By Richard Ehrlich
Asia Times Online
BANGKOK - Thailand and Cambodia fortified their border positions on Tuesday after four days of artillery and mortar battles killed seven Cambodian soldiers and five Thai troops, while both sides tried to dominate nearby ancient Hindu temple ruins. No deaths were reported during Monday's clashes.
Thai troops with scant medical equipment used stretchers and open pickup trucks to transport some injured soldiers from border fights to hospitalization during the weekend. Thailand moved tanks and armored personnel carriers along the mountainous jungle frontier about 560 kilometers northeast of Bangkok.
Cambodia installed more multiple-rocket launchers and other heavy weaponry to bolster its side. Phnom Penh said on Monday that shelling and rifle fire by Thai forces during the weekend damaged the crumbling stone ruins of two small 1,000-year-old Hindu temples, Ta Krabey and Ta Moan. The extent of the damage was unclear.
The ruins are in a disputed border area where most of the four straight days of clashes have occurred. Both Buddhist-majority countries again used artillery, mortars and rifles on Monday night near Ta Krabey, according to Thai and Cambodian military spokesmen.
"The Cambodian acts of aggression left Thailand with no choice but to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity by using proportionate means with necessity, under international law, and strictly directed at only military targets," the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
About 20,000 villagers on each side of the frontier have fled to makeshift shelters, while camouflaged Thai and Cambodian troops continue to patrol the jungle. The clashes were not expected to escalate immediately into full-scale war between Thailand and Cambodia, but the fighting has shut cross-border trade and caused jitters in both Southeast Asian capitals.
United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - of which both Thailand and Cambodia are members - have called on the countries to arrange a ceasefire, but the Thai military said it was fighting to stop Cambodia's attempt to seize the Ta Krabey and Ta Moan temple ruins.
Cambodia wants to expand upon its 1962 success when the International Court of Justice in the Hague awarded Cambodia ownership over larger stone temple ruins at Preah Vihear, about 201 kilometers to the east of the current fighting, the Thai army said.
"There must not be Cambodian soldiers around Preah Vihear, other temples, and communities," Thai army commander General Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Monday.
"Cambodia would have seized the area, as they did in the areas near Preah Vihear temple," Thai army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Sunday. "So letting problems occur today is better than seeing it turn chronic in the future," he said, explaining why Thai forces were defending the two smaller temples and nearby disputed territory.
Both sides have repeatedly blamed the other for being the aggressor and firing first. In February, four days of fighting near Preah Vihear killed a total of 10 soldiers on both sides before hostilities quieted.
Cambodia wants to internationalize the problem and called on the United Nations and Indonesia to mediate. Thailand has said it prefers to negotiate through bilateral rather than multilateral means.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, in his role as current chair of ASEAN, postponed his scheduled trip on Monday to Cambodia and Thailand after Bangkok tried to limit Indonesia's efforts to send military observers to the disputed border where recent fighting occurred.
During the weekend, Cambodia said Thai forces fired 75mm and 105mm shells "loaded with poison gas", but no evidence was provided and Bangkok denied the allegation. In February, Bangkok denied using cluster bombs but later reluctantly admitted to firing several cluster-loaded bombs at Cambodia. Thailand has in return accused Cambodia of moving civilians as human shields into militarized areas.
The United States has good relations with both countries' armed forces and has refrained from openly intervening in the conflict. Thailand is a non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization military ally of the United States and is bigger, wealthier and better armed than Cambodia, but Cambodian soldiers are considered tougher fighters on the ground.
Cambodia's military leaders include Hun Manet, who received his diploma in 1999 from the US Military Academy at West Point. Two-star Lieutenant General Hun Manet is deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces infantry and director of the Defense Ministry's US-backed counter-terrorism department.
He is the eldest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a Khmer Rouge guerrilla regiment commander under Pol Pot when they successfully fought against the US-backed Cambodian General Lon Nol's regime in the early 1970s during the US's regional Vietnam War.
Thailand is peeved by Cambodia's plan to bring tourists to the scenic stone ruins of Preah Vihear's cliff-top, the 11th century Hindu temple on the disputed border. Preah Vihear was part of a network of ancient temple sites linked to Cambodia's nearby slave-built Angkor Wat complex.
In 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-endorsed Cambodia's bid to grant the temple World Heritage status. That could turn Preah Vihear into a money-making tourist attraction for Cambodia, especially when the Cambodians modernize a path up their steep cliff as an alternative entrance to the temple, which currently has its main access across flatter disputed territory.
The fresh clashes meanwhile coincide with fears expressed by Thailand's media and opposition politicians that Bangkok's coup-minded military is preparing a putsch to install a puppet regime because the generals fear a possible return of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted Thaksin in a bloodless 2006 coup.
Thaksin has based himself mostly in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to avoid a two-year jail sentence for corruption during his five-year elected administration. Diplomatic feathers were ruffled when Hun Sen appointed him as a special economic advisor, a position Thaksin later dropped.
One year ago, tens of thousands of Thaksin's "red-shirt" supporters staged a nine-week insurrection in Bangkok by barricading streets in the heart of the capital, while demanding immediate elections to bring back Thaksin.
