Thai Soldiers Surrounded My House with Barbed Wire​ on August 13: Where is Justice?

I spoke to​ Aunty Nuon Aun over the phone for half an hour on August 15, 2025, about the incident in which Thai soldiers forced her to leave her home to fence her house with barbed wire on August 13, 2025. Below is her account:

My name is Nuon Aun, 62 years old and my husband is Taing Ny, 61 years old. My husband lost his leg due to a landmine in 1997.
I was born in Chamkar Leu District, Kampong Cham Province. I settled in Prey Chan Village, O Bei Choan Commune, O Chrov
District, Banteay Meanchey Province in 1990. I have three children (two boys and one girl).

My eldest son and daughter are already married. The eldest son has three children. My husband and I live with our eldest son and daughter-in-law, as well as our three grandsons, totaling seven members in our family.

At 3:00 p.m. on August 13, 2025, while I was laying on my hammock, a group of about 30 armed Thai soldiers shouted at my family and 3-4 other villagers to leave their homes immediately. Shocked and unable to resist, my family and I left our homes without taking anything with us, not even a cooking pot. At this point, I was reminded of the evacuation during the Khmer Rouge era, when the Khmer Rouge soldiers shouted at us and forced us to leave our homes and go to the countryside by force. But when the Khmer Rouge forced me to leave my home, my house was small and made of wood, just like a hut. Now my house is made of brick, 4 meters wide and 7 meters long. I am so sorry and get angry. Suddenly, someone came to force us out of our homes and put barbed wire around our house. This is the first time that the Thai soldiers have done this to the villagers of Prey Chan. I would like to state that before August 13, the soldiers’ post was about 100 meters away from my house. After putting up barbed wire around my house and the houses of my neighbors, the Thai soldiers patrolled for about an hour before leaving. But they still have drones constantly monitoring us.

After leaving home, I received a tent and other gifts for temporary use from our Cambodian citizens. The villagers and I crawled through the wire fence into the house to get a pot to cook rice. My family and I stayed in the shelter temporarily while waiting for the Cambodian government to settle the case.

(This article is published with permission from Aunty Nuon Aun)

Text by So Farina

Photo: Fresh News