Tuesday July 22, 2008
ANUCHA CHAROENPO WASSANA NANUAM
Bangkok Post
SA KAEO : Talks between Thailand and Cambodia went nowhere yesterday after both countries refused to back down from claiming sovereignty over the disputed area near the Preah Vihear temple. But Supreme Commander Gen Boonsrang Niempradit and Cambodian Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh promised not to take any further military action that might heighten tension on the border between Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket province and the Cambodian province of Preah Vihear, where the 900-year-old temple is located.
''The two sides affirmed there will be neither a withdrawal nor reinforcement of their troops,'' Gen Boonsrang said.
After eight hours of intense talks at a hotel in the border district of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo province involving the two generals and selected officials, the two countries called it quits and agreed to adjourn the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting to next month.
A government source said a new schedule has been tentatively set for Aug 18-20 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Gen Boonsrang, who is the GBC deputy chairman for Thailand, admitted the main obstacle was their ''different legal documents''.
He said Thailand and Cambodia insisted on using different agreements as a basis for the talks on the disputed border area.
Gen Boonsrang did not elaborate but was apparently referring to ways to resolve the 4.6-square-kilometre area of disputed territory.
''The meeting yesterday was not easy,'' he said.
Thailand insists on using the watershed mark as the border between the two countries.
Cambodia maintains the demarcation of the area has to be based on a map drawn in 1908.
Gen Tea Banh, who is also a deputy prime minister and chairman of the GBC for Cambodia, did not consider the talks a failure and said there was a need to ease the border tension.
''We realise we have to reduce the [unfriendly] atmosphere, tension and [military] stand-off,'' Gen Tea Banh said.
Thailand and Cambodia each have about 500 soldiers deployed in the overlapping area. Thailand has 2,400 troops and Cambodia has about 2,000 troops in the area as a back-up.
The border row started after the ancient temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the World Heritage Committee at a meeting in Quebec, Canada, early this month.
The listing prompted some Thais to launch protests at the northeastern border.
In addition to Gen Boonsrang, key Thai officials involved in the meeting were army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda, army chief-of-staff Gen Songkitti Chakkrabat, Border Affairs Department director-general Lt-Gen Niphat Ethnical and permanent secretary for foreign affairs Virasakdi Futrakul.
The Cambodian negotiators comprised Deputy Defence Minister Gen Neang Paht, Deputy Foreign Minister Long Visalo, Senior Minister Var Kim Hong and deputy chief-of-staff Gen Pol Saroeun, as well as Gen Tea Banh.
An army source said a key issue which prolonged the talks and resulted in no agreement was the proposed military withdrawal from the contested area. Two other issues discussed in the talks were the need to avoid any armed action and a promise not to use the border conflict for political gains by the respective governments, the source added.
Thailand did not expect any breakthrough in the talks yesterday as Cambodia will hold a general election on Sunday.
An official in the Thai delegation expected several more rounds of talks to take place before the border issue could be resolved as the issues were sensitive.
''The problem cannot be simply resolved overnight,'' he said.
With the meeting making no progress, Gen Anupong told the commander of the Second Army, Lt-Gen Sujit Sithiprapa, of the need to station troops in the area, said another army source.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in his second letter to Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on July 19 that the disputed area was part of Cambodia.
His second letter, which was released by the Cambodian embassy, was to counter Mr Samak's position that the area was inside Thailand.
Mr Hun Sen said Mr Var Kim Hong, who is in charge of border demarcation, had been assigned to hold a Joint Boundary Commission with Thailand ''as soon as possible''.
''The two sides affirmed there will be neither a withdrawal nor reinforcement of their troops,'' Gen Boonsrang said.
After eight hours of intense talks at a hotel in the border district of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo province involving the two generals and selected officials, the two countries called it quits and agreed to adjourn the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting to next month.
A government source said a new schedule has been tentatively set for Aug 18-20 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Gen Boonsrang, who is the GBC deputy chairman for Thailand, admitted the main obstacle was their ''different legal documents''.
He said Thailand and Cambodia insisted on using different agreements as a basis for the talks on the disputed border area.
Gen Boonsrang did not elaborate but was apparently referring to ways to resolve the 4.6-square-kilometre area of disputed territory.
''The meeting yesterday was not easy,'' he said.
Thailand insists on using the watershed mark as the border between the two countries.
Cambodia maintains the demarcation of the area has to be based on a map drawn in 1908.
Gen Tea Banh, who is also a deputy prime minister and chairman of the GBC for Cambodia, did not consider the talks a failure and said there was a need to ease the border tension.
