I don’t know the area that well but I had wondered how long it would be before some of the more obvious ghosts along the Thailand-Cambodia border started to rear their heads.

According to this Voice of America report somewhere in the order of 500 former Khmer Rouge fighters have been brought to the Preah Vihear area as part of the Cambodian standoff with Thai troops. Are these informal reinforcements, or do they have some kind of more official paramilitary status? Has something happened in the past decade (such as a process of formalisation) that allows them to operate alongside the Royal Cambodian Army? In the current circumstances, and given some of the history of armed groups in that area, it is all very intriguing.

I expect that many New Mandala readers would be interested to learn more.