PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (Reuters) - Thai and Cambodian army commanders ended five hours of talks on Thursday with no agreement to withdraw their forces after heavy fighting near a disputed 900-year-old temple killed two Cambodian soldiers.
“We did not make much progress. Troops on both sides will stay where they are,” Thai General Wiboonsak Neeparn told reporters after returning to the Thai side of the border.
He said they had agreed on joint border patrols to ease tensions after Wednesday’s 40-minute gun and rocket battle, the worst clash in years between the fractious Southeast Asian neighbors.
His Cambodian counterpart, General Srey Doek, denied any deal over the site, where soldiers backed by armor and artillery faced off in an area controlled a decade ago by remnants of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s guerrilla army.
Life had returned to normal at one small pagoda near the center of the fighting, 600 km (350 miles) east of Bangkok, with children running around in the dirt while their parents cooked and cleaned, said a Reuters photographer at the scene.
Ten Thai soldiers, whom Phnom Penh said had been captured, wandered freely in their midst and denied they had ever been taken prisoner.
“We drank coffee and watched the TV news together last night,” one of them, Apichart Pupuak, told a Reuters reporter in Thailand via mobile phone.
PASSION
The hilltop Preah Vihear temple has stirred nationalist passions in both countries for generations, but officials on both sides have toned down their rhetoric since the fighting.
“Our policy to resolve this conflict is through negotiations,” Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has kept silent, but his foreign minister urged negotiations, saying the incident was between soldiers and “not an invasion by Thailand.”
But people on the streets of Phnom Penh were angry.
“We need to defend our land. We must not lose to the Thais,” said security guard Bun Roeun, 36, flicking through newspaper reports of the clashes. “If the Thais continue their attempt to cross our border, I am ready to join the army to fight back.”
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The confrontation comes amid great political instability and an economic slowdown in Thailand, as protesters in a long-running Bangkok street campaign urge the army to launch a coup against the elected government.
“It’s hard to see how Cambodia gains from starting a war with Thailand at this point,” said Tony Kevin, a former Australian ambassador to Phnom Penh.
“But if you look at the very tense and riven state of Thai politics, it’s easy to see how a Cambodian war could be of interest as a distraction,” he said.
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China and the United States expressed concern over the violence and urged both sides to use restraint.
DECADES-OLD DISPUTE
Preah Vihear, or Khao Phra Viharn, as the Thais call it, sits on a jungle-clad escarpment overlooking northern Cambodia but has been accessible mainly only from Thailand.
The International Court of Justice awarded it to Cambodia in 1962, a ruling that has rankled with Thais ever since.
The court failed to determine the ownership of 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub next to the stunning but remote Hindu ruins, which have been off-limits to tourists for months.
The small parcel of land became highly politicized in July when protesters trying to overthrow the Thai government adopted it as a cause, accusing Bangkok of selling off Thai soil.
Bangkok has urged its citizens to leave Cambodia, mindful of the 2003 torching of its embassy and Thai businesses in Phnom Penh by a nationalist mob incensed by a row over Angkor Wat, another ancient temple.
Security was beefed up outside the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, but there were no crowds outside and it was operating as normal, a Thai official told Reuters.
Several big Thai companies have operations in Cambodia and some have pulled out Thai nationals, but they said operations were normal.
Preah Vihear Temple (Kao Phra Viharn) 
Today saw high-level talks between Thai and Cambodian military leaders following a border skirmish yesterday which left two Cambodian soldiers dead, injuries on both sides, and ten Thai troops captured. Several hours of talks have led to an agreement for joint military patrols along the disputed border.

Wednesday's exchange of fire in the disputed border region surrounding Preah Vihear Temple is the latest in a dispute over an area of scrubland which both Cambodia and Thailand claim. While each side claims the other initiated the clash, government officials in both capitals have sought to downplay the seriousness of the incident and stress that a negotiated settlement is the only reasonable solution. The disputed territory is a little under five square kilometres and was, in 1962, awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice. The decision caused resentment in Thailand which continues to this day.

Downplaying the incident, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong spoke of the negotiations in positive terms, stressing the skirmish was, "an incident between soldiers and not an invasion by Thailand". Thai Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat stressed the need for the dispute over territory to be resolved peacefully.

According to officials, apart from the two Cambodian soldiers who died in the skirmish, an additional two Khmer troops and five Thais were injured. Thailand has denied the claim by Cambodia that ten soldiers were captured in the disputed territory. On the other side of the border, Cambodian officials have said the captives will be returned upon request.
Location of Preah Vihear Temple. 
The dispute over the contested territory flared up in June; UNESCO awarded the Hindu Preah Vihear Temple the status of World Heritage Site as a Cambodian property, bringing the issue back into the spotlight. The 900-year-old temple sits at the centre of a military build-up on both sides of the border and despite an agreed pull-back in August the situation deteriorated when Cambodia asserted that Thai troops had returned to the entrenched positions that now see around 1,000 soldiers from both sides facing each other. The return of Thai military forces saw the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen threaten to turn the area into a "death zone".

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon spoke yesterday on the incident, expressing grave concern over the escalation of the conflict and loss of life. A spokesperson for the Secretary-General said, "He calls on both parties to exercise utmost restraint and urges them to expedite bilateral talks so that their differences can be resolved peacefully". This is not the first time Ban Ki-moon has spoken on the issue; previously calls for restraint have been issued as the military build-up in the area has continued.

The ongoing dispute and yesterday's escalation have seen moves to take civilians out of harm's way. The government in Bangkok urged Thai citizens in Cambodia to leave the country if they were not there on urgent business. Over 400 returned on a Thai Airways flight following the call to evacuate Thai nationals. With a 2003 dispute and unrest having seen Thailand's embassy in Phnom Penh torched, Cambodian authorities deployed riot police around the building yesterday in case the dispute led to violence. In the disputed region, thousands of Cambodians have left due to the build-up of forces on both sides of the border and increased tensions.

The current flare-up along the border is the second incident this month; on October 3 there was a clash where Thailand claims Cambodian forces crossed the border and fired on Thai rangers causing two injuries. That incident saw both sides exchange protest letters. Thailand claimed that rangers patrolling on their side of the border encountered Cambodian troops and demanded they return across the border. The alleged response was apparently orders from superiors for the Cambodians to begin firing. The strongly-worded complaint stated, "the above-mentioned intrusion of the Cambodian soldiers into Thailand's territory is a serious violation of Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Furthermore, the shooting by the Cambodian troops against the unarmed Thai para-military rangers is regarded as a brutal and aggressive act and is contrary to the spirit of friendly relations between Cambodia and Thailand."