DPA/Bangkok
Officials in Myanmar and Thailand yesterday denied reports of a border clash in which 13 soldiers from Myanmar were killed a day earlier.
Thai officials had Friday said that the soldiers were killed in southern Myanmar, across from Thailand’s Ranong province, about 470 kilometres south of Bangkok. But Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said it was “just a misunderstanding” on the part of Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday.
He said Myanmar army units had mistakenly thought the crackling sound of a bushfire over a radio SOS call from the 13 soldiers “lost in the forest”, meant their comrades were under fire. An official in the Myanmar president’s office also denied that any of their soldiers were killed.
“(The clash) occurred because they (alleged Thai forest encroachers) crossed the border and started a gunfight with our soldiers, but no Myanmar soldier died,” the official said.