Govt targets landmine claims

Official response to be issued today

- POST REPORTERS

The government is expected today to finalise retaliatory responses to a recent landmine explosion in the Chong Bok border area of Ubon Ratchathani, near Cambodia, which left three Thai soldiers injured.

Members of the government's ad hoc centre for the Thailand-Cambodia border, which includes officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and various national security agencies, will meet at the National Security Council office today to formalise an official response, said R Admiral Surasan Kongsiri, its spokesman, yesterday.

The centre yesterday held a closed-door meeting to discuss an initial course of action based on findings from the Second Army Region, which confirmed the explosion came from a newly planted landmine, he said.

The landmines issue was yesterday subject to a heated back and forth between the Cambodia Mine Action Centre and the Thai army.

Heng Ratana, director-general of the Cambodia Mine Action Centre, in an article by the Phnom Penh Post, dismissed speculation the mine had been planted by Cambodia. In the article, he referred to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Ottawa Convention), which was ratified by Cambodia.

"As for possible newly laid mines in Thailand, there have been a number of social media claims that the Thai military placed them," he said, as quoted by the newspaper.

"There appears to be no proof that Thai authorities or demining NGOs have attempted to conduct a thorough investigation," he added.