The China Mail - A tale of two villages: Cambodians lament Thailand's border gains

On opposite sides of the makeshift barricade, fronted by coils of barbed wire, Cambodians lamented their lost homes and livelihoods as Thailand's military showed off its gains.

Thai forces took control of several patches of disputed land along the border during fighting last year, which could amount to several square kilometres (square miles) in total.

Cambodian Kim Ren said her house in Chouk Chey used to stand on what is now the Thai side of the barricade, and was bulldozed by Bangkok's forces after a ceasefire agreement in December.

"The Thais reset us to zero. We don't have any more hope," she told AFP this week.

Just to the north, where the village is known as Ban Nong Chan, Thai soldiers stood guard in front of an excavator filling a truck with debris during a military-organised media tour.

Kim Ren is among more than 1,200 families from her village and Prey Chan, another contested location, who have been staying at a temple shelter for weeks, according to local authorities.

Blue tents donated by China are packed into the grounds of the pagoda 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the south, where residents manage as best they can with the meagre goods they have managed to salvage.

"Now the Thai thieves have seized everything," said Kim Ren -- her land, $30,000 worth of grocery inventory and the $50,000 house she built after moving to the area and buying a plot of land for $40 in 1993.

- 'People still live here' -

The neighbouring countries' century-old border conflict stems from a dispute over the French colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.

The dispute erupted into several rounds of clashes last year, killing dozens of people, including soldiers and civilians, and displacing more than a million in July and December.

Phnom Penh says Thai forces captured several areas in border provinces and has demanded their withdrawal, while Bangkok insists it has merely reclaimed land that was part of Thailand and had been occupied by Cambodians for years.

Thai flags flapped in the breeze and barbed wire lay scattered in Klong Paeng, another border village on the Thai military trip.

Army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said Thai forces had "reclaimed" around 64 hectares in the village in December.

The operation "required careful action because people still live here", he added.

Farmer Pongsri Rapan, 60, said she lost all her belongings except a wardrobe when her house was destroyed by shelling, but told reporters: "I'm not scared because the army is around me."

She had "many good Cambodian friends", she added, and was "sorry our armies are fighting".

Thai farmers were expected to benefit from the land newly brought under the military's control once its allocation was finalised, a senior officer told AFP.

- 'Robbed us' -

Thailand welcomed Cambodian war refugees to the border area after the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979.

Some Cambodian families remained long after.

At the temple shelter, 67-year-old farmer Sok Chork said he settled in Prey Chan in 1980, when the area was landmine-infested and undeveloped.

"When it was forest, it was not theirs. But after Cambodians built concrete homes, they said it was their land," he told AFP.

The Thais "just robbed us of everything", he said, adding his home had been bulldozed.

Prey Chan saw a stand-off in September between several hundred Cambodians who tried to pull down barbed wire as Thai forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas.

The Thai flag flies on the other side of the barricades, where the village is called Ban Ya Nong Kaew.

Thai Anupong Kannongha said his house was nearly levelled by shelling, with only its charred roof and cement structure remaining.

Cambodia "did this to us", he said.

"It really hurts my feelings."

S.Davis--ThChM