Bangkok—Thailand released 18 Cambodian prisoners of war held for five months on Wednesday, meeting the conditions. Both countries signed the armistice agreement to end the bitter fighting along their border.
The release was stipulated in the ceasefire agreement signed by the defence ministers of the two countries at the same border post on Saturday from Thailand’s Chanthaburi Province and Cambodia’s Pailin Province, where the soldiers were released.
“The repatriation of the 18 Cambodian soldiers was done as a demonstration of goodwill and confidence-building, as well as in adherence to international humanitarian principles,” Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Cambodia’s Defence Ministry said the release “
an environment conducive to peace, stability and full normalisation of relations for the benefit of both countries and their people in the near future.”
After two rounds of devastating fighting over competing territorial claims, the release of the troops removes a major hurdle toward that goal.
Thailand had insisted that it was allowed to keep the men under the provisions of the Geneva Convention governing the laws of war, which stated that they could be detained until the end of hostilities. Thai authorities said the prisoners were allowed visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross and other rights covered by international humanitarian law.
The Cambodian government effectively used his continued detention to galvanise nationalist sentiment in the fight against Thailand.
Cambodia’s Defence Ministry statement Wednesday said the government “stands by the promise it made to the families of the 18 soldiers and to the Cambodian people: that no soldier will be left behind.”
A video distributed by Cambodia’s Information Ministry showed crowds cheering and waving small flags on the road from the border post to Pailin town while a bus carrying freed people passed by as a motorcade passed by. They were expected to take the capital, Phnom Penh, on Wednesday.
The ceasefire agreement states that the troops will be freed if the fighting ends within 72 hours of the ceasefire taking effect on Saturday afternoon. 72 hours passed on Tuesday, but Thai officials said they needed to evaluate the situation, claiming that 250 Cambodian drones were active along the border.
Both countries gave different details about the circumstances of the possession of men, which happened on the same day that the initial ceasefire came into effect in late July.
Cambodian officials say
Cambodian officials say that their troops came to the Thai position with friendly intentions to congratulate them after the battle, while Thai officials say that the Cambodians had hostile intentions and that they entered what Thailand considered its territory and were later taken captive.
Originally 20 Cambodian soldiers were taken prisoner, but two were returned within days for medical reasons.
The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and extended due to pressure from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalised in more detail at a regional meeting in Malaysia in October, which Trump attended.
Despite those deals, the countries continued a bitter propaganda war and minor cross-border violence that escalated into widespread heavy fighting in early December.
According to officials, Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the fighting since December 7. Thailand also reported 44 civilian deaths.
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Sopheng Chiang reported from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
