Thailand Releases 18 Cambodian Prisoners of War as Part of Ceasefire Agreement
Thailand on Wednesday released 18 Cambodian prisoners of war held for five months, fulfilling the terms of a ceasefire agreement the two countries signed to end bitter fighting along their border.
The release was stipulated in the ceasefire agreement signed Saturday by the defense ministers of the two countries at the same border checkpoint between Thailand’s Chanthaburi province and Cambodia’s Pailin province where the soldiers were released.
“The repatriation of the 18 Cambodian soldiers was undertaken as a demonstration of goodwill and confidence-building, as well as in adherence to international humanitarian principles,” Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said the release “creates an environment conducive to peace, stability, and the full normalization of relations for the benefit of both nations and their people in the near future.”
The soldiers’ release removes a major impediment toward that goal after two rounds of destructive combat over competing territorial claims.
Thailand had insisted it was allowed to hold the men under provisions of the Geneva Conventions governing the rules of war, which said they could be detained until the end of hostilities. The prisoners were allowed visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross and other rights covered under international humanitarian law, Thai authorities said.
Their continued detention was used effectively by Cambodia’s government to rally nationalist sentiment in the conflict against Thailand.
Wednesday’s statement from Cambodia’s defense ministry said the government “has remained steadfast in the promise made to the families of the 18 soldiers and the Cambodian people: that no soldier would be left behind.”
Video distributed by Cambodia’s Information Ministry showed crowds along the road from the border checkpoint to the city of Pailin cheering and waving small flags as a bus carrying the freed men drove by in a motorcade. They were expected to be flown Wednesday to the capital Phnom Penh.
