Two Cambodian men who illegally entered Thailand from Battambang province on Saturday were shot by Thai soldiers on their return that evening, but both managed to make it back early Sunday and were subsequently sent to hospital for medical treatment.
According to police, both men crossed the border on Saturday morning through a secondary border checkpoint in Phnom Proek district’s Pech Chenda commune.
Major Colonel Saret Viset, the deputy district police chief in charge of criminal investigations, told Khmer Times they were shot after attempting to cross back into Cambodia at about 6pm on Saturday.
He said the first man, Sun Vanne, was shot in the left shoulder, but escaped and arrived in Cambodia at about 2am on Sunday. The second man, Long Sarim, was shot in three places and arrived about eight hours later.
One bullet lodged in his waist, a second grazed his ring finger and the third grazed his ribs, Maj. Col. Viset said, adding that the men had recovered slightly.
“They [victims] told us that they illegally crossed the border and didn’t have any documents. They tried to hide why they crossed the border,” he said, adding that he also asked his Thai counterpart about the shooting.
Maj. Col. Viset said that Thailand acknowledged the shooting, saying it was at night when the Thai soldiers decided to open fire after the men disobeyed their orders to stop.
In July, one Cambodian man was killed and two were injured after Thai authorities opened fire on a group of alleged timber smugglers in Thailand’s Chanthaburi province.
According to the Ministry of Interior, 14 Cambodians were shot by Thai authorities in 2015, resulting in five deaths and nine injuries, while in 2014 nine died in 25 shootings.
Lor Chan, a provincial coordinator for Adhoc in Preah Vihear, said that despite frequent shootings by Thai authorities, Cambodians were still choosing to risk crossing the border to fell illegal timber.
He said the reasons people crossed illegally into Thailand were threefold. First, there was a market with middleman waiting to buy down the mountain. Second, poverty forced them into it without thinking about their safety and finally, they followed friends who had made money from it.
