Cambodian academic urges global action over Thai air strikes on civilians, calls on US, Sweden and South Korea to suspend arms transfers

Cambodian academic urges global action over Thai air strikes on civilians, calls on US, Sweden and South Korea to suspend arms transfers

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A prominent Cambodian academic has strongly condemned what he described as deliberate air attacks on Cambodian civilians, calling for urgent international action to halt military support to Thailand and ensure accountability under international law.

The condemnation came after a series of air strikes and bombardments that have killed 30 innocent civilians and injured nearly 100 others, while about 540,000 civilians have fled their homes since the Thai army launched armed aggression against Cambodia on December 7.

In a public message on December 25, Dr Kin Phea, Director General of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia (IRIC) under the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC), condemned the Thai military for using foreign-made fighter jets to carry out air strikes on civilian areas deep inside Cambodian territory.

He emphasised that US-made F-16s, Swedish-made Gripen jets and South Korean-made T-50 aircraft were being deployed by Thai forces in what he characterised as systematic and indiscriminate attacks on non-combatants.

According to the statement, the strikes have targeted homes, villages and families, causing civilian casualties and widespread destruction.

“These are deliberate, systematic, and indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations—acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law,” Dr Phea said.

He argued that the use of advanced foreign-supplied aircraft against civilian areas reflected a serious disregard for human life and raised concerns about the responsibility of countries that manufacture and supply such weapons.

He urged the governments of the United States, Sweden and South Korea to suspend military assistance and arms transfers to Thailand and to publicly condemn the use of their weapons against civilians.

“The world must not look away,” he said, calling on the international community, human rights organisations and global civil society to demand an immediate halt to what he described as Thai aggression and to pursue accountability for those responsible.

Dr Phea also stressed that continued silence from the international community risked being interpreted as complicity, warning that justice for victims should not be delayed.

He called for swift action to end the violence and ensure responsibility for both those carrying out the attacks and those enabling them.

“Enough blood has been shed. Stop the killing. Stop the war crimes. Hold the perpetrators—and their enablers—accountable now,” he said.

-Khmer Times-