Thailand-Cambodia Truce Holds, Yet Landmines Keep Villagers on Edge

A fleeting lull has replaced the artillery thunder that rattled villages along Thailand’s northeastern rim in late December, yet the frontier remains anything but forgotten. Thai commanders tell residents to enjoy the quiet—but keep the pick-up packed.

Snapshot for Thai households

• Ceasefire still formally in effect after the 27 Dec pact but its initial 72-hour window has lapsed.

• No fresh firefights reported from Chong Bok in Ubon to Chong Sai Taku in Buri Ram.

• Cambodian troops dig in around Preah Vihear, extending trenches and stringing new wire.

• Thai evacuees begin returning, though more than 100,000 people remain on edge.

• Unexploded BM-21 rockets keep EOD teams working overtime in Surin and Buri Ram.

• ASEAN observers praise the calm, while Phnom Penh and Bangkok swap recriminations in diplomatic notes.

Calm – but only on the surface

Field reports collected by the Second Army Region show an unusually low tempo. Patrols from Nam Yuen district in Ubon Ratchathani to Kantharalak in Si Sa Ket hear little more than crickets and the occasional drone buzzing overhead. Across the line, however, Cambodian engineers are reinforcing revetments on the Chong Samtae–Phu Phi ridge and trucking supplies toward Hill 745. Thai analysts say the pattern fits a “grey-zone” posture—defensive enough to avoid condemnation, assertive enough to keep pressure on Bangkok.

Life returns – cautiously – to border villages

When the shells stopped, local administrations reopened 70 temporary shelters in Ubon and 24 in Si Sa Ket so families could collect livestock or patch roofs. Yet many villagers refuse to sleep at home; they keep motorcycles pointed toward the highway, children’s documents sealed in plastic, and a weather eye on the horizon. Rubber tappers in Kantharalak still lose daily wages because mine-clearance teams have not certified plantations safe. “Peace on paper does not pay our loans,” an Ubon grower told ThaiPBS.

The silent killers left in the soil

Bomb-disposal squads from TMAC and Border Police have already lifted 80 warheads in Buri Ram since August, including BM-21 rockets buried 1–7 m deep. Mapping suggests ≥100 strike points remain. One unexploded rocket punched through a homeowner’s roof in Ban Krok Bua; technicians had to detonate it in situ after a five-hour cordon. The army admits a shortage of hook-and-line gear for deep-buried munitions, a gap Bangkok must plug before farmers regain their fields.

Diplomacy: applause and accusations

In public, Phnom Penh insists it respects the ceasefire, while its 3 Jan communiqué accuses Thailand of “continued incursions into four Cambodian provinces.” Bangkok’s Foreign Ministry counters that Thai troops operate “strictly within sovereign soil” and has briefed 60+ embassies plus the UN Security Council to that effect. Behind the rhetoric, ASEAN observers credit both sides for halting fire and urge the next Joint Boundary Commission meeting to resume demarcation work that stalled in 2011. Veteran Thai diplomats caution that border rows historically cool in the dry season, only to flare after Songkran when field units rotate.

What to watch • ควรระวังอะไรต่อ

Drone overflights: Thai radar logged a spike in quad-rotor sorties opposite Ta Kwai temple. Any incident—accidental or not—could unravel the truce.

Infrastructure projects: Cambodia’s new sediment dyke near Boundary Marker 73 in Trat may test Thai tolerance for unilateral earthworks.

EOD progress: Clearing the remaining ≈200 explosive rounds will determine how fast evacuees can reclaim farmland.

Joint patrol talks: The next GBC-led session could institutionalise mixed patrols, a first since the 2011 Preah Vihear flare-up.

Bottom line for Thai readers

The guns may be silent, but readiness—military, civilian and diplomatic—remains the watchword. As long as trenches deepen on the far ridge and rockets lurk in Thai soil, the frontier’s calm is provisional. Keep tuned to provincial commands, heed EOD warnings, and expect border politics to shadow daily life well into the new year.