Thai

The body of a Thai farm worker killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was returned home to Thailand. Sonthaya Oakkharasri’s body had been held in the Gaza Strip. Thai officials say 45 nationals have died in the conflict — the highest foreign toll among Israel’s foreign workers.

There’s something about Thai cuisine that is warm and welcoming.

Perhaps it’s the fire that bird’s eye chili brings to a dish, or maybe the bold punchiness of tom yum soup.

My colleague and food critic Bill Addison referred to Thai as “a pillar cuisine of Los Angeles.”

And why not?

The city boasts the world’s largest Thai population outside of Thailand. Those who open restaurants open our palates to a diverse range of flavors and sensations from their micro-regional cooking styles.

Addison is wary of using the term “best.” Instead, he crafted a list of his 15 favorite Thai restaurants in Los Angeles. Here, we’ll highlight a handful of those choices, in Addison’s own words.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Anajak Thai (Sherman Oaks)

If you’ve had any passing interest in Los Angeles dining culture this decade, you probably know the story: Anajak Thai was founded in 1981 by chef Ricky Pichetrungsi, whose recipes merge his Thai upbringing and Cantonese heritage, and his wife Rattikorn.

In 2019, when Pichetrungsi suffered a stroke, the couple’s son Justin left a thriving career as an art director at Walt Disney Imagineering to take over the restaurant.

It changed his life, and it changed Los Angeles, with Justin’s creative individualism — specifically his Thai Taco Tuesday phenomenon.

That’s when the menu crisscrosses fish tacos lit up by chili crisp and limey nam jim with wok-fragrant drunken noodles and Dungeness crab fried rice. Add what has become one of L.A.’s great wine lists, and the restaurant has catapulted into one of the city’s great dining sensations.

The restaurant closed for a couple of months over the summer for a renovation, revealing a brighter, significantly resituated interior — and introducing an open kitchen and a second dining room — in August.

The menu didn’t radically alter: It’s the same multi-generational cooking, tracing the family heritage, leaning ever-further into freshness, perfecting the details in familiar dishes.

Fried chicken sheathed in rice flour batter and scattered with fried shallots, the star of the Justin-era menu, remains, as does the sublime mango sticky rice that Rattikorn makes when she can find fragrant fruit in season and at its ripest.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Ayara Thai (Westchester)

Owner Andy Asapahu grew up in a Thai-Chinese community in Bangkok.

Anna Asapahu, his wife, was raised in Lampang, a small city in the verdant center of northern Thailand.

They melded their backgrounds into a sprawling multi-regional menu of soups, salads, noodles and curries when they opened Ayara in Westchester in 2004.

Their daughters Vanda and Cathy oversee the restaurant these days, but Anna’s recipe for khao soi endures as the marquee dish.

Khao soi seems to have become nearly as popular in Los Angeles as pad Thai. This one is quintessential: chicken drumsticks braised in silky coconut milk infused with lemongrass and other piercing aromatics, poured over egg noodles, sharpened with shallots and pickled mustard greens and garnished with lime and a thatch of fried noodles.

The counterpoints are all in play: a little sweetness from palm sugar and a lot of complexity from fish sauce, a bump of chile heat to offset the richness.

Pair it with a standout dish that reflects Andy’s upbringing, like pad pong kari, a stir-fry of curried shrimp and egg with Chinese celery and other vegetables, smoothed with a splash of cream and served over rice. The restaurant has a spacious dining room.

Note that lunch is technically carry-out only, though the family sets up the patio space outside the restaurant for those who want to stick around.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Holy Basil (Atwater Village)

Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat and Tongkamal “Joy” Yuon run two wholly different Holy Basils.

Downtown’s Santee Passage food hall houses the original, a window that does a brisk takeout business cranking out Arpapornnopparat’s visceral, full-throttle interpretations of Bangkok street food.

His pad see ew huffs with smokiness from the wok. The fluffy-crackly skin of moo krob pops and gives way to satiny pork belly underneath. Douse “grandma’s fry fish and rice” with chile vinegar, and in its sudden brightness you’ll understand why the dish was his childhood favorite.

Their sit-down restaurant in Atwater Village is a culmination of their ambitions. The space might be small, with much of the seating against a wall between two buildings, but the cooking is tremendous.

Arpapornnopparat leaps ahead, rendering a short, revolving menu of noodles, curries, chicken wings, fried rice and vegetable dishes that is more experimental, weaving in elements of his father’s Chinese heritage, his time growing up in India and the Mexican and Japanese flavors he loves in Los Angeles.

One creation that shows up in spring but I wait for all year: fried soft-shell crab and shrimp set in a thrilling, confounding sauce centered around salted egg yolk, browned butter, shrimp paste and scallion oil. In its sharp left turns of salt and acid and sultry funk, the brain longs to consult a GPS. But no map exists. These flavor combinations are from an interior land.

If you enjoyed those selections, check out the full list here. Happy dining.

The week’s biggest stories

(Carlin Stiehl/For the Times)

Palisades fire and other blazes

Trump administration policies and reactions

Crime, courts and policing

More big stories

This week’s must-reads

More great reads

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

Thai is a pillar cuisine of Los Angeles. The largest Thai population outside of Thailand calls Los Angeles home. The community designation in East Hollywood is the only officially recognized Thai Town in the United States. As with Koreatown and Historic Filipinotown, the neighborhood took root when our country, via the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, welcomed waves of migration from across Asia.

As with all of the world’s great culinary traditions, “Thai cuisine” really means micro-regional cooking styles. In L.A., we can taste the breadths. We can seek out the mulchy, herbaceous pleasures of sai ua from Thailand’s northernmost extremes, bordering Laos, noting how the textures of the sausage vary by the hands who make them. Rice is crisped in salads, pounded into noodles, powdered into a seasoning, stir-fried in infinite variations or served plain, sticky or not, as a catchall for prismatic flavors.

Curries, silken with coconut milk, will change with the color of the chiles in their pastes. Appearances deceive. I did not believe how profoundly capsicums can set a body aflame until I plowed through several bites of kua kling phat tha lung, the hottest dish at Jitlada, during my initiation lunch in 2008. I am long past that milestone, but I’d do it over again that one time.

