The Thai army has accused Cambodian media outlets of distorting a Thai senator’s ‘incomplete’ comments about Thai air strikes in Cambodia for propaganda purposes.
Maj Gen Winthai Suvaree, the Royal Thai Army spokesman, said on Thursday that Thailand deployed F-16 fighter jets to destroy Cambodian military bases from which inhumane attacks on innocent Thai civilians were launched in July.
Cambodia has frequently claimed that Thailand struck first and that some strikes targeted civilians. This week some media outlets backed this claim by reporting that Thai Senator Angkhana Neelapaijit ‘admitted to the media that Thailand used F-16 fighter jets to drop MK-84 bombs to attack Cambodia first’.
‘Upon investigation, it was found that the news was distorted and created to create misunderstandings in society,’ the army public relations department said.
Senator Angkhana actually said: ‘Thailand’s use of F-16s to attack Cambodia caused Cambodia to suffer considerable losses.’
The former head of the National Human Rights Commission made the comment in response to claims that she was insufficiently patriotic, after she had criticised the broadcasting of loud, ‘ghostly’ sounds intended to intimidate Cambodians in a contested border area.
‘There is the concern that a Thai communicated incomplete information due to misunderstanding about the situation or personal intention, and Cambodia picked it up to make claims for information operations,’ Maj Gen Winthai said.
‘Under the present circumstance, unity among Thai people in all sectors is crucial,’ he added.
Thai air force spokesman AM Jackkrit Thammavichai said that at 9.30am on July 24 Cambodia fired rockets from its BM-21 multiple rocket launchers at Surin province, killing and injuring Thai civilians.
At that point the Thai air force received a retaliation order to protect the lives and property of Thai people, he said.
At 10.38am on July 24, an F-16 fighter jet deployed precision-guided munitions against Cambodia’s military targets and there were no impacts on its civilians, he said.
Despite the response, Cambodia continued to fire rockets and shells at Thai civilians and the Thai air force had to take action until the night of July 28 when the ceasefire started.
‘Our operations were based on self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations,’ AM Jackkrit said.