''We realise we have to reduce the [unfriendly] atmosphere, tension and [military] stand-off,'' Gen Tea Banh said.
Thailand and Cambodia each have about 500 soldiers deployed in the overlapping area. Thailand has 2,400 troops and Cambodia has about 2,000 troops in the area as a back-up.
The border row started after the ancient temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the World Heritage Committee at a meeting in Quebec, Canada, early this month.
The listing prompted some Thais to launch protests at the northeastern border.
In addition to Gen Boonsrang, key Thai officials involved in the meeting were army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda, army chief-of-staff Gen Songkitti Chakkrabat, Border Affairs Department director-general Lt-Gen Niphat Ethnical and permanent secretary for foreign affairs Virasakdi Futrakul.
The Cambodian negotiators comprised Deputy Defence Minister Gen Neang Paht, Deputy Foreign Minister Long Visalo, Senior Minister Var Kim Hong and deputy chief-of-staff Gen Pol Saroeun, as well as Gen Tea Banh.
An army source said a key issue which prolonged the talks and resulted in no agreement was the proposed military withdrawal from the contested area. Two other issues discussed in the talks were the need to avoid any armed action and a promise not to use the border conflict for political gains by the respective governments, the source added.
Thailand did not expect any breakthrough in the talks yesterday as Cambodia will hold a general election on Sunday.
An official in the Thai delegation expected several more rounds of talks to take place before the border issue could be resolved as the issues were sensitive.
''The problem cannot be simply resolved overnight,'' he said.
With the meeting making no progress, Gen Anupong told the commander of the Second Army, Lt-Gen Sujit Sithiprapa, of the need to station troops in the area, said another army source.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in his second letter to Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on July 19 that the disputed area was part of Cambodia.
His second letter, which was released by the Cambodian embassy, was to counter Mr Samak's position that the area was inside Thailand.
Mr Hun Sen said Mr Var Kim Hong, who is in charge of border demarcation, had been assigned to hold a Joint Boundary Commission with Thailand ''as soon as possible''.
10 comments:
No negotiation,no deal,no talk with invaders until they withdraw completely out of khmer'soil.
Okay, if Deadlock still persists after next month, I prescribe open fire for 72 hours and see if that will help to break the Deadlock.
We khmer should not mislead to war by the benefit of our politicians. Getting that Thai mountain doesn't help we live better. It's just for some business and political votes. Why we have to get that Thai mountain while we can trade there. We have the main building, don't we have ability to built up business with it as it used to ? Our khmer people sell things in Thai area happily. But, now we will killing them. What happen to our minds now. Guns and bomb doesn't solve any problem. We khmer should realize. It's just small area. Why not we just learn to give and be peaceful. Government and politicians now lead us long problems. They don't really care our people and children's life in present time. We are now stuck in the history. I can't see any good vision of our government now. It's weird out.
12:18PM are you a priest or what? This is about national sovereignty unless you can recognize that then you can have your peaceful mind and do your business with your Thais friends. If you don't value your own home and allow anyone to come in and claim it to be theirs then there is something wrong with you. No matter how prosper your business is you will never have peace because you are a slave in your own home, get it.
The Thai and cambodian government are using Preah Vihear for political purpose.
However Cambodia is asking for UN to help. This is a very good point and the thai will lose face, because their arguments are baseless: they have too much shit in their eyes to see the historical thruth and the facts.
We hope that HUN Sen after winning the election will not cede any parcel of lands to Thailand to gain peace, but......
Stop pretending to be khmer , you fucking idiots above.
At best, you are a traitor khmer, always opposed khmer interests. go back to lick your whores cunts in bangcok
If national sovereignty in thai mountain kill our people by our guns and worsen our new generations, it's not worth sovereignty. We can proudly make peace instead.
The fucken Thaicong think that they are going for a picnic in Cambodia! Ahahhahhahahahha
Yeh...the Thaicong army are going to a picnic and to pick the wild flowers and to look at the birds and the bees while not aware that there are million and million of landmines beneath their feet! Ahhahahahhahah
The fucken war hasn’t started yet and the fucken Thaicong have suffered casualty from stepping on the landmines! Ahhahahahhahah
What an idiot (1:38)? One land mind victim doesn't mean shit. Cambodia still suffer over 500 each year, fool.
The Siam government want to make their illegal invasion last.
Cambodia should not follow their will, we must keeping insisting the siam to withdraw unconditionally.
The siam try to solve their internal problem with Preah Vihear.
For us this is not acceptable it our land.
The assistance of the UN is a must.
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