No matter the headline, I’m wary of the word “best.” These are 15 favorites, often emphasizing the specificity of a Thai chef’s home region. Use it as a blueprint. Wander the outdoor food court of the Wat Thai temple in Sun Valley on an early Sunday afternoon. Find a friend and walk the blocks of Thai Town, scanning menus to see what appeals. There will soon be another restaurant vying for boat noodle supremacy. Maybe someone will soon show up making chor muang, the ornate royal flower dumplings, that I’ve had a hard time finding. Being a pillar cuisine is knowing that room for possibility always remains.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

The vote comes a week after Paetongtarn Shinawatra was removed from office amid an ethics scandal.

Thailand’s parliament has elected Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of the conservative opposition Bhumjaithai party, as the country’s prime minister.

The vote on Friday means Anutin will replace Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, who was dismissed by the Constitutional Court last month over an ethics scandal.

Anutin secured victory over Chaikasem Nitisiri, the candidate of the populist Pheu Thai, with the support of the liberal People’s Party.

That backing from the largest party in the 500-seat parliament was premised on a promise from Anutin to call a general election within four months.

While voting and counting were still proceeding, the Bhumjaithai leader was confirmed to have won more than 247 votes, the required majority from the House of Representatives’ 492 active members.

His final total must be certified after voting is completed. He and his government are expected to take office in a few days after obtaining a formal appointment from King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Veteran Anutin’s election deals another blow to the Shinawatra clan, which has been a mainstay of Thai politics for the past two decades.

Their populist movement has long jousted with the pro-military, pro-monarchy establishment, but has been increasingly bedevilled by legal and political setbacks.

The dynasty’s patriarch, Thaksin Shinawatra, flew out of Thailand in the hours ahead of Friday’s vote, bound for Dubai.

Anutin once backed the Pheu Thai coalition, but abandoned it in the summer in apparent outrage over Paetongtarn’s conduct during a border dispute with neighbouring Cambodia.

This is a developing news story. More to follow shortly …

Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand’s Constitutional Court is to decide whether to remove suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office over a phone call with Cambodia’s former leader in a ruling that could deal a fatal blow to the embattled Shinawatra dynasty and plunge the Southeast Asian kingdom into political turmoil.

An unfavourable verdict for Paetongtarn on Friday would make her the fifth prime minister since 2008 to be stripped of office by Thailand’s judges, who critics say defend the interests of the country’s royalist-military establishment.

The move could also potentially pave the way for early elections.

Friday’s ruling is also the second in three high-stakes court cases against Paetongtarn, 39, and her father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The 76-year-old billionaire, who is a hero to the country’s rural poor and who was ousted in a military coup in 2006, dodged a jail sentence last week when he was acquitted of insulting the country’s powerful monarchy.

But he still faces another case relating to his return to Thailand in 2023 after 16 years in self-imposed exile, which could land him back in prison.

Even if Paetongtarn survives, analysts said the saga, as well as the failure of her Pheu Thai party-led coalition to deliver on key economic pledges, has left the Shinawatra brand in peril.

“I think that the Shinawatra brand is done for,” said Napon Jatusripitak, visiting fellow and acting coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“Pheu Thai depends very much on the Shinawatra legacy. … Even the charismatic leadership that Thaksin is often associated with has been chipped away by Paetongtarn’s naivete that has been put on public spectacle on a global scale,” he said, referring to her leaked conversation with former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

‘A political case’

During the call, which took place in May after deadly border clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces, Paetongtarn was heard kowtowing to Hun Sen, a longtime friend of her father’s, and calling him “uncle” while criticising a senior Thai army commander and describing him as an “opponent”.

The comments caused a public outcry in Thailand with some Thais accusing her of treason. Paetongtarn apologised for her remarks, but the Constitutional Court took up a petition that accused her of ethical misconduct and suspended her pending a review of the case.

The border conflict, meanwhile, spiralled, killing dozens of people and displacing tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

“Judicial intervention has long shaped Thailand’s politics,” Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, constitutional law scholar at Chulalongkorn University, said, noting how the courts had also intervened to topple Thaksin-aligned prime ministers in 2008 and bar his sister, Yingluck, from office after a coup in 2014.

“Whether [Paetongtarn] survives the court’s judgement or not, the outcome will not hinge on legal arguments but on political instructions,” Khemthong said. “This has never been a matter of law. It is, and always has been, a political case.”

It does not help Paetongtarn that the controversy also has taken place at a time when Pheu Thai’s popularity has been plummeting. In its rocky two years in government, the party has been unable to reset the economy or drive through key policies, including raising the minimum wage, legalising casinos and completing a much-lauded cash handout programme.

Public anger has been seething too over Pheu Thai’s decision to strike a deal with royalist-, military-backed parties to take office in 2023.

During that year’s vote, Pheu Thai came in second to the progressive youth-led Move Forward, but the latter was prevented from forming a government by the conservative-controlled Senate.

It was that same power-sharing deal that saw Thaksin return to Thailand.

Upon his arrival, the politician, who had been sentenced in absentia to eight years on charges of corruption, was sent to jail to serve his sentence. His sentence was reduced by King Maha Vajiralongkorn to one year, but during his first night, he was transferred to a hospital on medical grounds. He spent six months in a hospital suite, after which he was released on parole.

Now, the Supreme Court is to rule on whether his hospital stay was justified in a case that could see him sent back to prison to serve his sentence.

“Thaksin had the moral high ground of being overthrown, from being democratically elected, but he gave up that moral high ground by making a deal with the establishment,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor and senior fellow of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science.

“He’s given up, he’s given in, and I think that the Shinawatra brand now is politically spent.”

But it’s not just the Shinawatras that the conservative forces are after, Thitinan said.

“They’re going after any threat that they see that wants to institute reforms and wants to modernise Thailand. And this is why Thailand has been stuck for the last two decades. Until Thailand can get out of this straightjacket, whereby elected governments get overthrown, through manipulation, subversion, while the autocratic forces that do the overthrowing cannot get elected, it will remain so,” he added.

