By Seth Mydans
International Herald Tribune
PHNOM PENH: The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia met Monday to begin what they said would be protracted talks over a disputed mountaintop temple where soldiers from both nations have confronted each other since early this month.
"The situation is not easing," the Cambodian government spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, said at a news conference in Phnom Penh, the capital. "Thailand has continued to increase its military buildup." He said Cambodia had 800 soldiers at the temple, while Thailand had deployed about 3,000 troops. The Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok said that 400 Thai troops were facing as many as 1,700 Cambodian soldiers.
The two sides have dug in and moved artillery into the area, although soldiers from both sides are said to be mingling in a friendly atmosphere.
"While we don't underestimate the complexity of the issue, we are cautiously optimistic," said Tharit Charungvat, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Bangkok. But he said, "As this is a very complicated issue, I anticipate that this may be the first of many discussions between the governments."
Contrasting domestic political situations complicate the talks. On Sunday, the position of Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, was strengthened by an election in which his party expanded its control to at least 90 seats in the 123-seat Parliament. That victory extends for another five years the 23-year rule of Hun Sen and will allow his party to rule alone, without the need for coalition partners, for the first time since democratic elections were organized by the United Nations in 1993.
Although an official vote count has not yet been announced, Kanharith told reporters: "We can go it alone. We can claim a landslide victory. It is certain."
In Thailand, the political opposition has used the issue to pressure the shaky coalition government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, making compromise difficult.
At an earlier meeting a week ago, the two sides deadlocked on the basic question of which maps should be used to demarcate the border. Cambodia is using a map drawn up by French colonial administrators a century ago, which was also used last month by the United Nations when it designated the temple, Preah Vihear, as a World Heritage Site.
That designation aroused a nationalist backlash in Thailand that has been stoked by the political opposition there and has already caused the resignation of a foreign minister.
The meeting Monday was held in Siem Reap, in the shadow of the temple of Angkor Wat - a symbol of Cambodia's past greatness that is depicted on the Cambodian flag. The great empire of Angkor was overrun by Thailand - then called Siam - in the 15th century, a humiliation that still resonates in the current dispute.
Preah Vihear, built between the 9th and 11th centuries, was part of the Angkorean empire and lies about 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, from Angkor Wat.
Sovereignty over the temple was awarded to Cambodia in 1962 by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. That forced the removal of Thai soldiers who had occupied it since the withdrawal of the French from their territories in Indochina - which included Cambodia - in the mid-1950s.
In 2003, rioters in Phnom Penh burned down the Thai Embassy and attacked Thai-owned businesses after a local radio station falsely reported that a Thai film actress had asserted that Angkor Wat actually belonged to Thailand.
The mood in Phnom Penh is more confident now. When Hun Sen cast his vote Sunday at a teachers' training college, he did so near a billboard that showed Preah Vihear with a red, white and blue Cambodian flag flying above it.
"Long live the Kingdom of Cambodia!" the billboard read. "Preah Vihear temple is a great monument of Khmer architecture registered as a World Heritage site."
But the retired Cambodian king, Norodom Sihanouk, who has been sidelined over the years by the dominance of Hun Sen, sounded a sour note. In a message posted on his Web site, he noted that an insect had also been given special status by the United Nations.
"On 7 July, 2008," he wrote in a longhand scribble, "twenty-nine other 'properties' were inscribed by Unesco as World Heritage sites, including the Monarch butterfly."
Tom Fuller contributed reporting from Bangkok.
"The situation is not easing," the Cambodian government spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, said at a news conference in Phnom Penh, the capital. "Thailand has continued to increase its military buildup." He said Cambodia had 800 soldiers at the temple, while Thailand had deployed about 3,000 troops. The Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok said that 400 Thai troops were facing as many as 1,700 Cambodian soldiers.
The two sides have dug in and moved artillery into the area, although soldiers from both sides are said to be mingling in a friendly atmosphere.
"While we don't underestimate the complexity of the issue, we are cautiously optimistic," said Tharit Charungvat, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Bangkok. But he said, "As this is a very complicated issue, I anticipate that this may be the first of many discussions between the governments."
Contrasting domestic political situations complicate the talks. On Sunday, the position of Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, was strengthened by an election in which his party expanded its control to at least 90 seats in the 123-seat Parliament. That victory extends for another five years the 23-year rule of Hun Sen and will allow his party to rule alone, without the need for coalition partners, for the first time since democratic elections were organized by the United Nations in 1993.
Although an official vote count has not yet been announced, Kanharith told reporters: "We can go it alone. We can claim a landslide victory. It is certain."
In Thailand, the political opposition has used the issue to pressure the shaky coalition government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, making compromise difficult.
At an earlier meeting a week ago, the two sides deadlocked on the basic question of which maps should be used to demarcate the border. Cambodia is using a map drawn up by French colonial administrators a century ago, which was also used last month by the United Nations when it designated the temple, Preah Vihear, as a World Heritage Site.
That designation aroused a nationalist backlash in Thailand that has been stoked by the political opposition there and has already caused the resignation of a foreign minister.
The meeting Monday was held in Siem Reap, in the shadow of the temple of Angkor Wat - a symbol of Cambodia's past greatness that is depicted on the Cambodian flag. The great empire of Angkor was overrun by Thailand - then called Siam - in the 15th century, a humiliation that still resonates in the current dispute.
Preah Vihear, built between the 9th and 11th centuries, was part of the Angkorean empire and lies about 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, from Angkor Wat.
Sovereignty over the temple was awarded to Cambodia in 1962 by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. That forced the removal of Thai soldiers who had occupied it since the withdrawal of the French from their territories in Indochina - which included Cambodia - in the mid-1950s.
In 2003, rioters in Phnom Penh burned down the Thai Embassy and attacked Thai-owned businesses after a local radio station falsely reported that a Thai film actress had asserted that Angkor Wat actually belonged to Thailand.
The mood in Phnom Penh is more confident now. When Hun Sen cast his vote Sunday at a teachers' training college, he did so near a billboard that showed Preah Vihear with a red, white and blue Cambodian flag flying above it.
"Long live the Kingdom of Cambodia!" the billboard read. "Preah Vihear temple is a great monument of Khmer architecture registered as a World Heritage site."
But the retired Cambodian king, Norodom Sihanouk, who has been sidelined over the years by the dominance of Hun Sen, sounded a sour note. In a message posted on his Web site, he noted that an insect had also been given special status by the United Nations.
"On 7 July, 2008," he wrote in a longhand scribble, "twenty-nine other 'properties' were inscribed by Unesco as World Heritage sites, including the Monarch butterfly."
Tom Fuller contributed reporting from Bangkok.
1 comment:
Cambodia should stop wasting time with the Siam morons and ask for the UN intervention again.
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