By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Cha-am - Thai protesters yesterday threatened to surround the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok next month unless Prime Minister Hun Sen withdrew troops and removed Cambodian community from the disputed area adjacent to Preah Vihear.
Some 30 people led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) made a brief protest at Puk Tien beach in ChaAm district, some 10km away from the Asean meeting venue in response to the harsh remarks by Hun Sen regarding fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thailand and Cambodia have been at loggerheads over the disputed area near the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear for a long time but the issue heated up a year ago when it was listed as a World Heritage Site.
The issue of Thaksin added fuel to the conflict when Hun Sen said he would make the fugitive expremier his economic adviser and would not extradite him to Thailand. Such remarks have heightened tensions with the Thai government which is seeking to apprehend Thaksin, who has been sentenced to two years' prison sentence in a corruption case.
The protesters handed over their letter of demands to the Foreign Ministry's Director General of Asean Affairs Vitavas Srivihok demanding the troop withdrawal and removal of the Cambodian community from the area within a week.
They condemned Hun Sen's recent remarks and wanted the Cambodian premier to leave Thailand immediately as he was not attending the Asean Summit in a spirit of goodwill.
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said his government had allowed the protesters to exercise their freedom of expression in accordance with democratic principles. The government would take their demands into consideration and would convey them to the neighbouring country if necessary, he said.
The Thai government would not allow one incident to jeopฌardise relations between the two countries, which have a lot of areas of mutual interest, he said. Kasit said the government would deal with Hun Sen in a cool manฌner.
"We have been together with Samdech Hun Sen the whole day in the [Asean] meeting. I think he did participate in every sesฌsion [of the Asean meeting] in a very constructive manner," Kasit said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen even supported Thailand's intention to be a temporary unit of surveillance of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), Kasit said.
Regarding the Thaksin issue, Kasit maintained his hope that Hun Sen would be able to distinguish personal affairs from the mutual interests of the two countries.
"I don't know whether Prime Minister Hun Sen has invited Thaksin to visit Cambodia after he has served his jail term in Thailand or not," he said.
If Thaksin were to be in Cambodia before serving his sentence, the government would seek his extradition in accorฌdance with the bilateral treaty, Kasit said.
Some 30 people led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) made a brief protest at Puk Tien beach in ChaAm district, some 10km away from the Asean meeting venue in response to the harsh remarks by Hun Sen regarding fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thailand and Cambodia have been at loggerheads over the disputed area near the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear for a long time but the issue heated up a year ago when it was listed as a World Heritage Site.
The issue of Thaksin added fuel to the conflict when Hun Sen said he would make the fugitive expremier his economic adviser and would not extradite him to Thailand. Such remarks have heightened tensions with the Thai government which is seeking to apprehend Thaksin, who has been sentenced to two years' prison sentence in a corruption case.
The protesters handed over their letter of demands to the Foreign Ministry's Director General of Asean Affairs Vitavas Srivihok demanding the troop withdrawal and removal of the Cambodian community from the area within a week.
They condemned Hun Sen's recent remarks and wanted the Cambodian premier to leave Thailand immediately as he was not attending the Asean Summit in a spirit of goodwill.
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said his government had allowed the protesters to exercise their freedom of expression in accordance with democratic principles. The government would take their demands into consideration and would convey them to the neighbouring country if necessary, he said.
The Thai government would not allow one incident to jeopฌardise relations between the two countries, which have a lot of areas of mutual interest, he said. Kasit said the government would deal with Hun Sen in a cool manฌner.
"We have been together with Samdech Hun Sen the whole day in the [Asean] meeting. I think he did participate in every sesฌsion [of the Asean meeting] in a very constructive manner," Kasit said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen even supported Thailand's intention to be a temporary unit of surveillance of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), Kasit said.
Regarding the Thaksin issue, Kasit maintained his hope that Hun Sen would be able to distinguish personal affairs from the mutual interests of the two countries.
"I don't know whether Prime Minister Hun Sen has invited Thaksin to visit Cambodia after he has served his jail term in Thailand or not," he said.
If Thaksin were to be in Cambodia before serving his sentence, the government would seek his extradition in accorฌdance with the bilateral treaty, Kasit said.
6 comments:
We Khmer were able to survive the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot Regime) and sure able will survive the treat of the "un" democracy Yellow Shirt.
We still have a good educational background great civilization and higher society value and we will not copy this bad behavior of the Stupid Siems (today call Thai).
All Khmers should be protesting in front of Thai embassy and thai businness around the world as well.
The best response to Thai protester whome demanding troop witdrawall is asking tem to do so thru Thai goverment (Thai gov will not dare to do so for sure). The protesters are not elegible to request that grievance since their are not represente the whole Thai. Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok should not take any action to them because we (Cambo gov) only work with Thai goverment. If they want Khmer troop to witdrawal why don't Thai troop leave the area and make the way for JBC to begin their work. The key is on JBC but the Thai part is reluctant to go aheard with the plan. The late resolve from Thai part was the caused of prolong standoff. They seem many times complaint that because of Cambodia inscriped Preah Vihear to world haritage site but remember that it is solely Cambodia rights to do so. We inscript only the temple area but not the dispute area. Don't be mixing the issue.
Hun Sen remakes is right because Thai government not intention to sovle the dispute issue as soon as posible because they play politic of the temple as we can saw the Y-shirt used this issue to out Samak, Nophadan, and Vong Songwat.
Independence guy.
Khmer need not to pull troop out, Thai are the one occupy Khmer land illigally, therefore, they need to move their troop. And these soldiers of Thai are their on Khmer land without invitation and yet murder our people regulaly.
Hi, Yellow Shirt or PAD
you can surround the Cambodian Embassy. Do You loss your brain? Do you ever think Cambodia cam the stupit the same thing like you?
If you did, It mean you threw your interest away.
Since Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge commander, now a Khmer Rouge leader and had many of his political opponents assassinated, I wonder if he have any plan to assassinate the Thai Prime Minister (Abhisit Vejjajiva)?
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