Dangrek Incident

On 25 December 1978, supported by exiled Cambodian dissidents, Vietnam invaded Kampuchea (Cambodia)m capturing capital Phnom Penh within weeks. Ousted and driven into the northwest area bordering Thailand were the Khmer Rouge,^[4] whose regime caused the deaths of up to 2.8 million Cambodians from exhaustion, starvation, disease, lack of medical care, or execution.^[5][6] Thailand viewed Vietnam’s victory as a political threat and strengthened ties with the Khmer Rouge and China, a Khmer Rouge ally opposed to Vietnam. Thailand allowed a weapons flow from China to the Khmer Rouge,^[7] who funded themselves by smuggling gems and timber across the Thai border.^[8] China in turn ceased support for Thai communists and awarded the Thai military with cheap arms.^[9] The ousted Khmer Rouge were permitted entry into Thailand to escape and recover from attacks by the Vietnamese, before returning to Cambodia.^[10][11] The entry of civilian refugees was blocked as much as possible.^[12]

Most Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge had lost family and most personal property, their homes, and had no means of survival. Some feared further persecution from the Vietnamese whom they perceived as a historical enemy. Now also facing famine, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled as 1979 advanced, seeking refuge at the Thai border.^[13] Thailand laid land mines to stop the anticipated influx of Cambodian refugees, then closed its borders, prompting refugees to gather in camps dotting the Cambodian side.^[14] Thailand's approach to Cambodian refugees was harder than to Hmong, Lao, Vietnamese, and Sino-Vietnamese due to a perception that "millions" could arrive.^[15]

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and scholar-practitioner Dr. Fiona Terry reported that between April 21st and 26th of 1979, 6,000 Cambodian refugees were pushed back to Cambodia from Ta Phraya district in Thailand by authorities.^[16][17] Dr. W. Court Robinson wrote that an additional 1,700 Cambodian refugees were pushed back in April from Aranyaprathet's Wat Koh area.^[18] Between the 18th and 23rd of May, some 1,000-3,000 more Cambodian refugees were pushed back to Cambodia from Nong Chan, north of Aranyaprathet. During a three-week pause on push backs, a minimum of 15,000 Cambodian refugees entered Thailand. This pause from late April to mid-May may have been performative as Secretary-General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim was scheduled to visit in May. Once Waldheim arrived, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNHCR convinced him to visit the refugees camped at Wat Koh. In response to pleas from the loved ones of refugees pushed back in April, Waldheim tried convincing Thai prime minister Kriangsak Chamanan to allow the refugees to remain. ^[19]

On June 5, Frenchwoman Yvette Pierpaoli traveled to the border from her Bangkok home upon rumors Thai officials planned to forcibly repatriate a large number of Cambodian refugees. Seeing Cambodians detained behind barbed-wire, she returned to Bangkok to organize an emergency response.^[20] British journalist and former foreign correspondent William Shawcross wrote that 110 buses arrived early Friday June 8th to a Cambodian refugee border encampment at Nong Chan.^[21][22] Thai soldiers told refugees they’d be moved to another camp; some refugees didn’t believe this.^[23] Emptying the camp took three days^[24] and then Thai officials continued to other sites.^[25]

In a New York Times article published June 12th, former foreign correspondent Henry Kamm reported that over the previous days, Thai officials bused tens of thousands of Cambodian refugees to the Preah Vihear area of the Dangrek Mountains to be forced at gunpoint down a cliff back into Cambodia.^[26][2] A Thai military officer said that more present and arriving Cambodian refugees would be forced back the same way.^[2] The officer said this area was the best chance for survival, then acknowledged the presence of "mines and booby traps" that cause casualties.^[2]

The Thais arrived with Preah Vihear-bound buses to corral the Cambodian refugees at Aranyaprathet's Wat Koh area.^[27] Relatives of many refugees contacted their embassies after hearing that family members, whom they had just learned had survived the Khmer Rouge, would now be forced back into Cambodia.^[2] French journalist Roland‐Pierre Paringaux reported that a Khmer New Zealander trailed a convoy carrying a dozen of his family members with documentation securing their safety. He pleaded with the Thai officers at each stop before his family was driven off to Preah Vihear.^[28]

Barb-wire blocked Pierpaoli, American diplomat Lionel Rosenblatt, and two others from the Wat Koh enclosure when they arrived June 12th with 22 buses in a rescue-attempt.^[29] From outside the camp they read names aloud from a list of refugees approved for resettlement.^[30][2] There were translation problems reading the names and some named refugees were skeptical.^[31] The foreigners also "picked out" refugees. Pierpaoli “simulated a dead faint” into the distracted Thai soldier's arms, allowing a woman and child to board the foreigners' bus and three male refugees to run off.^[32] 1,500 listed refugees^[33] were saved; most refugees listed were taken to Preah Vihear.^[2] The Thais expelled the foreigners, and informed refugees they’d be transported to resettlement camps. Thai soldiers used physical violence to force a number of refugees onto the buses.^[34]

