FIGHTING NEAR PRASAT

I'm here in Grey County but concerned about Prasat.Fighting has erupted on the Thai-Cambodian border, approximately twelve miles from Prasat in Surin Province.I was talking with Pea on the phone two nights ago and there was a big blast, which we both assumed was thunder (rains have already started to come, early this year).But the next day when we talked, Pea was noticeably shaken. It wasn't thunder; it was the sound of rockets being fired across the border.Villages were already being evacuated.Our friend Porn's village was evacuated.So too was Rung's.People on both sides of the border have been killed. 25,000 villagers have been evacuated. Prasat District has been declared a disaster zone.This is the first time that there's been fighting in this region.There has been a longstanding problem between the two countries over a Buddhist temple and plot of land about 150 miles to the east of Prasat in Sisaket Province, but never here.As I write I am out in a rural area in Canada, and internet is not so easy to find.I don't know the exact reason behind the fighting, but what i do know is that it's fueled by nationalistic politicians on both sides of the border, not by ordinary people. Most of the people who live here are ethnically Khmer, though born in Thailand. There is no animosity
whatsoever between people living here, just the opposite.