‘A real-life Squid Game’

Indeed, if Paetongtarn is removed, Thailand could again be in for a period of prolonged uncertainty. That is because the current constitution, drafted under military supervision, allows only politicians who had been nominated for prime minister by their parties before the 2023 elections to take power.

Pheu Thai may put up their final eligible candidate for premier – Chaikasem Nitisiri, a Thaksin loyalist and former justice minister.

Other candidates come from the conservative parties, including Anutin Charnvirakul of the Bhumjaithai Party and Prayuth Chan-ocha, formerly of the United Thai Nation (UTN) Party, who led the 2014 coup and then ruled Thailand for nine years. Prayuth is currently a member of the Privy Council, and he would need to step down to return to politics.

Napon of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute said he believes the royalist-military establishment, after removing Paetongtarn, could be manoeuvring to install a new coalition with Pheu Thai but with the party “relegated to a sort of a junior partner in the coalition” under a conservative leadership “despite them bringing the most seats”.

“Pheu Thai could accept that kind of arrangement given that Thaksin still has a pending case pertaining to his hospital stay,” Napon said. “In the worst case scenario, he could be sent back to serve his time in prison. That could end up being used as leverage to force Pheu Thai back into an unequal power-sharing arrangement with the conservatives once again.”

The continued conservative stranglehold on power has dismayed millions of voters, especially young Thais who say their votes and their aspirations for a greater stake in their country’s future have been ignored.

“Thai democracy exists largely on paper,” Pannika Wanich, a former Move Forward legislator who has been given a lifetime ban from politics, told Al Jazeera.

“Thai politics resembles a real-life Squid Game. Prime ministers are eliminated one after another until the game master gets the player they want. The rules are rigged – and the normal principles of democracy don’t apply.”

Aug. 22 (UPI) — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra avoided a likely prison term Friday after his royal defamation case was dismissed.

Shinawatra was indicted last year on charges he defied the country’s lese majeste law, which prohibits anyone from insulting the Thai monarchy.

He was accused by a general from the military regime that took power in 2014, in a coup that deposed the prime minister at that time, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Shinawatra allegedly disrespected the monarchy in an interview he gave in 2015 to a South Korean newspaper in which he said people connected to the “palace” helped overthrow Yingluck.

Shinawatra was living in Dubai at the time in a self-imposed exile, and out of reach for prosecution. The 76-year-old could have seen as many as 15 years in prison if found guilty.

The charges against Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2001 but removed himself in a 2006 coup, were widely believed to be politicized due to his hold on power despite being absent.

Even while he remained outside Thailand’s borders, political parties tied to Shinawatra won national elections until 2023.

It was then he returned and was indicted over the defamation charges in June of 2024. He was also charged with violating Thailand’s Computer Crime Act because the interview in question ran online, but that was also dismissed Friday.

Acquittals in Thai lese majeste cases are rare, as 87% lead to convictions.

Shinawatra will next face a judge in September, as he was hospitalized upon returning to Thailand and is accused of using that stay to avoid being imprisoned.

Bangkok, Thailand – A court is poised to decide whether Thailand’s most consequential and controversial political figure of the past 25 years, Thaksin Shinawatra, insulted the country’s revered monarchy, a crime that can land a culprit in jail for up to 15 years.

The charge, under Thailand’s strict “lese-majeste” royal defamation law, stems from an interview the 76-year-old business tycoon and former prime minister gave to a South Korean newspaper in 2015 regarding a military coup that toppled his sister and then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014.

Though holding no official role in government, Thaksin remains a towering figure bearing over Thailand’s stormy politics, and the verdict on Friday will test the state of his long-fraught relationship with the country’s powerful royalist establishment.

“The prosecution is of great political significance,” said Verapat Pariyawong, a Thai law and politics scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London.

“If found innocent, Mr Thaksin would rely on the verdict as proof that he has always been a loyalist, contrary to the accusations by his political opponents which inflamed conflicts over the past two decades,” Verapat told Al Jazeera.

A guilty verdict, on the other hand, could “trigger a new round of political conflicts”, he said.

“Some would see it as a breakdown of the so-called grand compromise that paved the way for Mr Thaksin’s return to Thailand, and undoubtedly many will link the guilty verdict to other pending major court decisions not just against Mr Thaksin but also his daughter and suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra,” he added.

After 15 years in self-imposed exile, Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023.

That lengthy absence from Thailand helped him to avoid a prison sentence on a prior corruption charge, though he was still forced to complete a commuted term in custody on his return home.

His latest tribulations stem from a royal defamation charge in June 2024, and he is also on trial for allegedly faking ill health in order to serve his sentence for corruption outside of jail.

Thaksin’s daughter and currently the country’s suspended prime minister, Paetongtarn, is being prosecuted for an alleged breach of ethics over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s former prime minister and strongman Hun Sen.

A court suspended Paetongtarn from her duties as premier on ethical grounds last month after Hun Sen leaked their phone conversation, in which the Thai prime minister spoke reverentially to the Cambodian leader.

During the call, Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and criticised a Thai army commander.

Her political adversaries and other people said it was unbecoming of a Thai premier to have addressed a foreign leader so deferentially, and criticising the military is also a red line in a country where the politically powerful armed forces are held in high esteem.

A court is due to rule in Paetongtarn’s case on August 29, a verdict which could see her removed from office permanently.

Power player

Thaksin’s path to the pinnacle of Thai politics started modestly, with a stretch in the national police force beginning in the early 1970s.

With the help of a government scholarship, he earned a master’s degree and then a doctorate in criminal justice in the United States before returning to public service in Thailand and resigning from the police force as a lieutenant colonel in 1987.

Leveraging his professional contacts, Thaksin tried his hand at a number of business ventures before striking gold in telecommunications, founding and, in time, building his Shin Corp into an industry leader.

It also launched Thaksin onto Thailand’s richest list.

Last month, Forbes ranked Thaksin 11th among the country’s wealthiest families or people, with a personal net worth of $2.1bn.

In the 1990s, Thaksin started parlaying his business success into a political career, founding his first of many parties by the end of the decade.

On the back of a populist platform that promised affordable healthcare and debt relief, he landed in the prime minister’s office with a resounding general election win in 2001 and another in 2005.

