Top general lauds 'friendly' Cambodian military ties

Friday, August 01, 2008

(BangkokPost.com) - Supreme Commander Boonsang Niempradit believed violence will not occur in Thailand, and the Thai-Cambodian military relations are still amicable despite the border dispute over the ancient Preah Vihear temple.

Before attending the meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s supreme commanders at Dusit Thani Hotel on Friday, Gen Boonsang said relevant units are looking after the safety of public members amid their political differences. He however admitted it is difficult to watch over a large group of demonstrators, but said violence will not take place, if people are conscious of their actions. He said army officials are performing their duties under the framework.

Gen Boonsang said the Supreme Command will send its representatives to the meeting between the Royal Thai Armed Forces and Foreign Affairs Minister Tej Bunnag to discuss the disputed Preah Vihear site within the next one to two days. He said holding many negotiations between Thailand and Cambodia can help improve the situation.

The Supreme Commander said negotiations without resorting to violence can solve complicated problems in both national and international levels.

Preah Vihear row smoulders on as bilateral talks founder

Tuesday, 22 July 2008
DPA & The Mekong Times

Thailand and Cambodia failed yesterday to resolve the dispute over an ancient Hindu temple on the Thai-Cambodian border, but both sides agreed they wanted to ensure the tense standoff does not escalate.

“We want the temperature to cool down,” said Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh after an eight hour meeting on the Preah Vihear temple dispute with Thai Supreme Commander General Boonsrang Niempradit at the Indochina Hotel in Aranyaprathet, Sa Kaeo province, 270km east of Bangkok.

Boonsrang said the two sides were unable to resolve the legal issues involved in the controversy over the temple’s compound, parts of which are claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia.

“We will need to consult the government on the law,” Boonsrang told a press conference after the lengthy meeting.

Tea Banh said no solution to the row was likely before Cambodia’s general election scheduled for this coming Sunday.

While both sides claimed the meeting was not a failure, neither agreed to withdraw their troops from the Preah Vihear vicinity, about 650km north-east of Bangkok.

The meeting was held in an attempt to defuse an intensifying dispute over the ownership of a 4.6 sq km plot of land adjoining Preah Vihear, an 11th century Hindu temple with a long history of border tension between the two neighboring countries.

The temple sits on a cliff that defines the Thai-Cambodian border between Sisaket and Preah Vihear provinces in Thailand and Cambodia, respectively.

Last week Thailand and Cambodia sent about 4,000 troops to the vicinity of Preah Vihear temple, called Phra Viharn in Thai.

The temple was the cause of a border spat five decades ago that ended up at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1962. Cambodia won, but the row was reignited by the World Heritage Committee’s decision to list the temple as a UNESCO site earlier this month, despite Thai objections.

Three Thais were briefly detained July 15 for crossing into a portion of the temple compound still subject to a border demarcation dispute. The three, part of an ultranationalist Buddhist group, were released within hours but prompted Thailand to send paramilitary troops to the contested area, where they remained.

Pen Ngoeung, spokesman for the Cambodian Council of Ministers, said yesterday that the disputed area near Preah Vihear temple was calm as both Cambodia and Thai commanders had ordered their military not to take any action while awaiting results of the meeting in the Thai province of Sa Kaew.

He said that by the seventh day of the incursion, Thai troops had increased their presence around the entrance into Psar Krom market and started to clear forests for camping in the territory adjacent to the Cambodian border.

Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Commander-in-chief Kun Kin traveled to Preah Vihear temple yesterday to examine the situation and visit soldiers and villagers.

The standoff comes at a sensitive time politically for both Cambodia and Thailand.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen faces an election July 27, and Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is under mounting pressure to resign, in part over his government’s alleged mishandling of the Preah Vihear affair.

Cambodia’s efforts to list the temple compound, but excluding the disputed area, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site became politically charged for Thailand last month when Samak’s government first backed the proposal, then withdrew its support after intense public criticism.

Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Patamma has already been forced to resign over the issue.

