Prey Chan & Testimonies: Cambodian villagers surrounded by Thai barbed wire

On 27 September 2025, a team from the Cambodia Documentation Centre visited Prey Chan, a village in the province of Banteay Meanchey, to gather testimonies from villagers whose homes and land had been surrounded by barbed wire laid by Thai soldiers. These events mark an escalation in a simmering border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, causing deep concern among local residents.

A village surrounded by barbed wire: the residents' account

Thai soldiers began to lay barbed wire around the houses and farmland of Prey Chan on 12 August 2025, after installing a similar fence in the neighbouring village of Chouk Chey the day before. Three villagers, one woman and two men, gave poignant accounts of the gradual loss of their land and the growing tension there.

Thong Kimleang: a painful legacy

Kimleang, 55, a former village chief, recounts his family's history, which was marked by the violence of the Khmer Rouge regime and successive displacements to various refugee camps. Today, he sees his house and crops surrounded by barbed wire, with the Thai army installing surveillance cameras just a few metres from his home. Despite the pain, he calls on the Cambodian government and the international community to intervene to defend the rights of the villagers.

Hul Malis: a life devoted to the land

His wife, Hul Malis, runs a small local business but sees her farmland - mango, coconut and orange trees - under threat. She describes the climate of fear caused by the Thai military presence, which was put in place after the armed conflict at the end of July 2025 and which, she says, came as a surprise to the local community, which had previously been at peace.

She calls for the barbed wire to be removed immediately so that the local people can return to normal life.

Sam Channak: witnessing the transformation

For Sam Channak, who arrived in Prey Chan as a child, the land is the very essence of survival and local commerce. He recounts witnessing the peaceful development of the village, which had few inhabitants when he first arrived, and then enduring the war and military occupation of 2025.

Today, he can no longer freely access his land, much of which is isolated by barbed wire. He is waiting for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Historical background and border tensions

The villagers also share the site's troubled past: once a refugee camp on Cambodian soil, the area was the site of successive conflicts between different forces before becoming a trading zone between Cambodia and Thailand. The installation of barbed wire and the construction of roads and infrastructure by Thai forces are seen as a unilateral attempt to annex territory, which is not recognised by Cambodia.

Call for peace and justice

Faced with these facts, the villagers are expressing their great sorrow and are asking for patience in accordance with the advice of the Royal Cambodian Government, while calling for international solidarity, particularly from the United Nations and the major powers, to impose international law and protect the land rights of the Cambodian people.

They also den