire agreement on 28 July 2025, several Thai soldiers were reportedly killed or injured by landmines along the border. Thailand has repeatedly accused Cambodia of laying these mines. Since the ceasefire until 10 November 2025, around six incidents were reported, injuring approximately 18 Thai soldiers.
However, after Thai armed forces launched renewed attacks on Cambodia on 7 December 2025, no further reports of Thai soldiers stepping on landmines have emerged, despite Thai troops entering and invading Cambodian territory in the following days.
This raises serious questions. If Cambodia had indeed laid new landmines along the border, how could Cambodian soldiers have entered Thai territory to plant them? The Thai army has full capacity to control, patrol, and monitor its border areas.
Thailand has accused Cambodia of deploying PMN-2 anti-personnel landmines. In contrast, according to the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA), the landmines involved were old, uncleared remnants from past conflicts. The affected areas have long been contaminated by mines left behind during the civil war and the Khmer Rouge era. While Thailand claims the presence of newly laid mines, the CMAA maintains that these zones remain contaminated solely due to historical conflicts.
First Vice-President of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), Senior Minister Ly Thuch, urged States Parties to uphold evidence-based procedures and avoid turning the Ottawa Convention into a political arena.
Meanwhile, since 7 December 2025, Thai armed forces have continued attacking Cambodia, yet no landmine incidents have been reported during this period. This contrasts sharply with the earlier period under the ceasefire, when Thai soldiers were reportedly injured by landmines.
Thailand has used these landmine incidents as a justification to launch renewed military attacks, causing widespread tension and escalation along the border. The Thai government initiated a military operation against its neighbour based on unverified landmine allegations, while portraying its actions as “self-defence.”
According to a White House post, President Donald Trump stated that “The roadside bomb that originally killed and wounded numerous Thai soldiers was an incident, but Thailand nevertheless retaliated very strongly.” This statement exposes the reality that Thailand used the landmine incidents as a pretext to provoke conflict and launch a serious and brutal military operation against Cambodia.
It is important to note that Cambodia is a State Party to the Ottawa Treaty, officially known as the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, which aims to eliminate anti-personnel landmines worldwide.
✨/ Credit: Cam-Edu
