01 July 2007By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Cambodian border troop officials stationed on the top of the Preah Vihear temple mountain, located in Preah Vihear province, said that the black-clad Thai soldiers are closing the entrance gate providing access to the Preah Vihear temple, and that they do not allow the passage of tourists or Thai and Cambodian people from crossing into Cambodia. The border closing took place after a dispute occurred between local border troops from the two countries.
Colonel Pho Kruy, the commander of the Cambodian border troop based in Preah Vihear temple, said on Sunday 01 July morning that Thai black-clad soldiers from Sisaket province closed the border gate since Saturday after the Cambodian border troop called in Thai soldiers to let them know about the temple access restriction by uniformed Thai soldiers.
Colonel Pho Kruy said: “They want us to provide an answer about their plan to (have us) provide the access to two to three uniformed soldiers as if it is normal.”
According to Cambodian border gate officials, on 28 June, Cambodian border troops invited the Thai border commander for a meeting on the mountain of Preah Vihear temple. The Cambodian troop told their Thai counterparts that a new restriction has been imposed by because they may frighten tourists visiting the temple. However, Cambodia which no longer allows the access to the temple by uniformed Thai soldiersthis new restriction displeased the Thai border guards.
Meas Saroeun, the Preah Vihear deputy provincial governor, said that based on information reported by Cambodian border guards, in addition to the closing of the border entrance, Thai black-clad soldiers also posted signs all along the border.
Meas Saroeun said: “My subordinates reported that the Thai posted signs all over, but our authority went and remove all these signs and they destroyed them.”
On Sunday, no clarification can be obtained from the Thai border troop, and the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh cannot be reached either.
Var Kim Hong, president of the Cambodian government committee for border resolution, said that he did not receive any report regarding this issue from Cambodian border guards yet. “There’s no problem. The local authority, the Preah Vihear provincial authority, and our people based there, including the police and the army, they shouldn’t have any problem, let them bring their issues for us to help resolve together,” Var Kim Hong said.
Cambodian border guards stationed in Preah Vihear temple mountain said that the dispute between Cambodian and Thai border guards always happened, and on each occasion, the border gate was closed (by the Thai side). Nevertheless, the tension along the border was eased when the border defense troops from the two sides looked and found a common ground for understanding each other.
Colonel Pho Kruy, the commander of the Cambodian border troop based in Preah Vihear temple, said on Sunday 01 July morning that Thai black-clad soldiers from Sisaket province closed the border gate since Saturday after the Cambodian border troop called in Thai soldiers to let them know about the temple access restriction by uniformed Thai soldiers.
Colonel Pho Kruy said: “They want us to provide an answer about their plan to (have us) provide the access to two to three uniformed soldiers as if it is normal.”
According to Cambodian border gate officials, on 28 June, Cambodian border troops invited the Thai border commander for a meeting on the mountain of Preah Vihear temple. The Cambodian troop told their Thai counterparts that a new restriction has been imposed by because they may frighten tourists visiting the temple. However, Cambodia which no longer allows the access to the temple by uniformed Thai soldiersthis new restriction displeased the Thai border guards.
Meas Saroeun, the Preah Vihear deputy provincial governor, said that based on information reported by Cambodian border guards, in addition to the closing of the border entrance, Thai black-clad soldiers also posted signs all along the border.
Meas Saroeun said: “My subordinates reported that the Thai posted signs all over, but our authority went and remove all these signs and they destroyed them.”
On Sunday, no clarification can be obtained from the Thai border troop, and the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh cannot be reached either.
Var Kim Hong, president of the Cambodian government committee for border resolution, said that he did not receive any report regarding this issue from Cambodian border guards yet. “There’s no problem. The local authority, the Preah Vihear provincial authority, and our people based there, including the police and the army, they shouldn’t have any problem, let them bring their issues for us to help resolve together,” Var Kim Hong said.
Cambodian border guards stationed in Preah Vihear temple mountain said that the dispute between Cambodian and Thai border guards always happened, and on each occasion, the border gate was closed (by the Thai side). Nevertheless, the tension along the border was eased when the border defense troops from the two sides looked and found a common ground for understanding each other.
