More than 20,000 Cambodians still displaced by Thai clashes: UN expert

Some towns and villages were now occupied by Thai soldiers, while barbed wire and barriers blocked people from returning home.(AFP) — More than 20,000 Cambodians remain displaced along the border with Thailand following last year’s clashes, a U.N. expert said Friday, urging both sides to resolve the crisis.A long-standing border dispute erupted into fighting in July and December, killing dozens of people. Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a ceasefire deal in December, but they have repeatedly accused each other of truce violations.“International law is very clear that those who have been displaced in a situation like this in a conflict have the right to go home,” Tom Andrews, the newly appointed U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, told AFP in an interview.In a statement after his visit to the border, Andrews said 650,000 Cambodian civilians were displaced by the end of 2025 and 20,000 still were.Some towns and villages were now occupied by Thai soldiers, he said, while barbed wire and barriers blocked people from returning home.“I saw houses with bullet holes.. a bomb in the midst of the rubble,” he told AFP, adding: “This crisis has to be addressed as quickly as possible because of the human suffering involved.”Bangkok insists it has merely reclaimed Thai land that Cambodians had been occupying.Still scamming -Andrews concluded his first official visit to Cambodia on Friday, where he also raised concerns about the victims trafficked to work in scam centers, and wider restrictions on political rights.Cambodia has emerged as a hub for crime syndicates running fake romantic relationship and cryptocurrency investment schemes in which scammers defraud internet users around the world.Andrews said more than 600 scam centers were raided and thousands of people had been arrested, but “the scamming continues,” spreading from towns and cities into rural areas, based in individual homes and even cars.The fate of those who were trafficked to work in the scam centers remains unclear, he said in a telephone interview.He said he had heard reports of thousands of people living on the streets without money or passports, but said the authorities assured him there was a “process of vetting” underway to differentiate victims from criminals, even if it faced a “capacity issue.”Andrews said he also pressed Cambodia’s leaders to ensure everyone implicated in the scam centers faced justice, including high-level officials.“I emphasized the importance of accountability for all, not just those on the bottom rung of the ladder, but those at the top,” he said.Political rights -Andrews said there had been in general “frank discussions” about the rights situation in Cambodia, led for more than 40 years by former leader Hun Sen and his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet.“The examples that I’ve been provided of the denial of rights, political intimidation – overt and subtle – need to be addressed,” he said.Among the people he met with was Kem Sokha, the leader of Cambodia’s banned opposition party.Recently pardoned after serving nearly a decade of a 27-year sentence for treason, Kem Sokha’s political rights, including holding office and voting, remain revoked.He said he told both Hun Sen and Hun Manet that “there are two forms of detention – there’s the detention of the person and there’s the detention of their rights”.“Kem Sokha the person has been released but his political rights have not.”He said he would be closely following how key rights such as freedom of expression and association were observed as Cambodia gears up for local elections next year and a general election due in 2028.In a message to rights activists, he concluded: “Even though they may feel isolated, they’re not. People are paying attention.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads