The BBC visits the villages taken in the middle

Rolls of razor thread now cross the middle of the village of Cambodia calls Chouk Chey, and through sugar cane fields.

Behind them, just above the border, large black screens rise from the ground, hiding the Thai soldiers who set them up.

It is the new border lasts between the two countries, which was once open and easily crossed by people on both sides.

Then, at 3:20 p.m. local time on August 13, it changed.

“The Thai soldiers came and asked us to leave,” said Malis Huis. “Then they rolled up the razor wire. I asked if I could go back to get my pots. They only gave me 20 minutes.”

His is one of the 13 families who have been cut off from houses and fields on the other side of the thread where they say they have lived and work for decades.

Signs have now been erected by the Thai authorities warning the Cambodians whom they illegally empite in Thai territory.

In Chouk Chey, they support, the border should take place in a straight line between two stone border markers that were agreed and installed more than a century ago.

Thailand says that it only provides its territory, taking into account the current state of conflicts with Cambodia. This is not how Cambodia sees it.

Months of tension along disputed parts of their border broke out in open conflict in July, killing about 40 people. Since then, a fragile ceasefire has held, although a war of words, fueled by nationalist feelings on social networks, has kept both sides on board.

The BBC went to the border areas of Cambodia, meeting people caught in the middle and seeing some of the damage left by the five days of bombing and bombing.

In Chouk Chey, Provincial Governor Oum Reatrey deplored the economic impact on the community of actions in Thailand. He estimates that they lose a million dollars a day of customs income from the border closure.

No one has yet found a figure on the cost of the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, but it is certainly high.

Billions of dollars of annual trade have slowed down a slowdown. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodian workers have left Thailand and Thai tourists have stopped going in the other direction. The brand new Terminal of Siem Reap Chinese Airport, a gateway to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex, is deserted.

We have also been shown videos of frustrated residents pulling the razor thread in front of Thai soldiers on an occasion.

The governor said that they had now been told to avoid confrontations, but anger spread in another confrontation with Thai troops on September 4.

In northern Cambodia, there are other visible costs of the war.

The temple of Preah Vihear, perched on a wooded cliff right next to the border, is at the heart of the dispute between the two countries, and the historical stories that everyone likes to speak of himself.

Thai nationalists still find it difficult to accept the 1962 decision at the International Court of Justice, which recognized the temple as a Cambodian territory because the previous Thai governments had not challenged the map of France which put it there. But the CIJ did not rule on other disputed areas of the border, leaving the seeds of today’s conflict.

Access to the magnificent 1,000 -year -old temple has always been much easier on the Thai side. Our four -wheel drive vehicle fought on the steep road that Cambodians built to cliff.

Once inside the temple complex, it was clear that he had suffered in artillery exchanges at the end of July: two of the ancient stone stairs were broken while other parts of the temple were chipped or broken by shell shooting, the walls are marked by bursts of shells, with dozens of craters filled with rain on the ground.

Cambodians say they have recorded more than 140 dynamism sites in and around the complex, which they think are Thai bombing on July 24 and 25.

Cambodian officials Mine Action Center also underlined the unplodced cluster ammunition, a prohibited weapon in a large part of the world, but which the Thai army has recognized.

The Thai army denies shooting the temple, which is recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

He accuses Cambodia of putting soldiers and weapons inside the temple during the fighting, although we saw no evidence of this, and it was difficult to imagine obtaining large guns on the steep road and in the temple complex.

The two countries now use problems like this to try to stimulate international sympathy.

Cambodia complained to Unesco damage to Preah Vihear and describes 18 of its soldiers captured just after the entry into force of the ceasefire as offices.

Thailand has shown evidence that the Cambodian forces are still posing terrestrial mines along the border, injuring many Thai soldiers, which, according to her, shows bad faith in her commitment to honor the ceasefire.

But all the Cambodian officials we met have underlined their eagerness to end the conflict and restore relations with their biggest neighbor. Behind that, there was another anxiety, which permeates Cambodian history: that of being a smaller country surrounded by more powerful neighbors.

The two parties suffer from the closure of the borders, but it is likely that Cambodia, much poorer than Thailand, suffers more.

“You cannot have an ant against an elephant,” said Suos Yara, spokesperson for the Cambodian people party in power. “We have to accept that we are a small country, not large as an elephant. So how could the small country ignite this problem?”

But this is precisely what Thailand accuses the Cambodian government of doing. Independent research of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute show a military strengthening scheme along the border several months before large -scale fights have burst in July, most of the Cambodian forces.

Then, in June, former Prime Minister Hun Sen, still the most powerful figure in Cambodia, disclosed a conversation he had with Thai Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, then she seemed to offer him concessions and criticized his own soldier.

The embarrassment that this caused led to the suspension of the Thai Constitutional Court, then the dismissal.

Thailand describes this as the first time that the leader of a member of the Anase (the Southeast Asian Bloc in the two countries) intervened to cause a political crisis in a neighboring country.

He undoubtedly threw flames on the conflict, which makes the Thai government much more difficult to adopt a position of conciliation on the border.

It is difficult to know why a cunning and experienced politician like Hun Sen has chosen to destroy his old friendship with the Shinawatra family and degenerate border tension. The Cambodian government does not seem ready to answer questions about flight.

“The problem of flight is only a small problem, compared to what was going on in Bangkok, with competing factions trying to gain power in the administration,” said Suos Yara, who blamed the Thai army for having used the conflict to stimulate its own influence.

Instead, he reiterated the long -standing call from Cambodia for Thailand to accept the disputed French card and the intervention of the CIJ.

While politicians and civil servants continue to fight, many Cambodians moved by fighting has still not returned home, despite dark conditions in the temporary camps to which they were moved.

Five thousand families lived under rudimentary tarpaulins in the camp we visited, surrounded by mud and a minimum of sanitation.

A common kitchen has loaded the potato soup for their dinner.

On the Thai side, where the conditions in the shelter were much better, all the displaced returned home in the days following the ceasefire.

“The authorities tell us that the situation is not yet good,” said a woman in the Cambodian camp. “While I live near the border, I dare not go back.”

It is true that there are still ammunition not exploded by the five days of bombing.

But the flood of disinformation on the conflict in Cambodia, which has warned, without proof, of imminent Thai attacks and the use of toxic gas, created a climate of fear which also prevents people from returning home.

A large sign had been placed on the main track which crosses the camp while reading “Cambodge Need Peace – Final”.

It was a feeling that we heard of all those we talked about in Cambodia.

But for this to happen, leaders, civilians and military, in the two countries must mitigate the nationalist rhetoric without compromise which now characterizes their dispute.