Residents of ព្រៃចាន់ and ជោជ័យ villages in Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province continue to face threats by Thai local authorities to apply Thai domestic law. The provincial administration protested banners raised by Thailand’s Sa Kaeo authorities on September 28. Governor Oum Reatry said residents had lived and worked there long before the 2000 Cambodia–Thailand Memorandum of Understanding on border surveying and demarcation took effect, and their rights must be respected.
The governor said Sa Kaeo had no authority to demarcate the border or apply Thai law to Cambodian communities in areas where demarcation remained unfinished. The 2000 MoU and the minutes of the September 10, 2025 Special General Border Committee (GBC) Meeting require both sides to maintain the status quo pending demarcation. Banteay Meanchey considers unilateral actions provocative and contrary to the ceasefire, GBC and Regional Border Committee (RBC) outcomes and the first Special GBC Meeting’s minutes. It called for an end to plans to evict hundreds of families who had lived and worked there for decades, while awaiting the Joint Boundary Commission’s resolution.
Thailand set a 15-day period from September 26 to October 10, 2025, for residents of ព្រៃចាន់ and ជោគជ័យ to leave or face proceedings under Thai martial law. Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry stressed that Thai law could not punish residents beyond Thailand’s sovereign territory.
Preah Sihanouk Provincial Television. By: ង៉ែត ពិសាន្ត
