Thai-Cambodia Border Bloodshed Demands ASEAN’s Immediate Diplomatic Intervention Towards Peace

JAKARTA, 24 JULY 2025—ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) urgently calls on the governments of Thailand and Cambodia to choose restraint over retaliation, dialogue over destruction. In the face of escalating violence along the border, ASEAN must act with moral clarity to protect the lives and dignity of border communities.

The Thailand–Cambodia border has long been marked by periodic tensions and unresolved territorial claims. But the conflict that erupted on 24 July has reached an unprecedented intensity as Thai F‑16 jets and heavy artillery exchanges have claimed at least nine civilian lives including an eight‑year‑old child and left fourteen more injured as homes, schools and medical facilities in Surin and Sisaket provinces were struck.

“Families who once navigated these borders for trade, education and kinship now confront the trauma of displacement, loss of essential services and the collapse of their livelihood sources. The human cost of this conflict extends beyond immediate casualties, it threatens to impair the social bonds that bind our region,” exclaimed Mercy Chriesty Barends, APHR Chairperson and Member of the House of Representatives of Indonesia.

As ASEAN Chair, Malaysia must seize this critical moment to reverse conflict and secure diplomacy that will usher peace.

Charles Santiago, APHR Co-Chairperson and former Malaysian Member of Parliament said that, “ASEAN Chair, Malaysia PM Anwar Ibrahim possesses the stature to engage the respective governments in serious negotiation.” He added that, “his decisive intervention can transform entrenched hostility into a shared commitment to civilian protection first and foremost.”

APHR urges the ASEAN Chair to secure an immediate ceasefire, establish protected humanitarian corridors and relaunch direct talks between Thailand and Cambodia. After all, the ASEAN Charter enshrines the peaceful settlement of disputes and the protection of human rights as core tenets of regional cooperation. These values must now be tested and upheld in practice.

Furthermore, as Southeast Asian lawmakers representing the people, we demand that Malaysia’s chairmanship harness every diplomatic tool at its disposal, demonstrating that ASEAN’s first and foremost duty is to safeguard human lives above all else.

“As elected representatives of the people, we remind ASEAN that its first and foremost duty is not to power or prestige, but to human life,” said Wong Chen, APHR Board Member and Member of the Malaysian Parliament. “This is not a contest of arms, but a crossroads of conscience — one that will define ASEAN’s moral relevance for years to come.” #