‘Wailing ghosts through loudspeakers’: Cambodia accuses Thailand of psychological warfare along border | Cambodia
Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen complained that Thailand was broadcasting ghost-like sounds along a disputed border, while the country’s human rights commission accused its neighbor of engaging in psychological warfare despite both countries agreeing to a ceasefire in July.
Hun Sen, 73, who currently serves as president of Cambodia’s powerful senate, said in a Facebook post that Cambodia’s human rights commission had complained to the United Nations about “intense, high-pitched noises”.
In the commission’s October 11 letter to Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Sen said there was “a serious human rights violation involving the use of disturbing sounds as a form of psychological intimidation and harassment” at the Thailand-Cambodia border.
Cambodia’s human rights commission said it had received credible reports from authorities that Thai military units were broadcasting “haunting sounds resembling wailing ghosts through loudspeakers” throughout the night, followed by the sounds of aircraft engines, affecting civilians in villages along the border.
The commission said the annoying noise, which persists for long periods of time, “disrupts sleep, increases anxiety and causes physical discomfort” and threatens to “escalate tensions between neighboring countries”.
The Thai government has been approached for comment.
Hun Sen, whose son Hun Manet has been appointed as Cambodia’s prime minister in 2023, also issued a statement by the country’s foreign minister raising the issue with Malaysia and helping to broker a ceasefire.
Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “immediate and unconditional” ceasefire following talks in Malaysia in July aimed at stopping the worst conflict between the neighboring countries in more than a decade.
At least 38 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced in clashes along the countries’ shared border. The clashes came after months of retaliatory actions, including Cambodia banning imports of Thai films and fruits and a Thai protester throwing fish sauce over a portrait of Hun Sen.
The ceasefire was announced after US President Donald Trump said he called both countries and warned that trade negotiations would be halted until the conflicts end.
Trump is expected to inspect the formal peace agreement between Cambodia and Thailand during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia later this month.
The alleged pushback against ghost-like broadcasts came after Thailand accused Cambodia of laying new mines along the border, Reuters reported. Mine explosions, which have injured at least six Thai soldiers since July, triggered clashes between the two countries.
Cambodia denies the accusations and says Thai soldiers stepped on munitions planted during a decades-long civil war, making it one of the world’s top mine-laying countries.
