By Sinfah Tunsarawuth
Xinhua
Thailand has been non-committal to joining meetings with Cambodia later this month as proposed by Indonesia to discuss the two countries' border dispute, according to a Thai Foreign Ministry statement.
Meanwhile, the nationalistic "yellow-shirt" People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) on Thursday submitted a letter to the Indonesian ambassador in Bangkok in protesting against a planned Indonesian observer mission to the Thai-Cambodian disputed border.
PAD said in the letter that the coming of the Indonesian observers would amount to "a foreign military operation to control Thai military operations defending Thai sovereignty, which has been deliberately violated by Cambodia."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, the current ASEAN chair, has proposed that Thailand and Cambodia meet later this month to solve their border dispute under the existing General Border Committee (GBC), co-chaired by the defense ministers of both nations, and separately under Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC), co-chaired by the two countries' senior officials, according to media reports.
Natalegawa made the proposal in a letter sent on Wednesday to Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and other ASEAN foreign ministers. The GBC and JBC meetings were proposed on March 24-25 in Bogor, Indonesia.
Natalegawa also said in the letter that Cambodia has responded positively to the Terms of Reference (TOR) in sending the Indonesian observers.
"I am looking forward to hearing positive responses from Thailand," he was quoted as saying in his letter.
The sending of Indonesian observers was a result of the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations on Feb. 22 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said in the statement on Thursday that: "Thailand welcomes Cambodia's readiness to attend the said meetings as it has all along been trying to convene bilateral negotiations with Cambodia."
Thani said the proposed GBC meeting would allow the two countries to discuss the TOR of the Indonesian observers.
However, he said in regard to the GBC meeting, "details with regard to the dates, venue and appropriate engagement of Indonesia remain matters to be discussed further."
He continued: "It is noted that at this juncture Cambodia has proposed that Indonesia attend the opening ceremony, and that, after the conclusion of the said meeting, both countries would share its outcome with Indonesia."
For the JBC meeting, Thani said Thailand had wanted to hold such a meeting in February "a proposal which Cambodia had first agreed to in principle before subsequently changing its position."
He continued: "However, it had been the Cambodian side which maintained that the three draft agreed minutes of the previous JBC meetings be approved by the Thai Parliament first before the said meeting could be convened."
A joint sitting of the House of Representatives and Senate is expected to deliberate and vote on the three draft minutes, seen as agreements that could affect Thai territory, later this month.
Thani's statement did not say clearly whether Thailand was prepared to join the GBC and JBC meetings on March 24-25 in Bogor.
PAD, which has been protesting against the government on its alleged mishandling of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute since Jan. 25, said in its letter to the Indonesian ambassador that the proposed sending of the Indonesian observers would not comply with the bilateral arrangement of Thailand and Cambodia on solving the border dispute, which is involved with a 4.6-square kilometer piece of land around the Preah Vihear temple.
The PAD letter also said the TOR of Indonesian observers could be seen as an agreement that would alter Thailand's sovereign border and, hence, require an approval from the bicameral parliament first.
In launching its rally in January, PAD wanted the Thai government to scrap the existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Thailand and Cambodia in 2000 as the framework for settling the two countries' border dispute.
They also urged the government to move out Cambodians who are occupying the disputed areas, and to pull out as a party to the World Heritage Convention, under which the Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as a World Heritage site by Cambodia in July 2008.
10 comments:
Idiot Siem! you are fuck-up
Goodness gracious me!
When will all this Thai madness come to an end??!
How much more land do you want from your neighbours?
Isn't what your race had robbed and plundered from Cambodia down the centuries enough for you?
Would it not be better off to allocate your wealth and resources to bettering the lot of the poor - many of whom are still selling their bodies to survive - instead of instigating an arms race in the region?
Yeay Vomeat
l could't wait to see world war 3 between Stupid Thai/SiamesesPAD Thugs and VietnamesesThugs with Thai/Vietnameses's Moslems & Alquaida to take Surin and Champa back.
10:23pm- that is not called WWIII.
the idea is also lunatic.
it is not that Thai and Yuon must refrain from stealing or encroaching Khmer land-
it is rathr that the Khmer government leader must knows how to defend our land. it is the will and capability of the leader. but Hun Sen is so weak since he is the uneducated puppet.
I don't know what to say about the PAD and the government of Thailand.
It looks and sounds like they really want all Cambodians to just disappear so that they can take over the whole country and enjoy telling the world later on that their ancestors built Angkor Wat, Preah Vihear and other Khmer temples.
I am very proud that they love Cambodian temples and cultures so badly that they want to take over everything, but I am very sad that they are too greedy and never realize that Cambodia has given them culture and written language and, to some extent, several words to be used in their society; therefore they should have been more friendly and less aggressive toward their Cambodian neighbour.
They have stolen Cambodian land all along and their greed for more territory from Cambodia is impossible to be satisfied.
PM Hun Sen is not the kind of PM I would like to have for a country if I had a choice; However, for the sake of Cambodia and as far as defending Cambodia against these Thais is concerned, I am willing to give him my full support and will deal with him later on the eastern front and other issues.
Cambodians, you can't afford to fight among yourselves. You need to know your priority. Disunity has always been the source of the problems in Cambodia and the curse of destruction and loss of territory cambodia has experienced so it is my appeal to every Cambodian to stand together first for the sake of our country and deal with our differences later in a peaceful manner if it is at all possible.
United we stand firm and proudly of our own country and race!
Anet Khmer
វាមិនចប់ទេ រឿងមានតែមួយ គឺឡាអេ???????
Thailand never stop being greedy, they alway wanted to own Preah vihear Temple for several century...They occupied and looted the Temple in the past and took all artifacts along with them, that belonged to khmer empier..and kept all artifacts in their museum today in Bangkok? They supose to return them back to khmer, this is what UNESCO said!!
correction=Thailand suppose to return all artifacts that they took from Angkor Wat and Preah vihear, return back to Cambodia!!
Thank you Anet Khmer. I agree with your pragmatic approach.
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