San Francisco Frontiers - Fenced off: Thailand builds border wall after Cambodia clashes

It is the first stage of an 8.4-kilometre (5.2-mile) wall being installed by the Thai military in the east of the country, following last year's deadly clashes with its Southeast Asian neighbour.

Standing 3.6 metres (11.8 feet) high and comprising reinforced concrete, a mesh of galvanised steel and rolls of barbed wire, the barrier runs through farmland in Chanthaburi province.

"We built the fence to prevent illegal activities," notably the smuggling of people and goods, Captain Prachya Hantiem, commander of the Royal Thai Navy Marine Task Force in Chanthaburi, told AFP during a visit on Thursday.

Thailand and Cambodia have been at odds for decades over the demarcation of their 800-kilometre border, and deadly clashes broke out in July and then December last year.

The neighbours signed a ceasefire agreement in late December, but both sides accuse each other of truce violations.

Not far from the fence is a small Thai village, home to fewer than 200 people who grow corn and fruit, including durian and longan.

Villagers say the structure has cut into farmland along the porous border, but those who spoke to AFP were broadly positive.

"We accept it, we accept losing some land in order to gain security," said Suwin Muangmeung, who runs a grocery store. She acknowledged she does not always know where the border actually is.

"It gives us a sense of security in our daily lives, since our plantations are along the border," added village chief Itchira Aranchaiyasiri.

"We never really know when Thailand and Cambodia will reconcile, or when we'll be able to communicate with each other properly. But having this fence here helps."

The wall would cause some disruption, he said: "In the past, we used to come and go freely, or visit each other quite easily."

But he added: "We have to adapt".

- 'Be careful' -

The border was largely drawn up during negotiations between Thailand -- then known as Siam -- and France, which controlled Cambodia as part of its Indochina colonies between 1863 and the mid-1950s.

Gates through the new wall have been designed to accommodate existing multilingual stone markers, whose inscriptions include the words Siam and "frontiere" -- French for border.

Captain Prachya insisted the structure was "entirely within Thai sovereignty -- 100 percent".

"Every single step follows the law and can be checked. In fact, Cambodian forces inspect our work at every stage," he said.

Thailand closed its borders with Cambodia after the fighting, which drove half a million people out of their homes.

Most have since returned, although 20,000 Cambodians are still displaced.

Storekeeper Suwin, 62, is old enough to remember vast numbers of refugees coming over the border to escape the fighting that followed the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.

"My feeling on the fighting was different when I was young. I did not feel anything seriously," she told AFP.

"But when I see the losses from the most recent fighting, my heart aches."

She asks her military customers what she should do to ensure her safety.

"They told me to be careful," she said, adding that she has a bunker at her house, just in case.

U.Campbell--SFF