Pierpaoli, Rosenblatt, and others brought the rescued Cambodian refugees to Bangkok's Lumpini Transit Center. The Thais initially objected so USAID worker MacAlan "Mac" Thompson got the officials drunk and they relented. Thompson also attempted to trail the buses and was stopped by a Thai Army roadblock, though he correctly reported to Rosenblatt that the caravan was headed towards Preah Vihear.^[35]

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation head Francis Amar protested a day after the first group was taken to Preah Vihear, saying the refugees may die or end up in the same situation that first led them to flee. As a consequence, Amar was forced to return to Geneva, and replaced.^[36]

After 14 hours,^[37] the buses arrived to the Preah Vihear area after dark.^[38] The Thai forces secured the spot from any possible outside observation.^[39] Children and women were the majority of passengers.^[2] The Thais handed out small amounts of rice,^[40] and then told the refugees: "Thai money will not be valid in Kampuchea. We ask you make a voluntary contribution to our military."^[41] Thai soldiers confiscated money and personal property they discovered on the refugees.^[42]

At gunpoint,^[43] refugees were forced to descend a mined trail "down the nearly vertical mountainside," into the minefield that lay at the foot. Refugees were told they'd run into Vietnamese soldiers at the other end.^[44][14] The Thai military was aware there were mines in the path.^[45] Shawcross reported that a group of refugees combined their valuables and held a white flag while returning towards Thai soldiers who took the items then "opened fire on" the group.^[46] In what she calls the Preah Vihear Massacre, Dr. Khathaleeya Liamdee reported that those who refused to descend were shot.^[47] In To Bear Any Burden by Al Santoli, survivor Kassie Neou reported that Thai soldiers shot and killed a widowed mother who begged to stay. According to Neou, after soldiers ordered someone to take the woman's baby "out," he then discovered the deceased infant on a rock as he descended the cliff, and noted that a whole family had been killed.^[48]

Neou further reported hearing explosions regularly as he climbed down the cliff with his children. He "walked over" a separate pile of bodies belonging to an entire family, including parents, a grandmother, an uncle, and multiple infants, noting that another entire family had also been killed.^[48] Many attempting to return were shot and killed by Thai soldiers.^[49] Thompson reported that former Lon Nol soldiers were the first forced down. Once their bodies cleared a path through the minefield, refugees behind them "stepped over" the dead.^[50] According to Neou, most dead in the minefields belonged to the people forced down on June 8th; the refugees in his group walked in each other's footsteps.^[48]

Dr. W. Courtland Robinson^[51] wrote that approximately two-thirds of the refugees were ethnic Chinese.^[52]

Some 10,000 Cambodian refugees remained trapped in the minefields beneath Preah Vihear for over a week, into July.^[53][54] During this time, survivor Teeda Butt Mam wrote that the refugees "lay beside, stepped over, ate near, and slept with the mutilated dead."^[55] Water and food were scarce,^[56] and several young men who ventured out in search of water were killed by landmines.^[57] Refugees hunkered against the mountains survived on rice sold at “usurious prices” by Thai soldiers.^[58] Traversing the minefields took three days,^[59][60] and Thai soldiers shot at anybody attempting to return.^[61][62] Some refugees died of disease and exposure.^[63]

Swedish ambassador Jean-Christophe Öberg was permitted by Thai authorities to bring supplies to the surviving Cambodian refugees via the Swedish Red Cross. Vietnamese authorities agreed at first before changing their minds, saying aid must go through Phnom Penh’s government instead of across the border. This aid would never reach the refugees in time.^[64]

On June 30th, Pierpaoli was finally granted permission by Thailand to bring 21 tons of rice to stranded refugees. She and Rosenblatt got as close to Preah Vihear as they could but were unsuccessful at getting the rice into the hands of the survivors. However, the pair received numerous notes written by stranded Cambodian refugees through Thai farmers near the border. Further, the Thai government responded by allowing the rice to be distributed.^[65] The Thais then agreed in July under world and UN pressure to readmit 1,000 of the surviving Cambodian refugees named on a list provided by Pierpaoli and Rosenblatt^[66] “who can still be saved,” with help from UNHCR and the U.S. Embassy.^[67][68] This was permitted on the condition that the refugees be resettled elsewhere. The refugees were forced to return over the minefields and ascend the cliff to safety.^[69]

Shawcross wrote that 43,000-45,00 Cambodian refugees were forced down the cliff,^[70] and Dr. Courtland Robinson wrote the number was more than 42,000 by June 15th.^[71] Robinson wrote that the first people forced down the cliff, and the last to escape the minefields below Preah Vihear, suffered the worst casualties.^[72]

The 1991 report Land Mines in Cambodia: The Coward's War by Human Rights Watch & Physicians for Human Rights said "thousands" died at Preah Vihear, the majority from dehydration, mines, and diarrhea.^[14]

In her 1992 book Disposable People?: The Plight of Refugees, academic and former Chairwoman of the Women's Refugee Commission Judy A Mayotte said an official death count did not exist and that 10,000 refugees dead from shootings and mines alone "is considered a conservative estimate."^[73]

