Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen has complained about Thailand broadcasting ghost-like sounds across a disputed border, while the country’s human rights commission has accused its neighbour of engaging in psychological warfare, despite both countries agreeing to a ceasefire in July.
Posting on Facebook, Hun Sen, 73, who now serves as Cambodia’s powerful senate president, said Cambodia’s human rights commission had complained to the United Nations about the “intense, high-pitched noises”.
Sen shared a letter dated 11 October from the commission addressed to the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, outlining what it said was a “grave violation of human rights involving the use of disturbing sounds as a form of psychological intimidation and harassment” along the Thai-Cambodian border.
The Cambodian human rights commission said it had received credible reports from authorities and affected civilians in villages along the border indicating that Thai military units were broadcasting “haunting sounds resembling wailing ghosts through loudspeakers” followed by sounds of aircraft engine noises throughout the night.
The commission said the unnerving audio that lasted for prolonged periods had “disrupted sleep, provoked anxiety and caused physical discomfort”, and threatened to “escalate tensions between the neighbouring countries”.
The Thai government has been approached for comment.
Hun Sen, whose son Hun Manet was named Cambodian prime minister in 2023, also posted a statement from the country’s foreign minister who raised the issue with Malaysia, which helped broker the ceasefire.
Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “immediate and unconditional” ceasefire after talks in Malaysia in July, which were intended to halt the worst fighting between the neighbouring countries in more than a decade.
At least 38 people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced by fighting that erupted on the countries’ shared border. The conflict came after months or retaliatory actions including Cambodia banning the import of Thai films and fruit, and a Thai protester throwing fish sauce of a portrait of Hun Sen.
The ceasefire was announced after US president Donald Trump said he had called both countries and warned that trade negotiations would be paused until the fighting ceased.
Trump is expected to oversee a formal peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia later this month.
The pushback against the alleged ghost-like broadcasts come as Thailand has accused Cambodia of laying new mines along the border, Reuters has reported. Landmine detonations, which have maimed at least six Thai soldiers since July, triggered the clashes between the two nations.
Cambodia denies the accusations and says Thai soldiers stepped on ordnances planted during a decades-long civil war that left it as one of the world’s most heavily mined countries.