After devastating urban battles, the red shirts were crushed by the army, resulting in 91 deaths, most of them civilians. Several red shirt leaders, including those who face potential terrorism charges, fled to Cambodia.
Abhisit, who took office in a parliamentary vote in December 2008, has enjoyed strong military support while allowing the generals to arrange costly and controversial large-scale weapons purchases, including a dozen Swedish Gripen warplanes, six used German submarines, Ukrainian armored personnel carriers, and other weaponry.
Abhisit has said he hopes to stage nationwide elections in June or July, but it is not clear to many analysts whether the military agrees with the plan due to its concerns that a pro-Thaksin government could be elected.
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California. He has reported news from Asia since 1978 and is co-author of the non-fiction book of investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews.
His website is www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com
6 comments:
Var Kim Hong does recognize that Cambodia, if compared to the colonial Service Geographique de l’Indochine scale map 1/100,000 and the 1985 delimitation treaty, will loses 9,000 hectares; and compared to U.S Army Mapping Service scale map 1/50,000 with the 1985 Treaty, would lose about 7,900 hectares to Vietnam. This statement was confirmed by Var Kim Hong to Mr. Touch Bora Esq through a telephone conversation on 30 August 2002 at 4:30 p.m. (Sydney time), which Mr. Touch Bora Esq wrote in his letter dated on 9 September 2002 sent to Sam Dach Ta Noroudom Sihanouk concerning over border affairs.
In fact, the loss is absolutely more than the 1000 square kilometers stated by MP Sam Rainsy in his statement, if we add the size of the historical water of 30000 square kilometers awarded to Vietnam under the 1982 Agreement which has been into affect and now already become under the full control of Vietnam. And this would not be the last if the equidistance principle be used to delimit the maritime boundary, Cambodia will lose an additional area of sea and seabed measuring at least 860 square nautical miles from the Brevie Line to the north, analyzed by Mr. Touch Bora Esq or another 10000 square kilometers confirmed by Mr. Sean Pengse, the President of the Cambodian Border Committee Worldwide, which exclusively include another Koh Poula Wai to Vietnam added to the previous lost islands- Koh Tral (Dao Phu Quoc) and Koh Poulo Panjang (Dao Thu Chu).
This is why sVar Kim Hong said in front of Students´s Movement for Democracy (SMD), and Sam Dach Ta Norodom Sihanouk on 22 Janaury 2000 during our audience with him concerning the border resolution with Vietnam that; “If we want peace, we must sacrifice our flesh to the tiger.” The truth is discovered now that, “Sacrifice the flesh to tiger actually means cutting our land to the Viet.” This word was clearly spoken out from his mouth and there were Sam Dach Ta as witness and 31 members.
We must condemn this Var Kim Hong for his role in helping the traitorous regime of Hun Sen.
Smart Khmer Girl Ms. Rattana Keo,
Koh Tral Island must not be forgotten
By Ms. Rattana Keo
Why do Koh Tral Island, known in Vietnam as Phu Quoc, a sea and land area covering proximately over 10,000 km2 [Note: the actual land size of Koh Tral itself is 574 square kilometres (222 sq miles)] have been lost to Vietnam by whose treaty? Why don’t Cambodia government be transparent and explain to Cambodia army at front line and the whole nation about this? Why don't they include this into education system? Why?
Cambodian armies are fighting at front line for 4.6 km2 on the Thai border and what's about over 10,000km2 of Cambodia to Vietnam. Nobody dare to talk about it! Why? Cambodian armies you are decide the fate of your nation, Cambodian army as well as Cambodian people must rethink about this again and again. Is it fair?
Koh Tral Island, the sea and land area of over 10,000 square kilometres have been lost to Vietnam by the 1979 to 1985 treaties. The Cambodian army at front line as well as all Cambodian people must rethink again about these issues. Are Cambodian army fighting to protect the Cambodia Nation or protecting a very small group that own big lands, big properties or only protecting a small group but disguising as protecting the Khmer nation?
The Cambodian army at front lines suffer under rain, wind, bullets, bombs, lack of foods, lack of nutrition and their families have no health care assistance, no securities after they died but a very small group eat well, sleep well, sleep in first class hotel with air conditioning system with message from young girls, have first class medical care from oversea medical treatments, they are billionaires, millionaires who sell out the country to be rich and make the Cambodian people suffer everyday.
Who signed the treaty 1979-1985 that resulted in the loss over 10,000 km2 of Cambodia??? Why they are not being transparent and brave enough to inform all Cambodians and Cambodian army at front line about these issues? Why don't they include Koh Tral (Koh Tral size is bigger than the whole Phom Phen and bigger than Singapore [Note: Singapore's present land size is 704 km2 (271.8 sq mi)]) with heap of great natural resources, in the Cambodian education system?
Look at Hun Sen's families, relatives and friends- they are billionaires, millionaires. Where did they get the money from when we all just got out of war with empty hands [in 1979]? Hun Sen always say in his speeches that Cambodia had just risen up from the ashes of war, just got up from Year Zero with empty hands and how come they are billionaires, millionaires but 90% of innocent Cambodian people are so poor and struggling with their livelihood every day?
