May 1, 2011
Fighting appeared to subside on Sunday on the Thai-Cambodian border, allowing some evacuees to return home after nine days of heavy clashes which left 16 people dead, officials said. -- PHOTO: AP
BANGKOK - FIGHTING appeared to subside on Sunday on the Thai-Cambodian border, allowing some evacuees to return home after nine days of heavy clashes which left 16 people dead, officials said.
The two neighbours have been exchanging artillery shells along their disputed jungle frontier in their bloodiest conflict in decades, forcing more than 85,000 civilians to flee on both sides.
There were some minor skirmishes overnight on Saturday-Sunday, but the frontline has been quiet since, Cambodian field commander Suos Sothea told AFP by telephone.
As a tentative calm returned to the border area, some of the more than 37,000 Cambodian civilians displaced by the violence were starting to go home.
'Since the situation today is quiet, around 10 to 15 per cent of the evacuees have returned home,' Nhim Vanda, deputy president of Cambodia's National Committee for Disaster Management, told AFP.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva described the easing of tensions as 'a positive sign'. -- AFP