But mounting scandals cut his second four-year term short.

Amid accusations of corruption over the $1.9bn sale of Shin Corp and an unrelated land deal that prompted mass protests, the Thai military removed Thaksin and his government in a 2006 coup.

A Thai court convicted him over the land deal the next year. To avoid jail, he fled into self-imposed exile in 2008.

Wanwichit Boonprong, a Rangsit University lecturer, says Thaksin had made powerful enemies within the country’s military – a force that has grown accustomed to managing its internal affairs largely independent of the government – by trying to steer the appointment and transfer of high-ranking officers.

By seeming to meddle in the military’s work, Wanwichit told Al Jazeera, Thaksin raised fears that he was bent on both “undermining the military and weakening the monarchy”.

The military has long prided itself as the ultimate protector of the Thai monarchy, a touchstone of the country’s influential conservative movement.

Thaksin also pulled off the rare feat in 2005 of winning enough seats in the House of Representatives to form a government without the need for any coalition partners, making him uncommonly potent as a political force.

That popularity scared his critics, says Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, an assistant professor at Chulalongkorn University.

“That popularity, combined with his quick and outspoken manner, raised a lot of people’s suspicion that he might want to or he might try to compete with King Bhumibol [Adulyadej],” he said.

While there was little, if any, proof to back that up, Khemthong said, “it became a very convenient tool to mobilise people” against Thaksin.

‘Super active’

But even in exile overseas, Thaksin continued to dominate Thai politics.

Parties tied to the Shinawatra family kept winning elections and forming governments, only to be thwarted by the military or the courts each time.

With a prison sentence hanging over him, the tech mogul stayed abroad for 15 years, until returning to Bangkok to cheering crowds on August 22, 2023.

Before leaving the airport, Thaksin ostentatiously prostrated himself before a portrait of the country’s new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, son of the late King Bhumibol.

The very same day, the Shinawatras’s latest party, Pheu Thai, secured the premiership for its candidate, Srettha Thavisin, by backing out of a planned coalition with the more progressive Move Forward party, which had won that year’s general election.

Pheu Thai rejected speculation that it had struck a “grand bargain” with the conservative establishment by pulling away from Move Forward, which had campaigned on reining in the military and the monarchy’s powers, in exchange for Thaksin’s safe return.

However, only nine days later, King Vajiralongkorn commuted Thaksin’s prison sentence from eight years to one, and he was out on parole within months. He had also spent his entire six months in custody in a private room in the luxury wing of a state hospital.

Now, with Thaksin on the brink of another conviction that could again send him to jail, the “grand bargain” is seen to be fraying.

“A lot of people understand that when Thaksin came back he would lay low, that he was allowed to come back but he wasn’t allowed to be politically active, he should stay at home, be quiet. But instead of that he was super active,” said Chulalongkorn University’s Khemthong.

Despite having no official role in the Pheu Thai party or the government it now leads, Thaksin has spent little time out of the spotlight since returning home less than two years ago – proposing grand policy prescriptions at public fora, touring constituencies with reporters in tow, conferring with domestic and international leaders alike.

“So, a lot of people speculate that the [defamation] charge was to put more control over him, to control his behaviour, his political activism,” Khemthong said.

Thaksin’s continued high-profile lifestyle has also led to the popular belief that he, not his daughter, is still the real power behind the party, and by extension the government.

“Everyone knows that Thaksin is the spiritual leader and the real owner of the Pheu Thai Party,” said Rangsit University’s Wanwichit.

“Using this [defamation] case is akin to trying to keep Thaksin in check in the conservative power play,” and amounts to insisting that “he must obey the conservatives’ established guidelines,” Wanwichit added.

‘Court battle’

Critics of Thailand’s royal defamation law, or of how the courts use it, say it has long been swung like a cudgel against threats – real or imagined – to the conservative establishment’s political power and privilege.

The law, under Section 112 of the Criminal Code, prescribes up to 15 years in jail for anyone who “defames, insults or threatens” the king, queen, heir apparent or regent.

But Verapat, of SOAS, says many have “fallen victim” to the courts’ “expansive interpretation” of the law.

In January 2024, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Move Forward party had breached the law by promoting a bill that proposed limits on how it could be used.

The panel of judges accused the party of harbouring a hidden agenda to undermine the country’s constitutional monarchy and ordered Move Forward to disband as a political movement.

When thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bangkok through much of 2020, calling on the military-aligned government at the time to step down, their list of demands grew to include reforms meant to rein in the monarchy’s alleged influence over politics in the military’s favour.

Since then, more than 280 people have been charged under Section 112, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a local advocacy group.

Among the most prominent of the 2020 protesters was lawyer Arnon Nampa, who has been sentenced to a cumulative 27 years and eight months following his 10th conviction on a royal defamation charge in July.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has called the use of the law “a form of violence against those who exercise their right to freedom of expression”.

The defamation case against Thaksin, which is based on a 10-year-old interview in which he criticised no one strictly covered by Section 112, fits into that same, expansive “modus operandi”, Chulalongkorn University’s Khemthong said.

Whichever way the verdict goes on Friday, analysts say the fallout for Thaksin and the Shinawatra family is unlikely to be immediately known, as either side can and probably will appeal.

Khemthong said the case against Thaksin could continue to drag out for months, if not a year or more.

Rangsit University’s Wanwichit concurred.

“The appeals court battle will likely continue regardless of the verdict,” he said.

It is the third incident in a few weeks in which Thai soldiers have been injured by mines around the border.

Three Thai soldiers have been injured by a landmine while patrolling the border with Cambodia, according to the army, days after the two neighbours agreed to a detailed ceasefire following a violent five-day conflict last month.

One soldier lost a foot and two others were injured after one of them stepped on a landmine as they patrolled an area between Thailand’s Sisaket and Cambodia’s Preah Vihear provinces on Saturday morning, the Royal Thai Armed Forces said.

One soldier suffered a severe leg injury, another was wounded in the back and arm, and the third had extreme pressure damage to the ear, it said.

There was no immediate comment from Cambodia’s defence ministry.