Thailand, Cambodia promises not to use force

BANGKOK, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The special meeting of the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) concluded Monday evening with both Thailand and Cambodia agreed not to use force to settle their dispute over the borderline near Preah Vihear Temple.

The meeting started Monday morning in Thailand's eastern border province of Sa Kaew was called as the military stand off near Preah Vihear Temple reached the six days. Both countries deployed troops and weapons to a plot of 4.6 square kilometer near the temple. The Thai side claimed that the areas are overlapping zoneswhile Cambodia claimed it is in its territory.

Thai Supreme Commander Gen Boonsang Niempradit and Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh who chaired the special meeting emerged at a press conference after nearly eight hours of meeting.

But, the meeting failed to reach any breakthrough, according to local newspaper the Nation's website.

Both countries will remain the number of their troops and weapons there and will order their troops not to use forces in the area.

Both Gen Boonsang and Tea Banh cited legislation and legal technicalities as obstacles in reaching any agreement on the issue.

Gen Tea Banh told reporters that both sides tried to lower down the degree of tension during the meeting but failed due to the legislation and legal technicalities.

Gen Boonsrang said the two sides were unable to solve the legal issues involved in the controversy over the temple's compound, parts of which are claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia.

Gen Tea Banh and Gen Boonsrang said They will forward the outcome of the meeting to their prime ministers for consideration.

Talks fail to end Thai-Cambodia temple row

21 July 2008
Reuters

ARANYAPRATHET, Thailand - Talks between Thailand and Cambodia failed on Monday to end a week-long military stand-off over an ancient temple on their border, which regional neighbours feared could turn violent.

Hundreds of troops at the temple will hold their positions, negotiators said after eight hours of talks on an issue that has whipped up nationalist fervour in both southeast Asian nations.

"The best option is to stay where they are, but avoid using weapons," Thai Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit told reporters.

Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh said "it is impossible to find a solution at this second", but negotiations would continue at a later unspecified date.

The meeting took place in the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet, 380 km (235 miles) from the 11th century temple awarded to Cambodia by an international court in 1962.

At the heart of the dispute is a 4.6 sq km (1.8 sq mile) area around the temple, which sits on a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary, that is claimed by both nations.

Monday's talks partly bogged down over which maps should be used to settle ownership of the temple and surrounding area, officials said.

Cambodia complained to the United Nations Security Council on Friday about Thailand's violation of Cambodia's "sovereignty and territorial integrity", but did not ask the U.N. to intervene.

In a sign of easing tensions, soldiers at the site had agreed on Monday to keep weapons out of the temple itself, Cambodian commander Chea Mon said.

"We do not want any armed troops to disturb Buddhist monks who are praying there," he told Reuters.

NEIGHBOURS WORRIED

The stand-off has revived memories of a 2003 spat over Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex, which saw a mob set fire to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, and worried neighbours.

The 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) urged members Thailand and Cambodia to show "utmost caution and restraint" and offered to help resolve the impasse.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, opening the annual ASEAN meeting in the city state, said the "situation has escalated dangerously" and the group "could not stand idly by without damaging its credibility".

Cambodian politicians, themselves no strangers to nationalism, have denounced the "Thai invaders" in the run-up to next Sunday's general election.

But domestic politics in Thailand, where the temple is known as Khao Pra Viharn, have played a bigger role in fuelling the border fracas, analysts said.

Preah Vihear's listing as a World Heritage site this month triggered a political uproar in Bangkok, where the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) accused the government of selling out Thailand's history by initially backing the listing.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government argued its support was only for the temple, and would not affect Bangkok's claims to the disputed land around Preah Vihear.

Neverthless, the PAD, a coalition of activists and royalists, has used the listing as a weapon in its campaign against Samak, whom they accuse of acting as a proxy for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup in 2006.

"The PAD will use any tool, any instrument to bring down the Samak government. Khao Pra Viharn is a casualty of Thailand's domestic political crisis," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a foreign affairs lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters.

Boonsang: Only military-related issues to be discussed at border meeting

BANGKOK, July 19 (TNA) - Thailand's Supreme Commander Gen. Boonsang Niempradit said Saturday he would confer only on militarily-related issues with Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh when they meet early next week.

