Three Thai soldiers injured by landmine along border with Cambodia: Thai Army

Bangkok, Aug 9 (IANS) Three Thai soldiers were injured in a landmine explosion on Saturday morning during a patrol operation along the Thai-Cambodian border, the Thai Army said.

In a statement issued by Thailand's Second Army Region, the incident occurred at around 10:00 a.m. local time, when Thai troops were conducting a patrol and laying barbed wire to reinforce border security, Xinhua news agency reported.

All injured soldiers were promptly evacuated and transported to a local hospital for treatment, the Thai Army said.

On August 7, Cambodia and Thailand reached a consensus on the details of a ceasefire and signed an agreement at an extraordinary meeting of the General Border Committee held in Malaysia. Both sides agreed to maintain current troop deployments and not to increase forces along the border.

Officials from Cambodia and Thailand attended the meeting, while delegates from the United States, China and Malaysia participated as third-party observers.

According to a joint statement following the talks hosted at the Malaysian Ministry of Defence, both sides agreed to a ceasefire involving all types of weapons, pledging to avoid unprovoked firing towards each other's positions or troops, and agreed not to increase forces along the border.

Both sides agreed to maintain current troop deployments without further movement as they were at the time when the ceasefire was reached at midnight on July 28. They also committed to ensuring the proper treatment of captured soldiers in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The statement further noted that both sides expressed support for an ASEAN observer team led by Malaysia to monitor compliance with the ceasefire. In the interim, a temporary observation mission consisting of defence attaches from ASEAN countries will be stationed in Cambodia and Thailand.

The statement also said that both sides agreed to maintain regular communication between all army areas and military regions and units, to convene a Regional Border Committee meeting within two weeks, to schedule the next General Border Committee (GBC) meeting of both countries within one month, and, if necessary, an extraordinary GBC meeting should be called immediately.

--IANS

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