Cambodia Calls On Thailand - Beef Up Border Check

Cambodia calls on Thailand to beef up border checks

SA KAEW: -- Cambodian intelligence officials have called on the Thai police to step up security checks on people crossing over the border, following rumours that Cambodian Muslims are preparing to launch protests against recent developments in Thailand’s southern border region.

Speaking to reporters at the Aranyaprathet Checkpoint, Lt. Phee Sunee, head of intelligence in Cambodia’s Banteay Mean Cheay Province, said that reports indicated that Cambodian Muslims were preparing to march on the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh to express anger at yesterday’s death of 84 Muslims in Thailand’s deep South.

On the Thai side of the border, Pol. Lt. Col. Chalermphol Jintarat, deputy superintendent of the Aranyaprathet Immigration Police, said that both Cambodian and Thai officials were conducting stringent checks on everyone crossing the border.

People crossing the border are now required to have their photo taken by immigration police, who are also making photocopies of passports and asking detailed questions about the purpose of each journey.

Pol. Lt. Col. Chalermphol said that investigative officers were also mobilizing forces throughout the jungles of the Thai-Cambodian border.

While denying knowledge of the rumours of Cambodian Muslim action, Pol. Lt. Col. Chalermphol said that the Thai police were stepping up their vigilance.

--TNA 2004-10-27