Burapha commander ready to act after Cambodia dredges border canal
Major General Benjapol Dejatiwongse Na Ayudhya says the canal area is under Thai sovereignty and Thai forces may enter it.
- The Burapha Task Force commander is responding to allegations that Cambodia dredged a border canal to change water flow and alter the border line.
- Maj Gen Benjapol Dejatiwongse Na Ayudhya affirmed that the area in question is within Thai sovereign territory.
- He stated that if checks reveal any incorrect arrangements with the canal dredging, action will be taken.
- The commander asserted that Thai forces are not acting aggressively and will not be stopped by Cambodian protests from entering the area.
At Khlong Luek border checkpoint in Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province, on Thursday (April 30, 2026), Maj Gen Benjapol Dejatiwongse Na Ayudhya, commander of the Burapa Task Force under the 1st Army Area, spoke about the case in which Cambodia was alleged to have entered the area to dredge Khlong Nam Sai in Khlong Hat district, Sa Kaeo, to change the direction of the water flow, with the alleged aim of altering the border line and taking Thai territory.
He said he wished to affirm that the area was within Thai sovereign territory.
Maj Gen Benjapol said that, in principle, water follows nature and changes naturally.
There was no intention to make it proceed in any particular direction.
However, if checks found that any arrangement was incorrect or not as it should be, action would be taken.
If there was confidence, the work would proceed without concern for anything else.
Major General Benjapol confirmed that the Thai side was not acting aggressively and had not encroached on any area, saying the area was Thai land and that Cambodia’s protest would not stop Thai forces from entering what he described as “our home”.
