Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Cambodian move raises border tension [-Why only Bangkok can bring in foreign military attaches?]

2/03/2011
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

Meanwhile, reports reaching the Thai military said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered a change to the border forces, replacing the current soldiers with those of the Khmer Rouge. The source said Khmer Rouge soldiers were viewed as intended more for combat than for promoting a good relationship.

A Cambodian bid to take a group of foreign military attaches into part of the disputed 4.6 square kilometres around Preah Vihear temple has raised tension, again, on the border in Si Sa Ket provinced, a military source said on Wednesday.

The source said that Thai troops were put on a continuing alert in the 4.6 sq-km area, especially around the Preah Vihear temple, as a precaution, from Tuesday night.

The tension flared after Cambodia informed the Thai soldiers that it planned to bring the military attaches of 10 countries from Phnom Penh into the disputed area on Wednesday. The Thai side denied them permission.

Cambodia wanted the attaches to see important spots, including the damage to Wat Kaeo Sikha Kiri Savara and the area around it, which is in Thai terrority, the source said.


"There would be no problems if the attaches were taken specifically to see Preah Vihear temple, but we cannot allow them to go into the disputed area which has been occupied by Cambodian soldiers. We also regard the disputed area as ours," said the source.

The source said when Thailand took military attaches of 14 countries to the border in the middle of last month, they were taken to see only Mor E-daeng cliff and Phum Srol village on the Thai side of the border,. They did not enter the disputed area.

The rejection caused Cambodia to postpone the visit until Thursday. Thai troops have been put on the alert. It was not known whether Cambodia would persist with the visit or cancel it, the source said.

The source said the Thai military attache in Phnom Penh had contacted the military attaches of other countries and been told they wanted the visit postponed for fear of sparking a new confrontation between Thailand and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, reports reaching the Thai military said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered a change to the border forces, replacing the current soldiers with those of the Khmer Rouge.

The source said Khmer Rouge soldiers were viewed as intended more for combat than for promoting a good relationship.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow wow.... just accept Indonesian observers, they will see what is going on.... don't try to accuse Cambodia of this and that.

Anonymous said...

This Journalist Wassana Nanuam is pretty biased. I don't know what kind of school she attended. But this bitch is always biased against Cambodia.

Anonymous said...

it is really serious... before Cambodia could bring diplomats to see the area without objection from Thailand. But after Thailand successfully blocked Unesco from visiting the temple, now they try to block foreign diplomats again... i hope Cambodia government works smarter.

Anonymous said...

We from oversea, all still have our family and relatives live in Cambodia. We then able to judge the situation in our country ourselves.
That kind of picture of the fighting between police and activists also happened in Europe. But we might not see that much that kind of fighting in the US, because USA still has a very trick state & country laws.
We can't just believe, what we have seen or somethings existed on this KI-blogspot, because we knew so well, all political parties, in our country included the CCP and all Opposition Parties are not fair with each other and are fighting with same dirty methods.

Anonymous said...

Khmer rouge soldiers? They're just old men by now!

Pathetic!

Anonymous said...

Khmer Rouge soldiers are old, stupid and uneducated. They only good at killing innocent Khmer people.