Detained Cambodia opposition leader attends soldiers’ funerals

In this June 4, 2017, photo, then opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party President Kem Sokha shows off his ballot before voting in local elections in Chak Angre Leu on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A Cambodian government spokesman says Kem Sokha who has been held for a year on a treason charge, was released on bail Monday, Sept. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha, under house arrest after a treason conviction, was allowed Thursday to attend the funerals of two soldiers killed in border clashes with Thailand, a court official said.

The two countries agreed a truce, effective Tuesday, following five days of fighting that killed at least 43 people on both sides - the latest eruption of a long-standing dispute over contested border temples on their 800-kilometre frontier.

Kem Sokha was sentenced in 2023 to 27 years in prison for treason - a charge he has repeatedly denied - and was ordered to serve the time under house arrest.

His lawyer Pheng Heng wrote on Facebook that Kem Sokha attended a funeral for a soldier in Kampong Cham province, north of Phnom Penh, and another in Tboung Khmum province.

His attendance of the funerals was the first time he was reported to have travelled outside Phnom Penh since his conviction.

Plang Sophal, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office of the Phnom Penh municipal court, told AFP that Kem Sokha was granted rare permission to attend the funerals out of “sympathy and as one Khmer spirit”.

At one of the funerals, in mourning uniform, Kem Sokha slammed Thailand for “invading” Cambodia.

“We Khmer people must unite for the sake of a strong nation, and to protect our territory for our next generations,” he said in a video clip posted on Facebook by his lawyer.

“I praise our heroic troops,” he said, calling for the “expansion of Khmer solidarity to be stronger in order to protect sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Cambodia called on Thailand on Thursday to return 20 soldiers it said were taken captive hours after the ceasefire to halt the neighbours’ bloodiest border clashes in decades.

Bangkok said there were no reports of violence during the night up to 7:00 am (0000 GMT), after both sides traded allegations of ceasefire breaches on Wednesday.

The agreement to stop fighting was sealed in Malaysia after an intervention by U.S. President Donald Trump -- who both Thailand and Cambodia are courting for trade deals to avoid his threat of eye-watering tariffs.