Experts Say Landmines Behind Thai-Cambodia Clash Were Recently Planted

On July 16, Thai Army Second Lieutenant Baramee Sricha was on a patrol near a disputed stretch of the border between Thailand and Cambodia when a member of his team stepped on a landmine that detonated, severing his ankle, an incident that became the catalyst for five days of clashes between the neighbours, which ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, and also sparked a diplomatic row over PMN-2s—a Soviet-origin anti-personnel mine that litters parts of Cambodia and which Phnom Penh and Bangkok have pledged by treaty not to use.

Thailand accuses Cambodia of laying the mines along parts of their joint frontier and says PMN-2s have maimed at least six Thai soldiers since July, including a member of Baramee’s patrol.

Cambodia denies the accusations. It says that some Thai soldiers steppe