It is the third incident in a few weeks in which Thai soldiers have been injured by mines while patrolling along the border.

Two previous similar incidents led to the downgrading of diplomatic relations and triggered five days of fighting.

The Southeast Asian neighbours were engaged in deadly border clashes from July 24-28, in the worst fighting between the two in more than a decade.

The exchanges of artillery fire, infantry battles and jet fighter sorties killed at least 43 people.

The clashes halted with a ceasefire on July 28 after United States President Donald Trump warned both sides that he would not conclude trade deals with them if fighting continued.

A meeting of defence officials in Kuala Lumpur ended on Thursday with a deal to extend the ceasefire, and the two sides also agreed to allow observers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to inspect disputed border areas to ensure hostilities do not resume.

Bangkok accused Cambodia of planting landmines on the Thai side of the disputed border that injured soldiers on July 16 and July 23. Phnom Penh denied it had placed any new mines and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered old landmines left from its decades of war.

Desperate evacuees, huddled on plastic mats in a sports hall in Thailand, have described fleeing from thunderous artillery bombardments as heavy fighting has escalated between Thailand and Cambodia.

The worst fighting in more than a decade between the neighbouring countries has forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate from their homes across four Thai border provinces by Friday.

As artillery fire echoed on Thursday, thousands from northeastern Surin province abandoned their homes for makeshift shelters established in the town centre.

Nearly 3,000 people crowded the sports hall of Surindra Rajabhat University, packed onto rows of plastic mats covered with colourful blankets and hastily gathered possessions.

“I’m worried about our home, our animals, and the crops we’ve worked so hard on,” Thidarat Homhuan, 37, told the AFP news agency.

She evacuated with nine family members, including her 87-year-old grandmother who had just been released from hospital.

“That concern is still there. But being here does feel safer, since we’re further from the danger zone now. At least we’re safe,” she said.

Thidarat was babysitting at a local school when she heard what she described as “something like machinegun fire”, followed by heavy artillery thuds.

“It was chaos. The kids were terrified. I rushed to the school’s bunker,” she said.

Inside the shelter, evacuees slept alongside one another beneath the gym’s high ceiling, surrounded by electric fans humming and the quiet whispers of uncertainty.

Elderly residents lay wrapped in blankets, infants slept in cradles, while children played quietly. Pet cats rested in mesh crates near the public restroom.

This marks the first full activation of the university as a shelter, according to Chai Samoraphum, director of the university president’s office.

Classes were immediately cancelled, and within an hour, the campus transformed into a functioning evacuation centre.

Evacuees from four border districts were distributed across six locations throughout the campus.

“Most of them left in a hurry. Some have chronic health conditions but didn’t bring their medications, others only managed to grab a few belongings,” Chai told AFP.

The centre, with assistance from the provincial hospital, is providing care for those with chronic illnesses and offering mental health services for trauma victims, Chai explained.

The border fighting has killed at least 14 people in Thailand, including one soldier and civilians killed in a rocket strike near a Sisaket province petrol station, officials reported. One Cambodian has also been confirmed killed.

As fighting continues near the border, evacuees face uncertainty about when they can return home.

For now, the shelter provides safety and a place to await signals that it’s safe to “go back to normal life”, Thidarat said.

She already has a message for the authorities: “I want the government to take decisive action – do not wait until lives are lost.

“Civilians look up to the government for protection, and we rely on them deeply,” she said.

Across the border in Cambodia, about 20,000 residents have evacuated from the country’s northern border with Thailand, the Khmer Times news organisation said, quoting officials in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province.

July 24 (UPI) — Cambodia and Thailand exchanged attacks Thursday morning along their disputed border as tensions between the two countries that had been rising over the past few days turned violent.

The Thai military said at least three of its civilians and a soldier were injured.

Both sides have accused one another of firing first near the ancient Ta Muen Temple, located along the disputed Thai-Cambodia border.

The Royal Thai Army accused Cambodian forces in a statement of having opened fire at 8:20 a.m. local time. The Cambodian Ministry of National Defense laid blame on Thai soldiers, saying they initiated a “direct attack against Cambodian forces” stationed near the temple.

The ministry said in a statement that Thai forces opened fire at 8:46 a.m., leaving the Cambodian forces “no choice but to exercise their right to self-defense.”

Since then, continued military clashes have been reported.

At least three Thai citizens were injured when two BM-21 rockets launched by Cambodia hit a community area within the Border Development Center in Kap Choeng District, Surin Province, at 9:40 a.m. local time, the Royal Thai Army said in a statement.

It published images of the aftermath online, showing a wooden building with shattered windows and a pool of blood on the ground.

It said residents had been evacuated from the area.

Thailand’s 2nd Regional Military Command reported on Facebook that there were “clashes happening all along the front lines” involving “both small guns and heavy weapons.”

“One Thai soldier has been injured,” it said.

The Thai military has deployed F-16 fighter jets, which the military command said had “destroyed” a Cambodian brigade.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that Thai warplanes had dropped bombs near where Cambodian troops were stationed.

It accused Thailand of using heavy weaponry and a large-scale deployment of troops to “forcibly seize Cambodian territory.” It alleged that Thailand was violating the United Nations Charter as well as international law.

Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Manet, said in a statement on Facebook that Thai troops had launched attacks targeting Cambodian military positions at Prasat Ta Moan Thom and Prasat Ta Krabey and were expanding their assault.

“Cambodia has always maintained a position of resolving conflicts through peaceful means. However, in this case, we have no choice but to respond with armed force against this military aggression,” he said.

About two hours later, he published a letter addressed to the acting chairman of the United Nations’ Security Council demanding immediate intervention to “end the Thai army’s aggression on Cambodia’s sovereign territory.”

The fighting began Thursday after members of the Thai task force reported hearing sounds of a Cambodian drone circling the temple, which was followed by six Cambodian soldiers, armed with weapons, including RPGs, approaching a barbed-wire area near a Thai operations base.

“Thai forces employed verbal negotiations through loudspeakers to avoid conflict and prevent escalation of the situation while maintaining vigilance along the entire border line in preparation for any developments,” the Royal Thai Army said in a statement.

