15/08/2025
Urgent Truth and Call to Act — The World Must Not Ignore
The Children Who Will Never Grow Up: From Ceasefire Tables to Landmine Fields, and Heritage Turned into Graves
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There is only one truth.
Anything that twists that truth is a lie.
And lies — especially in times of war — do more than hide the facts. They destroy the path to peace.
Today, I speak not just for Thailand, but to the conscience of the world. We are here to put the truth on record, so that no distortion, no propaganda, and no calculated silence can erase the reality of what Cambodia has done.
And I call upon the world — to stand as one, to defend that truth, to uphold peace, and to condemn the violence that tears at the fabric of our shared humanity.
From the very first day this invasion began, life for innocent people along our border has never been the same.
Some children will never grow old enough to see the world beyond their village. Two of them — just 8 and 13 — will remain that age forever. They never had the chance to grow.
Picture this: a mother holding her child in her arms, trying to shield them from the blast — both of them dying together in a convenience store.
That happened in the year 2025. While the rest of us were looking forward to tomorrow, believing in the promise of technology, of AI, of human progress… for them, there will be no tomorrow.
And now — August 12th. A day that every year in Thailand is filled with flowers, gratitude, and love for our mothers.
This year, at least 16 mothers will face that day knowing the sons they sent to serve in our military will never come home.
There will be 7 mothers who cry with such pain that they would trade places if they could — take the wounds, the loss of limbs, so their sons would be whole again.
There will be 275 households where the dinner table will feel emptier forever — because bombs took a loved one’s place before their time.
This grief does not stop at our border. Every life cut short — Thai or Cambodian — is proof that the decisions of a small circle of powerful men in Cambodia have taken from the many. Decisions made high at the top of a pyramid, where a few claim the right to decide who gets to live and who is allowed a future.
First — Cambodia has violated the Ottawa Convention, which both our nations signed, banning anti-personnel landmines. Even after meeting in Malaysia for unconditional ceasefire talks, they planted landmines on our soil. This is not a mistake. This is willful defiance of the law.
Second — they have broken another fundamental rule: the global agreement that heritage sites must never be used as shields in armed conflict. The world agreed to this to protect our shared human history. And how do we know they broke it? Because they filmed themselves doing it.
This is not just a breach of borders. It is a breach of humanity.
Our message to the world is simple: Do not look away. Do not normalize this. Because silence, in the face of such brutality, is complicity.
We call on Cambodia to end these hostile actions immediately, to respect Thailand’s sovereignty, and to take full responsibility for the lives destroyed and the futures stolen.
We speak not out of hatred, but out of hope. Hope for a border where children can play without fear. Hope for a tomorrow where treaties are honored. And hope for a world where the value of human life is never decided by the ambitions of the few.
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The truth is singular. Anything else is a distortion — and distortion is a lie.
The world cannot afford the luxury of looking away. Because when lies go unchallenged, violence grows bolder. Cambodia’s actions have not only taken lives — they have deepened the wounds of our world.
We can, and we must, stand together. To say with one voice: Enough. Stop the violence. Stop the killing. Stop the desecration of what belongs to all humanity.
This is our shared planet. And every act of violence against the innocent is an act against us all. Let us be united — not just in condemning what is wrong, but in building what is right.
For hope of a better tomorrow.
For truth.
For peace.
For the generations yet to come.
