[Thai] Army will not force out Cambodians [living in diputed border zones]

Friday July 11, 2008
BANGKOK POST AND AFP

The army will not force out Cambodians living in the disputed area near Preah Vihear temple, as residents in Si Sa Ket are demanding, army chief Anupong Paojinda said yesterday. Gen Anupong said the issue must be settled by the government and stressed there is no army policy to end territorial disputes by military measures.

The government preferred to use existing international protocols, he said.

He said he was confident the Thai and Cambodian governments could settle the controversy over Preah Vihear at the negotiating table.

Thailand was unsuccessful in its attempts to convince the World Heritage Committee (WHC) to postpone the listing of the temple opposite Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket province.

Bangkok wanted a joint nomination to help resolve the issue of disputed land around the temple.

Pongpol Adireksan, the chairman of Thailand's World Heritage Committee, said the overlapping area could be turned into a Thai-Cambodia peace park once a seven-nation committee was appointed to manage the temple and surroundings.

The WHC proposed that a Thai representative sit on the seven-nation International Coordination Committee to safeguard and develop Preah Vihear.

Meanwhile, Cambodia's retired king Norodom Sihanouk yesterday chastised Thai critics of the listing of the ancient temple as a World Heritage site.

The former king said in a handwritten communique that Thai critics of the deal, who allege the main entrance to the temple is in Thailand, and not Cambodia, have ignored ''historic facts''.

Thai critics were ''absolutely wrong'' and stoke ''meanness'' which ''causes undeserved and anachronistic grief to Cambodia and its people concerning the Preah Vihear temple, instead of devoting ourselves to harmonious and fruitful development of our friendship'', Sihanouk said.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has stated that neither Cambodia or Thailand lost any territory from the ruling, but he was concerned that growing nationalist Thai sentiment could harm relations.

[Thai] Locals threaten to take over disputed Preah Vihear Temple

July 10, 2008
The Nation

A group of residents in Si Sa Ket province have threatened to take over the disputed temple of Preah Vihear within a month in an expression of their anger over its listing as a World Heritage site.

The group - calling themselves the Council of Saha Drammic I-san and staging a protest close to the temple over the past weeks - yesterday declared they would take over the temple unless the authorities removed some 500 Cambodians from the area.

They also called on the governments of Thailand and Cambodia to speed up the demarcation of the border within 30 days to mark a clear division of sovereignty.

The government should make the Preah Vihear issue a national priority to reclaim the Hindu temple from Cambodia, as the then foreign minister Thanat Khoman reserved to the right to do so at the United Nations in 1962, they said.

"The government should call a national referendum of Thai people, who have the right of national sovereignty over the temple," they said in a statement.

The Preah Vihear ruling by the International Court of Justice in 1962 stated that the temple was situated in Cambodia, but many Thais believe that it belongs to Thailand as the then government announced its disagreement with the decision.

The group blamed the current government for causing loss of Thai sovereignty, as the Cabinet failed to block Cambodia's application for the site's listing.

The Constitution Court on Tuesday ruled that the joint communiqu้ which Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama signed with Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Sok An to support the application was unconstitutional.

Senators and the opposition plan to impeach the foreign minister and the Cabinet. The Democrat Party's Sathit Wongnongteoy yesterday sought details of the Cabinet's resolution in order to identify all the officials involved.

Noppadon is due to arrive back from London today. Reporters at the ministry saw the minister's close aide packing his belongings at the office, suggesting he might step down.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said the government had done nothing wrong, since the Cabinet had withdrawn the joint communiqu้ of support before the Constitution Court's ruling.

The People's Alliance for Democracy has called for the entire nation to stand against Noppadon.

Army chief Anupong Paochinda made a plea to people to calm down, as fanning nationalism over the temple might jeopardise relations with Cambodia.

"We should allow reason and the law to settle this case, not emotion," he said.