Thailand and Khmer Issarak(03)

Thailand and Khmer Issarak(03)

Apart arms freely supplied by the Thai government, the Issaraks bought arms from private agents in Bangkok. For example, in May 1946, they sent their agents to buy arms with baht 20,000 drawn from the profits of a theatrical company sponsored by the party. Thai people who had various weapons in large numbers at that time were said to be members of the free Thai movement who had failed to distribute them during the Pacific War and had kept them with a view to selling them at a  high price. Many such weapons passed into the hands of the Kmer Issaraks as well as Viet Minh and Laos Issara troops in Indo-China.

In Battambang, the Issaraks, in conjunction with the Viet Minh and the free Laotians, indulged in an anti-French propaganda, on the ground that the French were weak and that Cambodia was a powerful country in Indo-China and should remain independent. For the Thais, the presence of the Khmer Issaraks served Thailand’s vital interests.

The fomenting of disorder along the border, in the event of the French re-occupying any ceded territory was calculated to impress the United Nations and world opinion that only under Thai rule could law and order be maintained in the disputed territories. Furthermore, the well-armed Khmer Issaraks, who were reported to have numbered around 10,000, could serve as a front-line force, as they could attack across the frontier before the return of the French to  the disputed territories.

Thailand’s reluctant return of the Cambodian provinces to the French in November 1946 did not discourage Thai leaders from granting assistance to Khmer Issaras. Realizing that the presence in Thailand of the Issaraks was valuable in view of Thailand’s non-recognition commission on June 27, 27,1947, the Thai leaders accordingly invited the Free Cambodian Provisional Government to Bangkok and allowed it to set up a committee to co-ordinate  its activities there.