Thailand and Cambodia fight for the world’s ear over deadly border feud

Thailand and Cambodia are battling for narrative control over their border dispute, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet alleging truce violations during a Washington trip – and Bangkok accusing its neighbour of spreading “distorted” information to the international community.The two nations intermittently clashed over demarcation points along their 817km (508-mile) border from last July until December 27, when a second ceasefire was reached.China hosts trilateral talks to help monitor Thai-Cambodian ceasefireChina hosts trilateral talks to help monitor Thai-Cambodian ceasefireThe fighting killed 149 people and displaced hundreds of thousands on both sides, choking off billions of dollars in cross-border trade. The land border remains closed.Although an uneasy truce has held for two months, both countries continue to portray the other as the aggressor in a dispute that stems from a colonial-era boundary drawn by the French that has been a source of periodic conflict for decades.In a sign of the enduring damage done by the recent clashes, Bangkok has even floated plans to build a border wall. Trade worth several billion US dollars is unlikely to resume in the near term, while remittances from Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have slowed to a trickle as nearly 1 million have returned home.Thailand’s national flag flutters on a hillside in northeastern Sisaket province, as viewed from Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province on February 12. Photo: ReutersWar of words