This Is Not a Conflict-It Is an Invasion, and the Truth Is Being Reversed
This Is Not a Conflict-It Is an Invasion, and the Truth Is Being Reversed
By Dr. Thourn Sinan
Tourism & Spiritual Professional
Phnom Penh, Cambodia — December 2025
What is unfolding in Cambodia today must be named correctly. This is not a border conflict, not a misunderstanding, and not a temporary escalation. It is a military invasion of a sovereign state, accompanied by the killing of civilians, the destruction of cultural heritage, and the mass displacement of people inside their own country.
Since 7 December 2025, Thai military forces have carried out daily air and ground attacks inside Cambodian territory. Fighter jets, including F-16s and Gripen aircraft, have been used repeatedly to bomb Cambodian soil every day from 7 December until today. These attacks are not confined to border areas.
Bombardments have reached 80 to 130 kilometers inside Cambodia, a distance that eliminates any claim of border defense or accidental spillover. This is deep-territory military action.
Homes have been destroyed. Bridges damaged. Health care centers, schools, pagodas, heritage sites, and civilian infrastructure have been struck or rendered unusable. Entire villages have been emptied, not by warning, but by fear. Roads once used for daily life have become evacuation routes under fire.
Those forced to flee are often described internationally as “refugees,” but this term is inaccurate and misleading. Cambodians are not escaping their country; they are being driven out of their homes while remaining on Cambodian soil. They are people made homeless by war. Elderly villagers collapsed during evacuation. Children slept on bare ground. The wounded were carried by relatives because access to medical care was impossible or facilities had been damaged. This is not migration. It is forced displacement caused by armed aggression.
The humanitarian situation has reached an alarming level. Pregnant women have been forced to give birth inside displacement camps, without proper medical facilities, under conditions that endanger both mothers and newborns. Families live without sanitation, clean water, or adequate shelter. Many lost everything they owned in a single day.
As of today, at least 14 Cambodian civilians have been killed and more than 74 injured. Victims include women, elderly villagers, and children. Some were struck while fleeing bombardment; others were hit inside their own homes. These were not isolated incidents. They were the foreseeable result of sustained military operations using heavy weapons in civilian areas.
Alongside human suffering, Cambodia’s cultural heritage—heritage belonging to all humanity—has been damaged. Ancient Khmer temples and sacred sites including Preah Vihear, Ta Krabey, Ta Moan Thom (Tampon), Prasat Kna, and other historic sanctuaries have been affected. These are not military installations. They are irreplaceable symbols of civilization protected under international and UNESCO conventions. Their destruction wounds history itself.
This tragedy did not occur because peace was unavailable. On 29 July 2025, a peace agreement was reached with the witnessing and support of the President of the United States and the ASEAN Chair, representing a clear international commitment to de-escalation and restraint. Thailand violated this agreement within days, kidnapping 18 Cambodian soldiers and later two more, despite the ceasefire framework.
The same peace deal was violated again on 7 December 2025, when Thailand resumed large-scale military operations, including daily airstrikes deep inside Cambodian territory. These actions shattered any remaining credibility of Thailand’s commitment to peace and demonstrated a repeated pattern of signing agreements and then destroying them through force.
Cambodia repeatedly called for restraint, diplomacy, and international mediation. Thailand rejected peace initiatives proposed by the United States and later dismissed calls for de-escalation supported by China. A state that rejects peace from both global powers, violates agreements witnessed by international leaders, and resumes bombardment cannot credibly claim self-defense.
Yet an additional injustice is now unfolding. The invading force has begun accusing the victim of invasion, reversing reality through official statements and media narratives. At the same time, many international media outlets have published only one side of the story, repeating official claims without examining geography, distances, weapon systems, or the scale of destruction inside Cambodia. Reporting that ignores daily airstrikes 100 kilometers inside another sovereign state is not balanced journalism. It is incomplete, and it undermines fairness and truth.
Language matters. Calling this an “escalation” minimizes responsibility. Calling displaced families “refugees” obscures cause. Presenting aggression and self-defense as morally equal erases the suffering of civilians who had no role in political decisions.
This is no longer a bilateral issue. When fighter jets bomb deep into another country, when peace agreements witnessed by world leaders are repeatedly violated, when women give birth in camps, when schools and hospitals are destroyed, and when cultural heritage is damaged, the issue becomes a test of international law, media responsibility, and global conscience.
Cambodia does not ask for revenge. Cambodia does not seek war. Cambodia asks for truth, protection, and accountability.
The United Nations, ASEAN, UNESCO, human rights organizations, and the international media must respond with seriousness and fairness. Silence and distorted narratives only prolong suffering.
History will remember who spoke clearly and who repeated convenient half-truths while civilians died, temples were damaged, peace agreements were broken, and a people were made homeless inside their own land. This is not a conflict. It is an invasion. And the world must respond now.
Dr. Thourn Sinan
Tourism & Spiritual Professional
Kingdom of Cambodia
