14/12/2025

theSun on Sunday DEC 14, 2025

WORLD 7

Thai-Cambodia ceasefire teetering on brink

Filipino fishermen hurt in encounter MANILA: Three Filipino fishermen were injured when China Coast Guard vessels sprayed their boats with water cannons and cut their anchor lines in a disputed area of the South China Sea, Philippine authorities said yesterday. Beijing said on Friday it had taken “necessary control measures”, involved about 20 fishing boats near the flashpoint Sabina Shoal, a fish-rich area about 150km from the island of Palawan. It was the latest confrontation between Chinese and Philippine ships in the contested waterway, claimed almost in its entirety by China. The fishermen “were targeted with water cannons and dangerous blocking manoeuvres”, a Philippine coast guard spokesman said yesterday. “Three fishermen sustained physical injuries, including bruises and open wounds. Two (Filipino fishing boats) also suffered significant damage from high pressure water cannon blasts,” Commodore Jay Tarriela said. Small Chinese rigid hull inflatable vessels had also “deliberately cut the anchor lines of several (boats)”, he said. In a statement released yesterday, the China Coast Guard said it had taken “necessary control measures against the Philippine vessels ... including issuing warnings via loudspeaker and conducting external manoeuvring to drive them away”. Video released by the Philippine side showed water cannon blasts crashing over the small fishing boats. Tarriela said the high-powered streams had “destroyed wooden structures” on the vessels. The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to requests for comment. – AFP Myanmar military denies killing civilians YANGON: Myanmar’s military denied yesterday killing civilians in a hospital air strike that left more than 30 people dead. A military jet bombed late Wednesday the general hospital of Mrauk-U in western Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, two aid workers said. “Those killed or injured were not civilians, but terrorists and their supporters,” said an article in the Global New Light of Myanmar . The United Nations has demanded an investigation, saying the attack could constitute a war crime. Health workers and patients were killed, and “hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward destroyed”, said World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Rakhine state is controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority separatist force active long before the military toppled the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The separatist force said in a statement that 33 people were killed and 76 wounded in the strike. People’s Defence Forces (PDF) have also risen up to oppose the military coup four years ago. The military “carried out necessary security measures and launched a counter-ferrorism operation on Dec 10 targeting buildings used as a base by AA and PDF terrorists,” Global New Light of Myanmar reported. – AFP

the peace prize in August, rejects the landmine allegations. Thai Defence Ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri told a press conference yesterday that clashes had taken place across seven border provinces and Cambodia had fired heavy weapons, “making it necessary for Thailand to retaliate”. Cambodia’s Information Ministry said Thai forces had struck bridges and buildings on Friday night and fired artillery from a naval vessel. Thai leader Anutin dismissed comments by Trump that a “roadside bomb” that wounded Thai soldiers was accidental, saying the incident was “definitely not a roadside accident”. Cambodia’s Hun Manet said he had asked the United States and Malaysia, which has been a mediator in peace talks, to use their intelligence gathering capabilities to “verify which side fired first” in the latest round of fighting. – Reuters

“I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning already spoke,” Anutin said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the continued fighting. Hun Manet, in a statement yesterday on Facebook, said Cambodia continues to seek a peaceful resolution of disputes in line with the October agreement. Since Monday, Cambodia and Thailand have been exchanging heavy-weapons fire along the 817km border, in some of the heaviest fighting since the five-day clash in July. Trump halted that fighting, the worst in recent memory, with calls to both leaders. Trump, who has repeatedly said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, has been keen to intervene again to rescue the truce. Thailand suspended it last month after a Thai soldier was maimed by a landmine, one of many that Bangkok says were newly laid by Cambodia. Cambodia, which nominated Trump for

BANGKOK: Thailand’s leader vowed to keep fighting on the disputed border with Cambodia as fighter jets struck targets yesterday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul posted on Facebook that the Southeast Asian nation would “continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people”. Trump, who brokered a ceasefire in the long-running border dispute in October, spoke to Anutin and Cambodian premier Hun Manet on Friday, and said they had agreed to “cease all shooting”. Neither of them mentioned any agreement in statements after their calls with Trump, and Anutin said there was no ceasefire. Both sides agreed to ‘cease all shooting’: Trump

Smoke rising yesterday following a blast on a bridge in Pursat province, Cambodia. – AGENCE KAMPUCHEA PRESSE HANDOUT/AFPPIC

Exiled Hong Kong activists allege harassment SYDNEY: Two exiled democracy activists wanted by Hong Kong say police in Australia and Britain are investigating fake, sexualised images used to target them in a campaign of harassment. her local member of parliament, Joshua Reynolds, alerted her to fake, sexually explicit images of her that had been distributed to her neighbours. Hui and Lau are among 34 pro

was first reported by the Guardian . “Sexualised disinformation has long been used to silence women who challenge authoritarian power; this attack follows the same pattern, using humiliation as a tool of political punishment and a warning to others who might speak out against authoritarian regimes,” she said in a statement. Hui said he had gone to Australian police after posters depicting his wife’s photograph and name, and listing sexual services, were emailed to his former workplace in Australia in August, the month he and his family were granted asylum. – Reuters

democracy campaigners for whom the Hong Kong authorities last year offered a HK$1 million (RM533,000) bounty, accusing them of violating city’s national security laws.

Former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui, who was granted asylum in Australia, said Australian authorities were investigating a sexualised poster depicting his wife and letters with false claims about him that were sent to Australian addresses. Carmen Lau (pic) , who lives in Britain, says

Lau told Reuters she was “terrified and shocked” by the alleged harassment, which