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Thai-Cambodia dispute Deep divisions remain amid shaky ceasefire
The Guardian
|August 02, 2025
As a Cambodian living in Thailand, 31-year-old Da has kept her children home from school this week for fear they might face abuse. "One of my friends went to the market yesterday to buy durian and the seller told her that she hated Cambodians," she says, of rising tensions between the neighboring countries.
Days after Thailand and Cambodia announced a ceasefire following a deadly five-day conflict, relations remain dangerously frayed, and peace tenuous.
Since the truce each side has accused the other of violating it, while public distrust online is being fueled by a bitter confluence of disinformation, threats and nationalism.
Dowsawan Vanthong, 50, who is volunteering at a temple in Surin, north-eastern Thailand, that is hosting evacuated people, worries that even if calm prevails and the disputed border eventually reopens, relations won't be the same. "For me, I can make a distinction and separate normal Cambodians [from the government or military]... But I'm not sure if everyone could do this, especially people in the areas that were most affected," she says.
At least 43 people were killed on either side of the border in the clashes, the worst to grip the two nations in more than a decade.
This story is from the August 02, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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