(Phnom Penh): The Royal Thai Army’s recent release of historical photographs from Camp 511 at Ban Nong Chan in Sa Kaeo Province — portraying Thailand’s “humanitarian assistance” to Cambodian refugees in 1979 — has stirred deep unease among those who remember the painful realities behind those images. What is presented as an act of compassion conceals one of the darkest chapters of Cambodia’s modern history.

In the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled violence and famine, seeking safety along the Thai-Cambodia border. Yet, for many, the Thai frontier offered not refuge but renewed suffering. Eyewitness reports, including testimonies from UN officials and international aid workers of that time, recount how thousands of unarmed refugees were shot at or forced to walk through minefields in the Dangrek Mountains. These acts claimed countless innocent lives and were described by humanitarian observers as a “second genocide” — a tragedy that remains largely unacknowledged to this day.

The Thai military’s current narrative of humanitarian generosity omits these grim truths. Relief operations for Cambodian refugees in the early 1980s were funded, coordinated, and managed by the United Nations and international partners — not by Thailand acting out of unilateral goodwill. In fact, UN agencies were required to lease land from the Thai authorities to establish refugee camps, some of which lay within Cambodian territory. Thailand, however, used self-drawn maps to assert control over these areas, blurring humanitarian aid with political and territorial ambitions.

Humanitarianism cannot be genuine if it is built on coercion, profiteering, or exploitation of the vulnerable. The Cambodian people never asked for charity at the expense of their sovereignty. The refugees of 1979 were victims of war, not instruments of diplomacy or territorial manipulation. Their suffering should never be used to rewrite history or justify present-day actions that disregard international law and human decency.

The release of these photographs is not a celebration of generosity, but a stark reminder of the moral and historical accountability that remains unresolved. No display of selective nostalgia can conceal the fact that thousands of Cambodians lost their lives at the hands of those who professed to offer them protection.

True reconciliation requires honesty. Acknowledging past wrongs is not an act of weakness, but a step toward restoring dignity to the victims and credibility to those who claim the mantle of humanitarianism. Until that happens, history will continue to speak louder than propaganda.

This article was written by Meng Bill, Southeast Asian Political Observer.
=FRESH NEWS