April 25, 2011; After three days of jungle clashes between Cambodia and Thailand troops

At the center of the latest dispute are two 12th-Century stone-walled Hindu temples, Ta Moan and Ta Krabey, in a heavily mined jungle area claimed by both sides. Fighting late on Sunday killed a Thai soldier, bringing the official death since Friday to five Thai soldiers and 25 wounded, and six Cambodians killed and 17 wounded. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged "serious dialogue" to produce an "effective and verifiable" ceasefire and halt the grenade and artillery bombardments. Although on the surface the renewed fighting appears to be a dispute over sovereignty, many experts are skeptical and suggest either government may have started the clashes to discredit the other or to appeal to nationalists at home.


VILLAGERS ESCAPE

Cambodia and Thailand battled for more than three hours from late Sunday morning and pounded each other with mortars and artillery, sending hundreds of villagers fleeing or into hiding in makeshift bomb shelters. In Ban Nongkana, 7 km (4 miles) from Ta Moan, villagers scurried for cover, bundling belongings into pickup trucks. Soldiers carried the elderly to safety. The dispute over jurisdiction has persisted since the 1950s, when colonial power France pulled out of Cambodia. Thailand's Foreign Ministry issued a statement late on Sunday accusing Cambodia of firing heavy weapons to pave the way for an attempted invasion by ground troops into Thai territory to "seize and take control" of Ta Moan. It said Thailand responded "proportionally" after its troops and nearby villages came under attack, a similar claim made by Cambodia, which accused Thailand of trying to force it into bilateral talks. The fighting broke a fragile peace deal agreed after 11 troops and scores of civilians were wounded in February 4-7 clashes 150 km (90 miles) away, near Preah Vihear, another temple both sides have long fought for on the battlefield and in the courts.

An international court ruling awarded Preah Vihear to Cambodia in 1962.

April 23, 2011; Fighting on Thailand and Cambodia border kills 4 soldiers

A second day of fighting between Thai and Cambodian troops on Saturday killed at least four soldiers, bringing the two-day death toll to 11, the worst bloodshed since the United Nations called for a ceasefire in February.

Thousands of villagers have been evacuated from the disputed border area in thick jungles around the Ta Moan and Ta Krabey temples, about 150 km (93 miles) west of the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple which saw a deadly four-day standoff in February.

Thai army Lieutenant-General Thawatchai Samutsakorn said one Thai soldier had been killed. A local hospital said 13 were wounded.

Suos Sothea, deputy commander of Cambodia's artillery unit in the area, said three Cambodian soldiers had been killed and 11 wounded, bringing the two-day toll of wounded on both sides to at least 43.

The Cambodia Defense Ministry condemned "these repeated deliberate acts of aggression" and called on Thailand to cease "hostilities." It accused Thailand of firing cluster munitions - anti-personnel weapons banned by many countries -- and 75 and 105 mm shells "loaded with poisonous gas."

Thai Foreign affairs Minister Kasit Piromya denied those charges as "groundless."

Sovereignty over the ancient, stone-walled Hindu temples -- Preah Vihear, Ta Moan and Ta Krabey -- and the jungle of the Dangrek Mountains surrounding them has been in dispute since the withdrawal of the French from Cambodia in the 1950s.

Ta Moan and Ta Krabey, perched on a 10-meter (32-ft) escarpment about 12 km (seven miles) apart in land mine-riddled terrain, were built in the 12th century when the Khmer empire stretched across parts of Thailand and Vietnam before shrinking to just present-day Cambodia.

Thailand says the two temples reside in its Surin province according to a 1947 map. Cambodia rejects that and says they are in its Oddar Meanchey province. Before Friday, they jointly patrolled the area largely without incident.

"It came as a big surprise, we weren't ready," said 57-year-old Suwat Thathong, who fled with his wife and three children to a refugee camp in the Thai village of Prasat, about 40 km (25 miles) from the fighting.

A Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary has yet to settle the border issue despite a 10-year survey of the area. Meanwhile, the temples have fallen into disrepair. In 2008, Thailand accused Cambodia of turning them into an army base.

ASEAN CHAIR URGES RESTRAINT

The latest clash began before dawn west of Ta Krabey and lasted about five hours, a day after clashes in the area killed four Thai and three Cambodian soldiers.

Both sides blame each other for starting the fighting, the most severe since three Thais and eight Cambodians were killed and dozens of people wounded over February 4-7 in the bloodiest border clashes in nearly two decades.

As part of a ceasefire deal, Thailand and Cambodia agreed on February 22 to allow unarmed military observers from Indonesia to be posted along their border.

"We are calling for Cambodian leaders to return to the negotiable table," said Kasit, the Thai foreign minister. On Friday, he said the international community had no place in the matter, responding to a letter from Cambodia addressed to ASEAN stating Thailand had staged "a large-scale attack."

Thailand and Cambodia have been locked in a standoff since July 2008, when Preah Vihear was granted UNESCO World Heritage status, which Thailand opposed on the grounds that the land around the temple had never been demarcated.

An international court awarded the temple to Cambodia 49 years ago but both countries lay claim to a 4.6 sq km (1.8 sq mile) patch of land around it.