AFP - New fighting with heavy weapons erupted Friday Thai and Cambodian soldiers, killing six of them and ending two months of relative calm between the two countries competing for a border area.
As in previous violent clashes on February 4 to 7, both parties have mutually rejected responsibility for the incidents that erupted at dawn near the temples of Ta and Ta Krabei Muean Tom and lasted several hours.
"The Cambodian soldiers opened fire with assault rifles on Thailand's first and now they started to bombard us with artillery and we took appropriate measures of retaliation," he told AFP the Thai minister Defense Prawit Wongsuwon.
"I think Cambodia is to take control of temples at the border," he added.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit has ordered an inquiry after three soldiers from his country were killed and ten others wounded in the fighting that has forced the evacuation of thousands of villagers on the Thai side.
Three soldiers were also killed and several wounded on the Cambodian side, as the spokesman of the Cambodian Ministry of Defence Chhum Socheat.
Phnom Penh has accused neighboring troops have penetrated 400 meters inside its territory.
Thai soldiers "launched an unprovoked attack," said government spokesman Phay Siphan.
"This is a new invasion of Cambodia by Thailand.We can not accept that. "
The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in particular because of the presence of many mines left behind by decades of civil war in Cambodia.
In February, the fighting had mostly taken place a hundred miles to the east near the Khmer temple of Preah Vihear.
These ruins of the eleventh century, whose classification by UNESCO in 2008 had rekindled tensions within the sovereignty of Cambodia by a ruling of the International Court of Justice in 1962.
But the Thais its main access control, and both countries claim an area of 4.6 km2 below the building.
Analysts said the border dispute both sides are used to glorify the nationalist sentiments of the population.
Following the fighting in February, which had at least ten deaths, seven Cambodian side, the Security Council of the United Nations had called for a cease-fire permanent, but rejected the request from Phnom Penh to send peacekeepers on the border.
Both then neighbors had given their agreement to send observers to the border, after mediation organized by the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN).
But since the Thai military said that these observers were not welcome and they were never deployed.
Indonesia, which holds the rotating presidency of ASEAN, on Friday urged the two neighbors to "an immediate cessation of hostilities" and to "resolve their disputes by peaceful means."
Phnom Penh calls since February mediation to resolve these disputes, but Bangkok urges bilateral talks only.
Thailand secondly recently acknowledged using during the fighting in February controversial weapons, the "improved conventional munitions double effect" (DPICM), while insisting that they were not munition munition.
Coalition against weapons munitions (CMC) acted his part that it was indeed weapons munitions, denouncing their use.