13 comments:
Below is the website of the International Court of Justice that contains all the documentation on the Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear: Cambodia v. Thailand.
I wish to add that, to my knowledge, the 1962 judgment declaring that Preah Vihear Temple belonged to Cambodia sent the Sarith Thanarath government of Thailand into a deep crisis for a week or so, whether to accept that judgment or not. At that time the Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) then representing China at the United Nations, to Thailand, named Dr. Han Lih-wu, then suggested to Sarith Thanarath to accept it and build fences on the Thai side so as to make access to the Temple as difficult as possible since the judgment did not fix the boundary between the two countries in that particular area and since access from the Cambodian side was very difficult.
The Temple is located on a highland (plateau) and on a cliff overlooking the Cambodian side. We have to climb up that cliff to have access to it.
In 1963 Thailand built a replica of Preah Vihear Temple at a place called Meung Boran Thai (Thai ancient cities) at Samut Prakarn, some two hours drive from Bangkok. I visited that replica twice, the second time the Thai taxi driver was very reluctant to take me and my family to that temple replica. That replica is built on a hill and a cliff overlooking a town down below. It is big enough to have doors and windowns wide enough for people to get in and out.
I should add that, in 1994, when asked by a Thai scholar at the Institute of Southeast Studies in Singapore on Preah Vihear Temple (I was then working there), His Majesty King Sihanouk, then Head of the Coalition Governmet of Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge), said that after the war against the Vietnamse occupation of Cambodia, if he won the elections and ruled Cambodia, he would let Thailand be the "conservateur" of the Temple and the Khmer and Thai flags be hoised side by side at the top of the temple. To my knowledge, that had been the Khmer position before the case was brought to the International Court of Justice.
Please let's not blame our August King for that concession to Thailand. It was made under duress. He and the anti-Vietnamese resistance government badly needed Thai support, though he could have said that the matter had been resolved by the ICJ and was not an issue anymore.
Let's learn from opur history instead.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
ICJ website:
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=3&code=ct&case=45&k=46&PHPSESSID=df1449206e4b8593a7f78076e318b471
First the Thaicong government used the Blue uniform Thaicong armies to scare Cambodian people and now the Thaicong government used Black uniform Thaicong army to scare Cambodian people! Now tell me what is so special about blue and black color? What is the fucken different between 200 black uniform Thaicong armies and 200 blue uniform Thaicong armies? I don't see any different because all the Thaicong armies still walk on dirt, all the Thaicong armies can be blown up with AK-47, all the Thaicong armies afraid to die, all the Thaicong armies eat, sleep, and poop just like any human, all the Thaicong armies are uneducated...
Let these fucken black uniform Thaicong armies cross Cambodian border and then capture all of them and send them straight to labor camp and have them break those rocks for food for 6 months and hopefully this time these fucken Thaicong would think twice about crossing Cambodian border!
I think it's stupid for the Thai to send army to scare the folks there. Both countries are at peace, there's no need for military action. Thai is really stupid for doing this.
Go get the Thai fool! don't be good only in KI!
Bring evidence to the U.N. and prosecute them under International Law! They cant make decisions without our decision as well. They are hypocrites who want war. We should close the border in Thailand and make Preah Vihear accessible through Cambodia. We dont need tourists coming from Thailand, tourists can come directly to Cambodia.
Once again I am worried to see that rumours about Thailand are answered by Cambodian calls for violence... Just to ease things up, I'm not Thai, I'm just an independant observer in this conflict.
I remember reading on this blog that a lot of angry Cambodian people wanted the Thais to close the border and let all the people visit Preah Vihear Temple from Cambodia only. This is now done. Are you any happier now? I doubt so.
How many of you has ever taken the road from Siem Reap or Kampong Thom to Preah Vihear temple? How many of you ended up there after an exhausting day or two of travel? How many did ride a bike or a car up the dangerous road boarded with minefields that goes from the bottom to the top of the cliff? How many have witnessed rampant deforestation and illegal trade of protected animals in Preah Vihear province?... Not many, I guess, but I am one of them. I've seen the temple many times, and I've seen that tourism from Thailand provides jobs and money for hundreds of Cambodians.
