Border fire

MILITARY police officials based in Oddar Meanchey province yesterday accused Thai soldiers of opening fire on a group of eight Cambodians who had crossed the border into Surin province to fell trees illegally, injuring two.

Vorn Chandara, a military police commander in Samroang town, said more than 30 Thai soldiers opened fire on the Cambodians on Monday night, and that one of the Cambodians was still missing as of early yesterday evening.

“Seven people came back home already on Tuesday, but there is a man still lost, and we know that he was shot and is seriously injured,” he said. He identified the man who was still missing as 21-year-old Tith Brach.

Thai military officials could not be reached. The rights group Adhoc reported in February that more than 20 Cambodian civilians had been shot by Thai soldiers in the border region in the past two years.