I was on The Morning Show today speaking with Sangly Sarak about Wall Street Journal’s editorial issues the past few years and also about the Cambodian economy (and what investors ought to be hearing about).
🇰🇭🇹🇭 Caught on Cambodia’s Front Line
As Cambodia and Thailand traded jabs at the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, I was on the border of the land that lies between the two countries.
A barbed wire fence now cuts across Prey Chan Village, sealing off Cambodian homes and farmland behind boundaries unilaterally imposed by the Thai military.
Behind it lie the houses of six villagers who right now can’t return home. One grandmother wept as she watched the road to what used to be her farmland being laid with compacted sand by Thai construction workers.
“Every day I look at my home and wonder if we will ever step inside again,” Hul Mliss said. “Every day it feels like there is less and less chance of that happening.”
Meanwhile, her 3-year-old granddaughter played in the monsoon-beaten mud-plains by the open-air hammocks on which her family sleeps at night, yards from their barricaded home. The house’s blue rooftop jutted out of the foliage in the glaring mid-afternoon sun, trapped behind newly demarcated boundaries set up by the Thai military weeks ago.
The Thai–Cambodia conflict has received little global media attention, but the human ramifications run deep. I am one of the only foreign journalists to have visited the affected areas in Cambodia, since most news organizations are in Bangkok and the borders are shut.
Opinion by Michael Alfaro continues below.
Michael Barry Alfaro is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and journalist. His frontline coverage has gained global attention, featured in outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the UK’s Daily Mail. Recognized as one of America’s top political consultants and fundraisers, Alfaro has raised millions for Newsmax and served as a political consultant to President Donald J. Trump.
WATCH: A glimpse of the extent of damage made to a monastery in Oddar Meanchey, 2km from border clashes
A monk told me shelling and bombings on Jul 24 killed one civilian and wounded 2
WATCH: This school which has 200 students with ages 3 to 15, was destroyed by shelling. It’s 2km from border clashes
When shelling hit on Jul 24, it fell on a day when the school closes once a month for teachers’ meeting
Nobody was hurt, a teacher told me
WATCH: My field report in Oddar Meanchey — a school that narrowly escaped casualties on Jul 24 clashes because it was closed for a monthly staff meeting, a teacher told me
8/8
On a lighter note, I’m reminded by how warm Cambodians are
My team and I have witnessed support & love Cambodians have for one another
While I’m expected to see the worst during such a time, I’m heartened I also manage to see the best in its people
OBSERVATIONS, REFLECTION FROM CAMBODIA-THAI COVERAGE
1/8
Many locals have thanked @ChannelNewsAsia for coming to Cambodia
But thanks must also be given to the govt who responded to my appeal for me to cover the story here
Thailand deliberately violated the ceasefire at 11 a.m, this morning.
Its heavily armed troops entered An Ses area within Cambodian sovereign territory…