Gen. Boonsang has been assigned by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to lead the Thai delegation to Monday's session of the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) at Sa Kaeo on the Thai-Cambodian border to discuss issues concerning the Preah Vihear temple situation with Cambodia.

The talks will be held as troop movements from both countries are raising the level of armed readiness on both sides of the border in the vicinity of the 11th century temple which was awarded World Heritage site status by UNESCO earlier this month.

Speaking on a Bangkok radio station, Gen. Boonsang said he could not yet say whether the Thai troops stationing near Preah Vihear will be withdrawn as requested by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in a diplomatic note sent to his Thai counterpart.

"It is better to wait for the outcome of the meeting first," Gen. Boonsang said, noting that . "the Thai military will not employ violence to solve this problem."

Instead, the military would use peaceful means in solving the border crisis.

Gen. Boonsang said he had spoken with Gen. Teah Banh, calling for military commanders of both sides to order soldiers at the border to show restraint.

Both countries have claimed sovereignty over a 4.6 square kilometres area adjacent to the temple.

The Thai foreign ministry will be responsible in negotiations regarding the disputed zone and not the military because it is a "sensitive issue", Gen. Boonsang added.

Thai Supreme Commander to hold talks with Cambodian officials on Preah Vihear Temple

BANGKOK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Supreme Commander of Royal Thai Armed Forces Boonsrang Niumpraditt will lead Thai delegation to hold talks with Cambodian officials on resolving the military stand off at Preah Vihear Temple, according to a Thai military officer on Friday.

The talks are scheduled to be held in Thailand's northeastern province of Sa Kaew on July 21.

Lt Gen Niphat Thonglek, director of the Directorate of Military Border Affairs, said that Prime Minister and Defense Minister Samak Sundaravej decided on Friday to assign Supreme commander Gen Boonsrang, who is also deputy chairman of the General Border Committee (GBC) to told the talks with Cambodian side on behalf of Samak.

Boonsrang will be accompanied by the permanent secretary for Interior Ministry, the director-general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department.

Both Thailand and Cambodia historically laid claim to Preah Vihear Temple, which now sits on Cambodian soil following the action of the International Court of Justice which awarded the ancient temple to Cambodia in 1962. However, the exact demarcation of the border around the ruins remains in contention.

The security situation around the temple deteriorated after three Thais were briefly detained by Cambodian soldiers on Tuesday.

According to local reports, both Thailand and Cambodia have reinforced their troops at and near Preah Vihear Temple.

Boonsrang Niampradit to represent Thailand in border talk

PM assigns supreme commander to attend border meeting with Cambodia

July 18, 2008
The Nation

Prime Minister and Defence Minister Samak Sundaravej Friday assigned Supreme Commander Gen Boonsrang Niampradit to attend the General Border Committee meeting in Sa Kaew Monday.

Lt Gen Niphat Thonglek, director of the Directorate of Military Border Affairs, said Boonsrang, who is deputy chairman of the GBC, will attend the meeting on behalf of Samak.

He will be accompanied by the permanent secretary for Interior Ministry, the director-general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department.

Siamese Supreme Army Commander prays for Preah Vihear not to be listed as World Heritage site

Boonsrang upbeat on Preah Vihear Temple

Thu, July 3, 2008
The Nation

The World Heritage Committee should heed Thailand's stand and the listing of Preah Vihear Temple might not happen at this juncture, otherwise risking facing many problems, Supreme Commander General Boonsrang Niumpradit said on Thursday.

"The injunction on the temple does not put Thailand at a disadvantage. In fact the opposite occurs," he said.

Boonsrang said parties concerned should not inflame the situation because everyone is obliged to uphold the bilateral relations with Cambodia.

He said the military had a strict instruction for soldiers to be cautious in the handling of the border situation.

He said the cartography director joined the Thai delegation to attend the World Heritage meeting in Quebec as a technical expert who is not authorised to say anything beyond his expertise on the map.