You wanted the temple to be unaccessible from the Thai side. By doing so, the hundreds of Cambodians people working in the temple and on the market place at the border are now cut from Thai imported goods, without Thai clients, therefore without a job. No more access to food, no more clients, no more reason to live up there. It's cold, wet, infested with landmines, with no possibility to grow crops, and the only job opportunity up there was to provide services to tourists coming from Thailand. And this is now gone...
There are too few Cambodian tourists, they are usually not interested in purchasing what the Cambodians sellers are providing. Cambodian people calling for the closing of the border have to realize that it is logistically impossible to provide food and tourism infrastructure to this very remote temple from Cambodia when the Thai border is closed. The foreign tourists coming from the Cambodian side are too scarce, due to poor road conditions, outrageous prices charged by taxis and absence of decent infrastructures to eat or sleep on the site.
Do you think we've won something by having the border closed? Do you think we can provide jobs to the hundreds of people living from the transborder exchanges with Thailand? Do you think that Thai do not pay respect to the temple, even when our own Cambodian policemen are selling genuine statues from Preah Vihear Temple to foreign tourists? If we Cambodians are so proud of our temple, why don't we arrest such traffickers?
I am sad and worried, indeed, to see that violence, hatred and misplaced pride seem to be the only reactions whenever a problem appears with neighbouring countries. I wish my Cambodian brothers would have the education, wisdom and patience to find peaceful solutions to conflicts instead of threatening to murder people and burn houses...
5:37 pm, please calmdown.
1:07 am, I supported your thoughful approach. Let's resolve conficts through a peaceful way with dignity. Let's be a man.
To 3:20AM, I am really appreciated with you professional act but the THAI never regard us that way. We want to resolve matters with peaceful way and dignity. Plus we want to solve it with civlize way. We don't want to act like barbarian style like. But the THAI sometime looked down at us. Eventhough, we have a hugh population currently living in their country. We do want to peaceful negoticiation. Please look back they have taken our sea border just like the VIET did. I talk more later. Peace!!
To 10:30PM! Thaicong bitch!
Tell me when did you learn how to afraid of the Thaicong? Did your mother or father teach that? Did the Thaicong fuck you up in the ass and step on your head is that why? If you are so afraid of the Thaicong and why don't you go live in Thailane and maybe the Thaicong will treat you better than human!
The fucken Thaicong couldn't even control a tiny Muslim population and now they want to control Cambodian people? ahahhahahhaha!
By the way, the Vietcong had been in Cambodia for 10 years for learning the hard way! Now the Thaicong want the same lesson?
Fear no Thaicong! If Cambodia can't have it and Cambodia will have to destroy it because bullets not flowers that welcome these fucken Thaicong!
To 1:07AM!
What you had outlined can be solved through good leadership and technologies! But at this moment Cambodia don't have good leadership who don't give a fuck about investing in high technology such as machinery building roads and bridges....
I had been everywhere in Cambodia and you don't need to lie to me! I pray to God that most Cambodian people don't have your slave Thaicong mentality! Do you think Cambodian people really need the Thaicong money to survive in this world? Of course not! Do you think the Thaicong don't make money by encouraging tourists to visit Preah Vihea? Of course these Thaicong make some money fool! In fact the Thaicong had been making money off Cambodia for many years and they still do due to AH HUN SEN blind sight policy!
Preah Vihea will be developed soon or later! Cambodia is such a small country not to be developed! By the way not that small!
After the Thai got our land we can be it slave right, fool brain?
@ 1:07 we have been peaceful for so long that our entire empire has fallen. We have two neighbors through the history of Cambodia swallow us whole. If we use peaceful means, they will have the upperhand. I agree about education, patience, and wisdom on our part. However, peace can only be obtain when Cambodia is respected.
From 12:06
To 1:07
Cambodia does not need Thai money to support itself. And if you think that Thai currency are providing for those people, show us your pictures and give us their account. If it is indeed true, that Cambodian people are given jobs and goods, the only problem is that it doesnt benefit Cambodia BUT THAILAND!
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