Smart Khmer girl Ms. Rattana Keo,
Thailand and Thai people, especially PAD Thai groups and Rouge Chan-Ocha are very bad. Thai people (PAD) don't even know that the Preah Vihear, Ta Maon, Ta Krabei belong to Khmer.
Thai is a very stupid nation because of older Thai people who betrayed and cheated Khmer people. The young generation like PAD and Chan-Ocha have been brainwashed by their King and Queen who are Siam crooks and thieves from Khmer Empire. The people in the world did not know about the history of Siam and Khmer Empire and did not know where Thai and Thailand were coming from originally. So there, Thai can play the trick and cheat or lie so easy because the foreigners did not know. What is that stupid nation doing in the world to make them proud? Or are they regret that they lied about their history? Thai King and some of Thai people including the Thai leaders are very very very stubborn and ridiculous.
Thai don't realize that they have done a lot of damages to many Angkorian temples in Khmer Empire country since Thai (originally named Tai-Chinese people) were migrated from Nanzhao province in Southern China in the late 12th into Khmer Empire land after Mongol destroyed and controlled China. Thai did not respect the Khmer King Jayavarman VII who allowed them to settle in Khmer Empire country until they attacked Khmer Kings and Khmer people and then looted and stole the land. They took advantages of the weakness of Khmer Empires after Khmer Empire became exhausted and lost some many armies by helping Tai-Chinese called SIAM who were destroyed by Burmese and helping Die Viet who were fighting with Mongol, being so busy to fight with Champa Empire who invaded Khmer Empire territory.
I can't images how disgraceful Thai people and Vietnamese are in the world.
Thai and Vietnamese people have been brainwashed by their disgraceful older people who betrayed the Khmer Empire Kings and people.
It is very sad when Khmer people today have NOT been credited and given back as return from powerful neighbors Thailand and Vietnam in the modern day (20th or 21st century), but Thai and Vietnamese just looked down on Khmer (Cambodian or Kampuchea today) just because they are successfully defeated Khmer people and cheated by taking advantages of the weakness of Khmer Empire and destroyed Khmer people and took the land.
Looking at Thai and Vietnamese, they are really thieves and crooks in the modern days and they are getting better than Khmer people until they tried to create the extinction of Khmer people in order to protect their fake histories and maps in the world. What wrong with Vietnamese people and leaders? What wrong with Thai leaders and people?
Looking at Laos and Laotian people, they did not do anything to Khmer people and Kings, but they are still respecting Khmer people and Kings.
They both are very ugly and disgraceful nations in the world.
Right now, Cambodian and Thai are at war. How disgraceful Thai is by claiming and lying every Angkorian temple and land to be their owns, but they did not build those temples. Also, they destroyed and ruined the those temples of Khmer Angkor. Now, when it comes the high price and values, they wants to steal and claim the temples for money and tourist. How greedy Thai is!
ពួកសៀមវាមិនដែលចេះយោកយល់ពលរដ្ធខ្មែរ
មួយដងណានោះទេនៅតាមជុំរំជាយដែនក្នុងឆ្នាំ
១៩៧៩ទៅទល់នឹងឆ្នាំ១៩៨៥វាបានសម្លាប់ប្រជាពលរដ្ធខ្មែរជារាងរាល់ថ្ងៃបើស្ត្រីៗវិញវាចាប់រំលោពក៏ច្រើនណាស់ដែរដោយពុំមានអង្ការណាជួយពលរដ្ធខ្មែរទេ
នៅក្នុងខណនោះ។ខ្ញុំចងគំនុំជាមួយសៀមជាងចងគំនុំ
ជាមួយយួនទៅទៀតនៅក្នុងមួយជីវិតរបស់ខ្ញុំ។
Ms Rattana Keo = Fuck husband + Fuck boyfriend at the same time
She is going to fuck her father in law ome time too. Her mother in law know it very well and love the rattana keo treesome cultures because the mother in law love treesome too.
Youn will insert B-21 rocket into ms rattana keo's vagina in order to please her sex life.
Hun Sen will insert another B-21 rocket into ms rattana keo ass hole at the same time too
Her vagina hole is so big that only B-21 rockets can satified her sex life.
If someone knew and said the true opinions of anyone,he got mad or lost
his/her temper.
ជនណាម្នាក់បាននិយាយការពិតពីរឿងពុតត្បុត
អាក្រក់ណាមួយពីខ្លួននោះ តែងតែច្រឡោតខឹង
ដាច់ក្បាលដាច់កន្ទុយ និយាយអាសអាភាស
ខ្វះសីលធម៍ក្នុងខ្លួន។
យួន និង សៀម មានចរិតពីកំណើត ភូតភរកុហក់
បោកប្រាស ចិត្តពាលសាមាន្យ។
សៀមច្រើននិយាយ ក្រឡិចក្រឡុច ដេញជើង
វាស្ទើរតែមិនទាន់ ឯយួនវិញ និយាយរញ៉ែរញ៉ូវ
រុករានឈ្លានពាន កេងកាញ់ប្រវាញ់ខ្មែរ។
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