Sunday, June 26, 2011

[SORE LOSER] Thailand withdraws from UN World Heritage Convention in protest

Jun 26, 2011
DPA

Bangkok - Thailand has withdrawn from the United Nations World Heritage Convention to protest a decision to consider a management plan for a disputed ancient temple, reports said Sunday.

A committee on Saturday agreed to consider Cambodia's plan for the Preah Vihear temple despite Thai objections. Thailand claims that an adjacent 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land is still part of a border demarcation dispute.

'I talked to the delegation and we agreed to withdraw as a member of the World Heritage Convention,' said Suwit Khunkitti, head of the delegation negotiating with the World Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, The Nation online news service reported.

But a senior Thai government source in Bangkok said the resignation was not effective immediately.


'There is a process that has to be gone through and it takes time,' a Thai foreign ministry official said. 'Most likely it will need to be decided by the incoming government,' said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Thailand is gearing up for a general election on July 3.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee was discussing new sites in Paris last week and management plans for existing ones.

Cambodia pressed it to proceed with its management plan for the 11th-century Hindu temple, which was named a Heritage site in 2008 over Thai objections.

Since the listing of Preah Vihear, Thai and Cambodian troops have clashed on several occasions along the border, most recently in April when 16 people died.

The temple ruins on a cliff that defines the Thai-Cambodian border has been a bone of contention between the two countries for six decades.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled that the temple was on Cambodia soil, but it stopped short of ruling on where the border lies in the disputed area.

While Thailand has accepted the 1962 ruling, it claims a 4.6-square-kilometre area adjacent to the temple, which is also claimed by Cambodia.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess if you don't get what you want, you simply remove yourself from the world organization, in this case, the World Heritage Committee (WHC).

This is the country whose foreign minister calls it a modern democratic state with full obligations to international laws and treaties during his interview with Al Jazeera News Agency. He certainly claimed that Thailand was not, of course, like a banana republic.

Cambodians should be proud of their ancestral ability to build such a beautiful temple of Preah Vihear since it is endlessly and shamelessly coveted by a neighbouring country who are supposed to have buddhist beliefs.

Anet Khmer

Anonymous said...

Abbhisit now followed the PAD Thai suggestion to withdraw from WHC . These are lunetic Thai who believe that the world will believe in its fake or made up of Preah Vihear temple and the 4.6 sq.km area.

Anonymous said...

Abbhisit now followed the PAD Thai suggestion to withdraw from WHC . These are lunetic Thai who believe that the world will believe in its fake or made up MAP of Preah Vihear temple and the 4.6 sq.km area.

Anonymous said...

Well...Siem thuggish leaders needs to grow up for once and stop behaving like little children and they need to come to term that they can't change the fact of what belong to Cambodia by lying to the world! The worst part of it all is that the Siem thuggish leaders start to believe in their own lie and they want the rest of the world to believe their own lie!

Anonymous said...

Thailande était pleurée comme un
petit bébé.Elle avait perdu le
Preah Vihear au Cambodge.
Le Preah Vihear is en Cambodge.
Mais,la Thailande avait disputé
la surface de 4.6 kilomètre carrés.
La Thailande était une voleuse qui
volait la terre Cambodgienne.

Anonymous said...

ចោរសៀមលួចខ្មែរគ្រាន់ តែខ្មែរតាមទាន់សៀម
ខ្មាសគេក្រែល។សៀមជាចោរមុខក្រាស់ បើចាញ់
ណាស់ក៏កាន់តែផ្ដាស់ ញញើសចង់បានដីខ្មែរ
ណាស់។