Royal Government of Cambodia: Thailand’s current actions are an ‘internationally illegal act and a violation of the international border line that is unacceptable’
Royal Government of Cambodia: Thailand’s current actions are an ‘internationally illegal act and a violation of the international border line that is unacceptable’
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Mr. Pen Bona, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Royal Government Spokesperson’s Unit, said today that Cambodia considered the activities of erecting barriers, spreading barbed wire, and stealing property from innocent Cambodian civilians by Thai soldiers to be an internationally illegal act and a violation of the international border line that is unacceptable.
In a press conference on the morning of January 5, 2026, Mr Pen stated:
First: The Royal Government of Cambodia continues to protest in the strongest terms against the continued presence and actual occupation by Thai military forces on Cambodian territory in certain areas along the border, which is illegal and has no basis under international law.
The occupation and continued occupation through the threat and use of force is completely contrary to the fundamental and irrefutable principles of international law.
Second: The territorial control, administrative activities or exercise of authority resulting from such acts have no legal value and cannot create any legal rights.
Such actions by the Thai armed forces are in direct contradiction with Thailand’s commitment to peacefully resolving disputes in the spirit of the Joint Declaration of the Special Meeting of the General Boundary Committee dated December 27, 2025, as well as the spirit of previous agreements. Meanwhile, the deployment of containers, the installation of barbed wire or the planting of flags are unacceptable violations of the international boundary line between the two countries.
Third: Thai soldiers have been continuously destroying civilian homes and infrastructure on Cambodian soil.
This destruction was carried out by targeting civilian targets during the full-scale war between December 7 and 27, 2025, and continued with mechanical and human forces after the ceasefire came into effect.
In addition, Thai soldiers have also surrounded many Cambodian citizens’ land and homes and have been continuously destroying and looting Cambodian citizens’ property in an indiscriminate manner.
This has caused serious loss and damage to civilian property and infrastructure and obstructed the return of displaced civilians to their homes, which is contrary to the spirit of the Joint Declaration of December 27, 2025, in point 4.
4: The spokesperson of the Royal Government of Cambodia would like to express the strongest condemnation of the violations of international law and international humanitarian law, the serious human rights violations, and the plundering of Cambodian citizens’ property by Thai soldiers, and demand that Thailand immediately cease all such hostile military activities, and ask the Thai side to respect the mandate of the Joint Land Border Demarcation Commission of the two countries in determining the border demarcation based on existing agreements and international law.
Fifth: Cambodia firmly stands in protecting the Cambodian-Thai international border line left by the Indochina-Siamese Border Commission, respecting the principles of international law, the principle of the invariable border line, respecting the French-Siamese Convention, the map and demarcation record of the Indochina-Siamese Border Commission, as well as relevant agreements and documents that both parties have agreed to in the past.
We would like to reiterate that Cambodia does not recognize any change in the border line resulting from the use of force.
Sixth: The deployment of containers and barbed wire, as well as the planting of national flags in areas illegally occupied by Thai forces, clearly demonstrate the violation of Cambodian sovereignty and territorial integrity, while the destruction of innocent civilians’ homes is a serious violation of international law and international humanitarian law.
Worse still, evidence shows that the Thai military has committed crimes of looting and plundering Cambodian civilian property in the areas it has besieged, which are unacceptable inhumane acts and prohibited under international law.
-Khmer Times-