The Cambodian Ministry of Defense accused the Thai forces of having violated previous agreements between their countries by “occupying” the temple.

The two sides have battled for decades over disputed regions of their shared border, but tensions have been spiking since Wednesday, when five Thai soldiers were injured, including one who lost a leg, due to a landmine within the Thai-Cambodia border region.

Thailand responded by closing all border crossing points between the two countries and tourist attractions in the border region.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense has denied the allegations of wrongdoing.

“Cambodia has repeatedly reminded the Thai side that these areas still contain landmines that are war remnants that have yet to be cleared and has urged the Thai side to avoid practicing contradictory use of roadways for patrolling,” it said in a statement.

“It is extremely saddening that the Thai side not only holds responsibility for its aggression and also accuses Cambodia of violation International law, but Cambodia itself is the unjust victim of Thai law violation.”

Troops from Thailand and Cambodia exchanged fire at a disputed portion of their border early on Thursday, both sides said.

The Thai military said Cambodian soldiers opened fire near the Khmer temple Ta Muen Thom, where tensions have run high in recent weeks.

Cambodia’s defence ministry however said Thai troops fired the first shots, and Cambodian soldiers responded in self-defence.

Cambodia had sent a surveillance drone into the area before deploying troops carrying heavy weapons, the Thai military said.

A spokeswoman for the Cambodian defence ministry, Maly Socheata, said their troops “exercised their right to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity against the aggression of the Thai troops.

Socheata said Thailand “violated the territorial integrity of Cambodia”.

The clash on Thursday morning comes hours after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia, following a landmine explosion that injured a Thai soldier along the border.

On Wednesday, Bangkok also said it would expel Cambodia’s ambassador.

Bilateral relations between the two countries are at their worst in more than a decade, after armed clashes in May left one Cambodian soldier dead.

In the past two months, both countries have imposed tit-for-tat restrictions and strengthened troops presence along the border.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

The clash is the latest in a long-running deadly border dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbours.

A clash has taken place between Thai and Cambodian troops at a disputed area of their border, Thailand’s military has said.

In a statement, the Thai military said Cambodian troops opened fire in an area near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple – located on the countries’ shared border in northwestern Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey Province – early on Thursday.

It said Cambodia had deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops to the area with heavy weapons.

In May, a long-running border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia boiled over into military clashes that left one Cambodian soldier dead.

The continuing border dispute has soured relations between the Southeast Asian neighbours, with the two sides trading barbs and tit-for-tat retaliatory measures, including the closure of border crossings.

Cambodia has also blocked imports of fuel and gas, as well as fruit and vegetables, from Thailand.

Most recently, on Wednesday, a Thai soldier sustained injuries and lost his right leg in a landmine incident.

In response, Thailand’s governing Pheu Thai Party said it had recalled Thailand’s ambassador to Cambodia and will expel Cambodia’s ambassador from the country. Thailand has also downgraded diplomatic relations with Cambodia, the party said.

In response, Cambodia has withdrawn all of its diplomats from Thailand and ordered all Thai diplomats to leave the country.

The Cambodian government also downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to the “lowest level”, reducing it to the rank of “second secretary”, according to local news outlet the Phnom Penh Post.

Earlier, Thailand had accused Cambodia of placing landmines on the Thai side of the disputed border area between Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani Province and Cambodia’s Preah Vihear Province, after three soldiers were injured while on a patrol on July 16.

Cambodia claims the soldiers, one of whom lost his foot in the explosion, veered off agreed routes and triggered a mine left behind from decades of war.

Just two weeks earlier, his daughter Paetongtarn was suspended as prime minister by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra has testified in court, seeking to defend himself against royal defamation charges that could land him 15 years in prison, just weeks after his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended as prime minister.

Thaksin stands accused of breaching strict lese-majeste laws shielding Thailand’s royal family from abuse and criticism in a closed-door trial in the capital, Bangkok, that began earlier this month and continued on Wednesday.

The prosecution’s case revolves around remarks Thaksin made to South Korean media a decade ago, with the defendant due to give at least three days of testimony. A verdict is not expected for several weeks.

Recent events for both father and daughter are a serious blow to the powerful Shinawatra political dynasty. For the past quarter-century, the 75-year-old telecoms magnate has been a defining figure of Thai politics, founding a movement which has competed with the traditional pro-royal, pro-military elite.

His prosecution, combined with Paetongtarn’s suspension two weeks ago, represents a dramatic waning of their family’s political fortune, analysts say.

Thaksin’s lawyer Winyat Chatmontri told the AFP news agency his client testified on Wednesday morning “and will continue throughout the rest of the day”.

About 50 Thaksin supporters gathered at the court, wearing red shirts, the colour of his political movement, emblazoned with a portrait of his face.

“He is a very talented guy,” 79-year-old retired accountant Vaew Wilailak told AFP. “But from past experience, bad people just want to get rid of him.”

Thaksin returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years in exile, following a military coup which removed him from the prime minister’s office that he won in two elections.

He returned the day his family’s Pheu Thai party took office, at the head of a coalition government backed by their conservative former enemies, prompting suspicions a backroom deal had been struck.

Thaksin was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison on corruption and abuse of power charges – later reduced to one year by a pardon from King Maha Vajiralongkorn in another apparent sign of reconciliation.

In recent interviews, Thaksin affirmed his loyalty to the monarchy and expressed gratitude for the king’s pardon.

Speaking to AFP outside the court on the trial’s opening day on July 1, Winyat said his client appeared “chill” despite the seriousness of the case.

On the same day, Paetongtarn was suspended by the Constitutional Court, pending an ethics probe into her conduct during a leaked diplomatic phone call discussing a deadly border clash between Thai and Cambodian troops on May 28, which resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier and reignited longstanding tensions in the region.

The scandal “became a full-blown crisis” after the leaked call suggested that Paetongtarn had “compromised her position by kowtowing” to former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor of political science and international relations at Chulalongkorn University, told the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

In the call, Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and described a Thai military commander as an “opponent”.

Pheu Thai’s coalition has been abandoned by key conservative backers over the call, leaving it with a razor-thin parliamentary majority steered by a caretaker prime minister.

