Thailand providing psychiatrist to Thai convicted in Cambodia

BANGKOK, Feb 22 (TNA) - The Thai government will provide a psychiatrist to a Thai national convicted and sentenced by a Cambodian court to 20 years in jail for planting landmines along the Thai-Cambodian border after learning that he is has mental health problems, according to Chavanont Intarakomalsut, secretary to Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

Mr Chavanont said representatives of the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh had visited Suphap Wongsaprapa on Friday and after talking with him the consular officials found him to be confused and unable to relate the incident in a coherent manner.

He said the ministry had earlier received information that Mr Suphap had a case history as a mental patient and was previously admitted as a patient at a hospital in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.

If the government could prove that Mr Suphap had mental disorders, it could provide an option for requesting the Cambodian government to reduce his jail term, he said.

In addition, Mr Chavanont noted that while Mr Suphap is a civilian, he was sentenced by a Cambodian military court.

Mr Chavanont said the Thai embassy would coordinate to help him appeal the verdict and requested the Cambodian government to allow a psychiatrist from Thailand, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or any international organisation to visit and check whether he is suffering mental illness in order to ask for humanitarian assiastance.

He added that Mr Suphap has a criminal record, as he was jailed for five years for striking his father, after which he disappeared from sight. No one could contact him for 10 years from the time he was released from jail until he was arrested in Cambodia.

International media reported that 39-year-old Suphap was sentenced to 20 years in a Cambodian jail after he confessed in proceedings that he had planted at least five landmines in Cambodia's Anlong Veng town near areas claimed by both countries.

The news service said that he was arrested one year ago and that the Khmer authorities charged him with attempted murder, endangering national security and entering Cambodia illegally.

The Cambodian court record was quoted as saying Mr Suphap was arrested by Cambodian border guards just a few metres inside the country while carrying a land mine on February 27 last year.

Thai embassy to help Thai convicted of laying landmine in Cambodia

February 16, 2010
The Nation

Thai embassy in Cambodia will offer aid to a Thai convicted of planting landmines along Thai-Cambodia border and was sentenced to 20 years in jail, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said recently.

The diplomats are looking into what assistance the government is able to provide, Kasit said.

In a hearing last week, Suphap Vong Pakna confessed to planting at least five explosive devices along the Cambodia-Thailand border, claiming Thai soldiers paid him to do so.

Pakna's lawyer says his client received a fair trial. "I think he is getting a fair judgment according to the evidence and his confession, because the court reduced the jail term from 30 to life imprisonment to 20 years in prison based on our terror law, article 75."

The 39-year-old was arrested in February of last year after he allegedly entered Cambodian territory and laid landmines.

A Thai investigation reportedly found Russian-made landmines in the area which they say were recently planted and of a type that Thai soldiers have never used.

Thai authorities said the findings suggested that Cambodia may have been guilty of breaking the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which bans signatories from using anti-personnel mines.

Cambodia, however, dismissed the accusation, saying any landmines in the area were remnants of the three-decade war.

The group Landmine Monitor says mined border areas between Cambodia and Thailand have the highest concentration of landmines in Cambodia.

Cambodia denies laying landmines near Preah Vihear

Thu, 08 Oct 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The Cambodian military has rejected recent Thai media reports that its soldiers have laid landmines in the disputed border region around Preah Vihear temple, local media reported Thursday. A brigade commander stationed at the 11th-century Hindu temple said there was no reason to lay landmines, and said the comments amounted to standard provocation by Thailand.

"Cambodian soldiers are not laying landmines along the border," brigade commander Yim Phim told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. "All the mines on the border were put there in the 80s and 90s."

His comments came after a recent article in Thailand's The Nation newspaper which alleged Cambodian troops were mining the contested area. If the allegation were true, it would be a breach of Cambodia's obligations under the Ottawa Convention, which among other things bans the use of landmines.

The article drew a furious response from the Cambodian ambassador to Thailand, who described the article as "extremely provocative" and "rabble-rousing" in a letter to the newspaper on Tuesday.

Preah Vihear temple and the area surrounding it have long been a source of friction between the two countries. The temple sits on Cambodia's northern border with Thailand, and was awarded to Cambodia in 1962 by the World Court,while the area around it remains disputed.

Last year the UN's cultural body UNESCO added Preah Vihear to its World Heritage List, a move that rankled Thai nationalists.

At least seven Cambodian and Thai soldiers have since died in occasional clashes around the temple complex. However, in late August both sides stood down troops and promised to find a peaceful solution to the issue.

Cambodian official says Thai troops were warned of landmines

Tue, 07 Oct 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia has not planted any new landmines and had warned Thai military commanders that a disputed border area was heavily infested and dangerous well before two Thai rangers were seriously wounded by mines this week, an official said Tuesday. Cambodia Mine Action Centre director, Khem Sophoan, said Tuesday that Cambodian officials and soldiers had warned Thai troops in the area that it was only partially demined and that walking off clearly marked paths around the disputed border area was dangerous.

"Cambodia does not have landmines to lay and has absolutely not laid any new mines," he said.

"The mines that hurt Thai troops are left over from our civil war."

Cambodia ended 30 years of war barely a decade ago and remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

Two Thai rangers lost their legs as they stepped on landmines while patrolling along the Thai-Cambodian border near the disputed Preah Vihear temple Monday, drawing some Thai media reports sourced to Thai military that Cambodian forces may be planting new mines.

The rangers were the second and third men respectively to have been wounded by mines since the border stand-off began in June. Reports Cambodia might have fortified its border with mines have upset Cambodian officials.

The explosion happened three days after soldiers from both sides were wounded in a brief exchange of gunfire near the disputed area.

Preah Vihear, an ancient Hindu temple built on a cliff on the Dongrak mountain range that defines the Thai-Cambodian border, has been a source of conflict between the neighbours for decades.

In 1962, the two countries agreed to settle joint claims to the temple at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Cambodia won, but the court stopped short of defining the border in the area.

Thailand claims that a 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land adjoining the temple is still disputed.

In July, UNESCO agreed to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site despite Thailand's protests, and in mid-July Cambodia alleges Thai troops entered its sovereign territory - claims Thailand denies.

Efforts have since been made to solve the dispute diplomatically - a route Cambodia insists it is intent on following - but have been slowed by political turmoil in Thailand.