Thai politics ensnared in dispute over temple

Cambodian Buddhist monks walk past a soldier standing guard in the compound of Preah Vihear temple, 245km, or 152 miles, north of Phnom Penh on Sunday. (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)

Sunday, July 20, 2008
By Seth Mydans
International Herald Tribune (Paris, France)

"This of course is a very dangerous game. A troop buildup is a very dangerous game. It's a very stupid way for Thailand to deal with an important neighbor" - Chris Baker, a British historian of Thailand, speaking of Thailand main opposition party

KANTHARALAK, Thailand: Hundreds of Thai and Cambodian soldiers faced off at the ruins of an ancient Hindu temple here this weekend in a modern-day echo of the age-old clash of empires across Indochina.

The temple, high on a bluff on a disputed patch of border, was the prize, but the target was more prosaic: an embattled government in Bangkok, where political insurgents are using a historical dispute as a weapon.

Once lit, the fires of nationalism have spread in both nations; old grievances have flared, and troops and heavy weapons have been mobilized in the mists above the jungle.

On Saturday, truckloads of reinforcements could be seen heading toward the temple, called Preah Vihear, on both sides of the border. Tense moments have been reported when weapons were aimed within the temple complex. The prime ministers of both nations have exchanged stern notes, hardening their positions.

The Cambodian government has taken its complaint to the United Nations, saying that Thai troops have intruded onto its territory. For his part, the Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, insists that the area is Thai.

Neither government wants a shooting war, and they planned to talk Monday to try to ease the standoff. While Thailand is enduring its slow-burn political crisis, Cambodia is preparing for a general election Sunday, and the opposition there is also waving a nationalist flag.

But in Bangkok, the political damage has already been done: The resignation of a cabinet minister, a censure debate in Parliament and accusations of national betrayal have further weakened a shaky, ineffective government.

"The Democrats have used this quite dishonestly to get at the current government," said Chris Baker, a British historian of Thailand, speaking of the main opposition party. "This of course is a very dangerous game. A troop buildup is a very dangerous game. It's a very stupid way for Thailand to deal with an important neighbor."

Sovereignty is a volatile issue in a region where dominance has shifted over the centuries among empires in what are now Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

"The dark side of nationalism is as dangerous as ever," said Thongchai Winichakul, a historian and author of "Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation."

Cambodia, which has been annexed throughout history by its neighbors on both its eastern and western borders, is particularly sensitive, and its temples are a source of national pride. They symbolize its last period of greatness, under the Angkorean kings, which ended with a Thai invasion in the 15th century.

Just five years ago, mobs in Cambodia burned down the Thai Embassy because of rumors that a Thai actress had claimed Thai sovereignty over Cambodia's greatest temple, Angkor Wat.

The catalyst of today's confrontation seemed mild enough: the naming of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site, a designation that is meant to preserve historical monuments, not to call out armed soldiers.

The temple itself, built between the 9th and 11th centuries, is unlike any other. It is an ornate, sagging ruin of broken pillars and sweeping roofs that stands alone on a finger of rock, high above the forests of the Dangrek Mountains.

It was consecrated to the Hindu god Shiva when it was built, but, like other temples in the Angkorean period, was converted to Buddhist use.

Questions of sovereignty are complicated by the temple's location at the top of a sheer, 500-meter, or 1,640-foot, cliff. It is almost inaccessible from Cambodia, but it is reachable through Thailand by a comfortable drive over a smooth, paved road.

On June 17, Unesco placed the temple on its list of protected monuments, or World Heritage sites. It was responding to a bid from Cambodia that included a disputed map drawn up by French colonial rulers in 1907.

Legally, the temple has belonged to Cambodia since 1962, following a ruling in its favor by the International Court of Justice in the Hague. The French had left Indochina seven years before, and the temple had been occupied in the interim by Thai soldiers.

The Thais were forced to withdraw, and the court's decision has rankled in Thailand ever since. The validity of the French map and the court's logic have been questioned, and the focus is now on 4.6 square kilometers, or 1.8 square miles, around the temple that were not specifically covered in the ruling.

In a strangely passive response last month, the Thai government failed to insist on joining Cambodia as a bidder for the Unesco designation and signed off on the questionable map Cambodia presented.

This was fuel enough for the Thai opposition, which says, without real evidence, that a back-room deal had been struck and that the man behind it was the country's most prominent wheeler-dealer, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, who was deposed in a coup in 2006, remains a player in business and politics, and he does have financial interests in Cambodia. The man who let Cambodia's bid slip through - and who was forced to resign as a result - was Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, once Thaksin's personal lawyer.

The embattled prime minister, Samak, is also seen by his critics as Thaksin's proxy, and, under pressure from the opposition, he has begun talking tough.

Having earlier called the nationalist protesters crazy, Samak sounded a nationalist note on Friday, saying that the Cambodian presence at the temple "is a continued violation of Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The Dangrek mountain range and the high plains in Thailand that lie beyond it are home to dozens of lesser temples in Khmer style, including two in Thailand that Cambodia laid claim to in 2003. Experts say there are 15 more overlapping locations along the nations' 805-kilometer border that need to be resolved.

But Preah Vihear, in its majesty and geographical ambiguity, has been the symbol for both sides' claims of dominance.

"The Preah Vihear temple is part of a wounded history of Thailand and Cambodia," said Charnvit Kasetsiri, a historian at Bangkok's Thammasat University.

That history - as the troops and heavy weapons deployed at the temple show - has not yet receded into the past.