Thailand’s top court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pending an ethics investigation over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen. She accepted the decision, after being accused of violating the constitution with remarks about a deadly May border clash that sparked protests in Bangkok.

July 1 (UPI) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra amid ongoing litigation concerning a telephone conversation with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen that opponents described as evidence of her failure to perform her duty as leader of the country.

The nine-member panel ruled 7-2 in favor of suspending Paetongtarn from her duties as prime minister, effective immediately, until the court issues its final ruling on the controversial phone call.

The ruling comes at the request of 36 senators who signed a petition asking for her to be suspended under charges of violating the Constitution, based on an audio clip of the conversation between her and the Cambodian politician amid border tensions between their two countries.

In the clip, which was made public by local media on June 18, the prime minister is heard referring to the 2nd Army Region Commander, who supervises the Thai border with Cambodia, as an adversary, while seemingly agreeing with Hun Sen.

The phone call sparked protests in Thailand calling for Paetongtarn’s removal.

According to the Tuesday statement from the Constitutional Court, Paetongtarn claimed the conversation was personal and conciliatory, aimed at maintaining peace and protecting Thailand’s sovereignty.

The senators who asked the court to investigate the clip accused Paetongtarn of “seriously violating or failing to comply with ethical standards.”

The two justices who voted against suspending Paetongtarn issued a minority opinion stating that the facts presented by the senators “were not yet clear or conclusive enough to raise reasonable doubt regarding a constitutional violation” and instead suggested the prime minister be prohibited from exercising powers over national security, foreign affairs and fiscal policy amid litigation, in reflection of the seriousness of the accusations.

Paetongtarn will remain in her dual role as minister of culture, while Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit will serve as acting prime minister.

She has 15 days to present her defense in the case.

June 28 (UPI) — Protestors took to the streets of Bangkok Saturday, calling for the removal of Thailand’s prime minister, less than a year after she was sworn into office.

Demonstrators blocked streets in the country’s capital city, taking issue with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s phone call with Cambodian leader Hun Sen.

The call was recorded and made public this week. In it, Shinawatra appears to be close with Hun, the former prime minister and ex-military officer who is the current head of the Cambodian Senate and the country’s de facto leader.

Shinawatra has since apologized for the phone call, which took place because of a border dispute between the two countries.

Following the phone call, Thai officials sent a letter of protest to the Cambodian government.

Earlier this week, authorities closed Thailand’s border to travelers looking to cross into Cambodia, following a dispute over scams. One Cambodian soldier has been killed in the rising tensions between the neighboring countries.

More than 6,000 people converged for the protests in heavy rain Saturday, Thai police reported.

Local media reported Saturday that Shinawatra reaffirmed the public’s right to peacefully protest, in a country where previous rulers have been overthrown in military coups, including two of the prime minister’s relatives.

Shinawatra became Thailand’s youngest-ever elected leader when she was sworn into office last August at the age of 37.

The leader of the country’s ruling Pheu Thai Party is the third member of her family to hold the title of Thai Prime Minister.

Her billionaire father Thaksin and aunt Yingluck both led the country during separate periods. The family made its money in the telecom industry.

Thaksin served as Thailand’s prime minister from 2001 until 2006 when he was deposed by the military. He has had previous close ties with Hun and is set to face trial in the coming weeks over charges he insulted the Thai military.

Yingluck Shinawatra served as prime minister between 2011 and 2014 and was removed by a constitutional court.

As federal immigration raids continue to upend life in Los Angeles, Asian American leaders are rallying their communities to raise their voices in support of Latinos, who have been the primary targets of the enforcement sweeps, warning that neighborhoods frequented by Asian immigrants could be next.

Organizers say many Asian immigrants have already been affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants working in the country without documentation. Dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose deportation orders had been on indefinite hold have been detained after showing up for routine check-ins at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, according to immigration attorneys and advocacy groups.

In recent months, a number of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese immigrants whose deportation orders had been stayed — in some cases for decades — have been told that those orders will now be enforced.

The Asian immigrants being targeted are generally people who were convicted of a crime after arriving in the U.S., making them subject to deportation after their release from jail or prison. In most cases, ICE never followed through because the immigrants had lived in the U.S. long enough that their home countries no longer recognized them as citizens.

“Our community is much more silent, but we are being detained in really high numbers,” said Connie Chung Joe, chief executive of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. “There’s such a stigma and fear that, unlike the Latinx community that wants to fight and speak out about the injustices, our community’s first reaction is to go down and get more and more hidden.”

On Thursday, more than a half-dozen leaders representing Thai, Japanese and South Asian communities held a news conference in Little Tokyo urging community members to stand together and denounce the federal action as an overreach.

President Trump came into office in January vowing to target violent criminals for deportation. But amid pressure to raise deportation numbers, administration officials in recent months have shifted their focus to farmworkers, landscapers, street vendors and other day laborers, many of whom have been working in the country for decades.

While an estimated 79% of undocumented residents in L.A. County are natives of Mexico and Central America, Asian immigrants make up the second-largest group, constituting 16% of people in the county without legal authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Across the U.S., Indians make up the third-largest group of undocumented residents, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.

According to the Pew Research Center, the L.A. metropolitan area is home to the largest populations of Cambodian, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai and Vietnamese people in the U.S.

So far, the highest-profile raids in Southern California have centered on Latino neighborhoods, targeting car washes, restaurants, home improvement stores, churches and other locales where undocumented residents gather and work.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and Peter Gee of the Little Tokyo Service Center were among the speakers who denounced ICE raids during a news conference Thursday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

But Asian businesses have not been immune. A raid outside a Home Depot in Hollywood happened near Thai Town, where organizers have seen ICE agents patrolling the streets. In late May, Department of Homeland Security agents raided a Los Angeles-area nightclub, arresting 36 people they said were Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants in the country without authorization.

In Little Bangladesh, immigration agents recently detained 16 people outside a grocery store, said Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 community-based organizations.

“They will come for us even more in the coming days and weeks,” Kulkarni said. “So we are only protected when we’re in solidarity with our fellow Angelenos.”