A 2017 UNHCR report said a minimum of 3,000 Cambodians died from "being shot by the soldiers, falling down cliffs, or stepping on landmines,"^[74] while, according to Larry Thompson in 2010, it's unknown by the UNHCR how many of the refugees who survived the initial descent and became trapped, made it out alive.^[75]

Dr. Khathaleeya Liamdee, whose focus includes Thai-Cambodian border relations,^[76][77] wrote in 2024 that “over 10,000” of 43,000 died from landmines, injuries, starvation, and malaria in the “Preah Vihear Massacre.”^[78]

Henry Kamm reported that a Thai military official explained the decision as a result of the West's perceived failure to accept Cambodian refugees swiftly enough for what Thailand viewed as a security-risk.^[2] Thai authorities stated that the location in the Dangrek mountains near Preah Vihear offered the best chance for survival, despite landmines and other hazards.^[2]

In response to ICRC delegation head Francis Amarn's protest, an infuriated Kriangsak justified the decision as Thailand's "business" and carried out “to protect national interest.”^[97]

During a June 14th lunch with Jean-Christophe Öberg, Kriangsak was "pleased" the world was acknowledging Thailand's refugee issue because of the massacre. Kriangsak later told diplomat Ilter Turkmen that Thai “public support” backed the decision and only a promise that all the Cambodian refugees would be resettled outside of Thailand would stop it.^[98]

Larry Thompson wrote that Thailand had been pushing back Cambodian refugees "daily" in a "simple process" compared to the "elaborate and dramatic" busing of numerous Cambodian refugees to Preah Vihear specifically. Noting the Thais allowed Pierpaoli's group to save some refugees, demonstrating secrecy was unimportant, he cites Dr. Court Robinson and those who agree that Thailand was telling the world that it wouldn’t shoulder the Cambodian “refugee burden” alone:

“Help, or watch Cambodians pushed back to die," was the message.^[99]

The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1904 mapped this Dangrek Mountain border along a watershed,^[100] and final demarcation was assigned to a Mixed Commission and not the watershed principle itself.^[101] The French and Siamese surveyed the area^[102] and Siam requested the French perform the topography.^[103] The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 map placed Preah Vihear in Cambodia, prompting Siamese officials to request and distribute multiple copies.^[104][105] Documents from 1911 show Siamese officials knew the Annex I map put Preah Vihear in Cambodia, and Prince Damrong and Devawongse accepted the map as authoritative in shaping Siam’s foreign policy.^[106] It was decades later, when Siamese irredentist Plaek Phibunsongkhram ascended in the late 1930s, that Siam objected.^{[107][108][109]}

Thailand's (Siam until 1938) strongman Phibunsongkhram, whose regime was heavily run along fascist lines,^[110] framed Thailand's “loss” of the ancient Khmer ruins as an example of “Western imperialism.”^[111] Cambodian leaders framed Thailand’s claims to Preah Vihear as part of a long pattern of Siamese/Thai imperialism in Southeast Asia.^[112] Prominent Thai figures fabricated an "extinct" ethnicity from the term “Khom,” falsely claiming the Khom, not the Khmer (whom they falsely claimed as descendants of a "Thai family tree" to justify claims over Preah Vihear and "perhaps even more" Cambodia), built Preah Vihear.^[113]

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that Thailand was bound by the map it long accepted, thus affirming Preah Vihear was located in Cambodia.^[114]

In 2011, Dr. Peter Vail wrote that the choice of the Preah Vihear area for the 1979 atrocity may have been “a cruel revenge” for the ICJ's 1962 ruling.^[115] In 2026, historian Dr. In Sophal also expressed that the Preah Vihear massacre was "nationalist revenge" stemming from Thailand's loss of the Khmer temple in the 1962 ICJ ruling.^[116]

Some survivors among the refugees with families and children went on to share their experience. Teeda Butt Mam, who was about 19 at the time, describes her experience starting on page 254 of her 1989 book To Destroy You Is No Loss.^[118] Kassie Neou shares his ordeal on page 268 in the 1986 oral history To Bear Any Burden by Al Santoli.^[119] Mengly Jandy Quach details his family’s forced descent in his 2018 biography Dangrek Mountains: Unforgettable.^[120] Survivor Sari Touv’s account is shared on page 46 in Dr. Court Robinson’s Terms of Refuge: The Indochinese Exodus and the International Response.^[121]

The first film to document the massacre at Preah Vihear, called Ghost Mountain: The Second Killing Fields of Cambodia,^[122] follows Cambodian refugee Bunseng Taing, a survivor now living in Connecticut (USA), as he returns to the Dangrek Mountains in Cambodia to tell his story. The documentary debuted at the Sedona Film Festival in 2019.^[123][124] In 2023, Bunseng Taing released his memoir called Under the Naga Tail.^[125]

In January of 2026, LD Productions began shooting another film about the massacre at Preah Vihear based on survivor Dr Quach Mengly’s experience recounted in his book.^[126] Production also drew from the accounts of other survivors.^[127] Historian Vong Sotheara expressed that there's consistency across the testimony of survivors, saying, “When people from different places tell the same story, it is not fabrication. And there are many written records and consistent accounts describing these sufferings.”^[128]