By Khaosod English

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Thai border patrol police and Cambodian soldiers negotiate over farmland in Sa Kaeo province, 11 June 2015.

SA KAEO — A small-scale territory dispute broke out along the Thai-Cambodian border today over a plot of land that currently belongs to a Thai farmer.


The 61-year-old rice farmer, Subin Thiangsan, said Cambodian soldiers arrived on her fields in Sa Kaeo province today and claimed the land is Cambodian territory.
A group of Thai officials and Border Patrol Police later arrived and negotiated with the Cambodian troops. Both sides were unarmed.
Pol.Col. Rerk Panitcharoen, a local commander of the Thai Border Patrol Police, said he instructed Subin to stop working on her plot of land for one week while the two sides negotiate a solution.
Suhari Channok, a local administrator, told reporters that Cambodian authorities have been installing new border markings in recent months, and have been encroaching deeper into Khok Soong district, which borders Cambodia.
He said a barbed wire fence had been placed near the border by Thai authorities many years ago, but does mark the exact border, and was only constructed to prevent illegal border crossings.
“So, as days go by, the Cambodians have claimed that the area beyond the barbed wire is their own territory,” Suhari said, adding that some Cambodians had entered Subin’s farmland and tried to plant rice in her fields.