From June 1 to 10, at the start of the federal sweeps, ICE data show that 722 people were arrested in the Los Angeles region. The figures were obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a repository of enforcement data at UC Berkeley Law.

A Times analysis found that 69% of those arrested during that period had no criminal convictions. Nearly 48% were Mexican, 16% were from Guatemala and 8% from El Salvador.

Forty-seven of the 722 individuals detained — or about 6% — were from Asian countries.

“We know the fear is widespread and it is deep,” said Assemblymember Mike Fong, a Democrat whose district takes in Monterey Park and west San Gabriel Valley, areas with large Asian immigrant populations.

Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Ysabel Jurado spoke of the repercussions the raids were having on immigrant communities. Raman is Indian American, and Jurado is Filipino American.

Jurado said undocumented Filipinos make up a sizable portion of the region’s caregivers, tending to elderly people and young children.

“Their work reflects the deepest values of our communities: compassion, service and interdependence,” Jurado said. “Their labor is essential, and their humanity must be honored.”

Jurado and Raman called on the federal government to end the raids.

“This is such an important moment to speak out and to ensure that the Latino community does not feel alone,” Raman said. “I also want to make it clear to every single person who is Asian American, these aren’t just raids on others. They’re raids on us.”

Staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.

This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia escalated its cold war with Thailand on Friday when it announced a ban on Thai movies and TV shows and a boycott of the neighboring country’s international internet links.

Tensions between the Southeast Asian countries have soared since an armed confrontation in a border area on May 28 that each side blamed on the other and which left one Cambodian soldier dead.

Cambodian officials said the import and screenings of Thai movies would be banned, and that broadcasters would be ordered not to air Thai-produced shows, which include popular soap operas. The government said it would inflict a financial blow on Thailand by rerouting its international internet traffic through other countries instead.

Cambodian and Thai authorities engaged in saber-rattling last week, though they have since walked back much of their earlier statements emphasizing their right to take military action.

But they continue to implement or threaten measures short of armed force, keeping tensions high. Thailand has added restrictions at border crossings. Much of their war of words actually has appeared intended to mollify nationalistic critics on their own sides.

The confrontation reportedly took place in a relatively small “no man’s land” constituting territory along their border that both countries claim is theirs.

The area is closed to journalists, but it appears that both sides withdrew soon after the fatal confrontation to avoid further clashes, without explicitly conceding the fact in order to save face.

“Neither side wants to use the word ‘withdraw’. We say ‘adjust troop deployments’ as a gesture of mutual respect—this applies to both Cambodia and Thailand.” Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was quoted telling reporters this past week.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said Friday on the Telegram social network that his government would act preemptively to establish self-reliance in response to exhortations by Thai nationalists to cut off electricity and internet connectivity to Cambodia.

Camboia’s Minister of Post and Telecommunication Chea Vandeth announced on his Facebook page that “all telecommunications operators in Cambodia have now disconnected all cross-border internet links with Thailand,” and that the move would deprive Thailand of as much as hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, a claim that could not be immediately checked.

The reported move to use circuits bypassing Thailand temporarily disrupted internet connectivity for users of at least one Cambodian service provider.

Thai officials said any plans to cut services to Cambodia were unrelated to the territorial conflict and would actually be targeting the infamous online scam centers in the Cambodian border town of Poipet that have been a problem for several years.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Fine Arts meanwhile informed all film distributors and cinemas owners that starting Friday, the import and screening of all Thai films must be immediately suspended.

Som Chhaya, deputy director general of a popular Cambodian TV channel, People Nation Network, told The Associated Press that his company will comply with another government order to drop Thai-produced shows, and in their place broadcast Chinese, Korean or Cambodian dramas.

Thai films and TV shows have a large audience in Cambodia.

Friday’s actions in Cambodia were taken one day ahead of a planned meeting in the capital Phnom Penh of the two countries’ Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary to help resolve the conflicting territorial claims that led to last month’s deadly confrontation.

There is a long history to their territorial disputes, Thailand is still rankled by a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands that awarded to Cambodia the disputed territory where the historic Preah Vihear temple stands. There were sporadic though serious clashes there in 2011, and the ruling was reaffirmed in 2023.

Cheang writes for the Associated Press.

Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai says Thailand reinforces military presence in response to Cambodia move.

Thailand has reinforced its military presence along a disputed border with Cambodia following an increase in troops on the other side, the Thai defence minister has said.

Tensions between the two Southeast Asian countries have been rising since a Cambodian soldier was killed on May 28 in a brief skirmish in an undemarcated border area.

Since the incident, the two governments have been exchanging carefully worded statements committing to dialogue.

Thailand’s Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said on Saturday that Cambodia had rejected proposals in bilateral talks held on Thursday that could have led to a de-escalation.

“Furthermore, there has been a reinforcement of military presence, which has exacerbated tensions along the border,” Phumtham said in a statement.

“Consequently, the Royal Thai Government has deemed it necessary to implement additional measures and to reinforce our military posture accordingly.”

He did not provide further details on the extent of reinforcements by either side.

There was no immediate comment from Cambodia.

In a separate statement on Saturday, the Thai army said Cambodian civilians had also repeatedly made incursions into Thailand’s territory.

“These provocations, and the buildup of military forces, indicate a clear intent to use force,” the Thai army said, adding it would take control of all Thai checkpoints along the Cambodia border.

Thailand and Cambodia have for more than a century contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border.

Tension escalated in 2008 over an 11th-century Hindu temple, leading to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery fire in 2011.

On Monday, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said the government would file a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the border dispute.

“Cambodia hopes that the Thai side will agree with Cambodia to jointly bring these issues to the International Court of Justice… to prevent armed confrontation again over border uncertainty,” Hun Manet said during a meeting between MPs and senators.

Thailand has not recognised the ICJ’s jurisdiction since 1960 and has instead called for bilateral talks.

Efforts have been made by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is the current chair of the Southeast Asian ASEAN bloc, and China to reduce tensions, but the border remains disputed.

A meeting of the Cambodia-Thailand Joint Boundary Commission – which addresses border demarcation issues – is scheduled for June 14.