As Malaysia hosts Thailand-Cambodia peace talks, suspicion lingers
Thailand and
Cambodia were set to hold truce talks on Monday as a deadly border dispute entered its fifth day, with pressure mounting for a ceasefire from both China and the United States, which has threatened to halt any tariff deals until the fighting ends.
At least 35 people, most of them civilians, have been killed
since Thursday , when a long-simmering territorial dispute boiled over into open conflict along the nations' shared frontier.
More than 200,000 people in both countries have been forced from their homes by the relentless gunfights, artillery barrages and Thai air strikes, while tens of thousands of Cambodian migrant labourers have fled Thailand, fearing reprisals as nationalist sentiment intensifies on both sides.
Fresh clashes were reported on Monday, even as Thailand's acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, prepared to meet Cambodia's leader, Hun Manet, in Kuala Lumpur.
Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai (front) departs for Malaysia from a military airport in Bangkok on Monday. Photo: Thai Government Spokesman Office / AP
Phumtham sought to temper hopes of a swift ceasefire, telling reporters as he departed for the Malaysian capital: 'We do not believe Cambodia is acting in good faith, based on their actions.'
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