SURIN, THAILAND: Thai evacuees welcomed news of a ceasefire with Cambodia on Monday (Jul 28) with a mix of relief and scepticism, as the midnight truce loomed after five days of deadly cross-border fighting.
“I’d be so happy if the ceasefire really happens,” said Jeanjana Phaphan, a 48-year-old farmer who fled her home in Phanom Dong Rak district with her three-year-old son.
“If it’s truly ending, I’m overjoyed, the happiest I’ve felt in a long time,” she said at a shelter in Surin city, about 50km from the border.
Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “unconditional” ceasefire, following combat that killed at least 38 people and displaced nearly 300,000. The fighting erupted last Thursday along the jungle-clad frontier, a region long disputed and dotted with ancient temples.
The agreement, brokered in Malaysia by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, came after mediation efforts by US President Donald Trump and Chinese negotiators.
VOICES OF RELIEF AND DOUBT
Jeanjana, like many others, reacted to the ceasefire news with cautious optimism.
“If our two countries keep fighting, the hardship and loss will only grow,” she said. “People on that side are civilians too, just like us. On our side we’re just farmers — and I believe they are farmers like us too. Ordinary people working to survive.”
But not everyone was confident in the ceasefire’s durability.
“I still have doubts that Cambodia will follow through with what they agreed to,” said Tee Samanjai, a 68-year-old farmer who had also evacuated. “We may go home, but with unease. There’s no peace of mind. I want to go back, but I don’t trust Cambodia at all. No one in our village does.”
For Tee, returning home means tending to life’s basics. “The first thing I’ll do when I get home is check on the chickens, fertilise the rice, and take care of the fields,” he said.
