O’Smach Dentist Faces Economic Hardship One Year After Border Conflict

One year after armed clashes along the Cambodia-Thailand border forced him to flee his home and business twice, O’Smach dentist Bun Thun says fear of war is no longer what weighs most heavily on his mind. Instead, the owner of a dental clinic in O’Smach New Market says the greater struggle today is earning a living in a border town still recovering from conflict, where businesses have yet to regain customers and many residents remain reluctant or unable to return. A fragile ceasefire has allowed civilians to come back to parts of the border, but economic recovery remains slow. Thun, who operated a dental clinic in O’Smach for 22 years, recalled fleeing to Siem Reap and later Phnom Penh during the two rounds of heavy fighting. “The shelling was extremely intense. They weren’t firing small arms that would give us time to react. They [Thai soldiers] used heavy artillery from the beginning, so we had no choice but to run,” he said. He temporarily stayed with relatives in his hometown of Sa’ang district, Kandal province, until the situation began to stabilise. Despite the uncertainty, he returned to O’Smach immediately after the ceasefire took effect on July 28 last year, determined to reopen his clinic even though basic services had yet to recover. “When I came back there was no electricity, no internet, nothing at all,” he said. “For more than a month we still had no power. I even treated patients under a tree before electricity was restored,” he added. Although his clinic is once again open, Thun said business has recovered only marginally. Most of his patients today are soldiers, police officers, teachers and the other salaried workers who continue to remain in the area. “Only people with stable incomes still come. There aren’t many ordinary residents left, so there are very few patients. We just keep struggling and carrying on,” he said. According to Bun Thun, adapting to life in a conflict-prone border town has become a necessity. “If we don’t learn to live with the possibility of war, we can’t stay here. We’ve become used to the fear,” he said. “But if we remain frightened all the time, it would be impossible to live in O’Smach,” he continued. His decision to remain is rooted in more than two decades of building both a business and a farming livelihood in the area. “This place is where I’ve built my life from the beginning. I have to endure and keep fighting because starting over somewhere else isn’t easy,” he explained. Beyond the financial hardship, Bun Thun said the greatest emotional burden has been losing access to farmland that he spent years developing. He explained that he is not only a dentist but also a farmer, having cultivated land in the O’Ti 1 and O’Ti to areas for decades. “The deepest pain for me is losing my farmland,” he said. “I worked on that land for more than 20 years, clearing the forest and turning it into productive farms. Now those fields that used to be in the middle of the village have become border areas,” he noted. He estimated that about half of his agricultural land has been lost or become inaccessible. “I cannot forget that pain because my farmland is gone,” he said. Despite the losses, Bun Thun said he still believes stability will eventually return and hopes authorities can help restore conditions that allow residents to rebuild their lives. “I still trust the government,” he said. “I hope the land can be recovered so people can return to living peacefully again,” he added. His experience reflects the challenges facing many border residents one year after the conflict. While the gunfire has ceased, restoring livelihoods, businesses and confidence remains an ongoing struggle, with many communities still waiting for the economic recovery that they say is just as important as lasting peace.