Border talks end in deadlock

Cambodia, Thailand to meet again in August

Tuesday July 22, 2008
ANUCHA CHAROENPO WASSANA NANUAM
Bangkok Post

SA KAEO : Talks between Thailand and Cambodia went nowhere yesterday after both countries refused to back down from claiming sovereignty over the disputed area near the Preah Vihear temple. But Supreme Commander Gen Boonsrang Niempradit and Cambodian Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh promised not to take any further military action that might heighten tension on the border between Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket province and the Cambodian province of Preah Vihear, where the 900-year-old temple is located.

''The two sides affirmed there will be neither a withdrawal nor reinforcement of their troops,'' Gen Boonsrang said.

After eight hours of intense talks at a hotel in the border district of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo province involving the two generals and selected officials, the two countries called it quits and agreed to adjourn the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting to next month.

A government source said a new schedule has been tentatively set for Aug 18-20 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Gen Boonsrang, who is the GBC deputy chairman for Thailand, admitted the main obstacle was their ''different legal documents''.

He said Thailand and Cambodia insisted on using different agreements as a basis for the talks on the disputed border area.

Gen Boonsrang did not elaborate but was apparently referring to ways to resolve the 4.6-square-kilometre area of disputed territory.

''The meeting yesterday was not easy,'' he said.

Thailand insists on using the watershed mark as the border between the two countries.

Cambodia maintains the demarcation of the area has to be based on a map drawn in 1908.

Gen Tea Banh, who is also a deputy prime minister and chairman of the GBC for Cambodia, did not consider the talks a failure and said there was a need to ease the border tension.

''We realise we have to reduce the [unfriendly] atmosphere, tension and [military] stand-off,'' Gen Tea Banh said.

Thailand and Cambodia each have about 500 soldiers deployed in the overlapping area. Thailand has 2,400 troops and Cambodia has about 2,000 troops in the area as a back-up.

The border row started after the ancient temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the World Heritage Committee at a meeting in Quebec, Canada, early this month.

The listing prompted some Thais to launch protests at the northeastern border.

In addition to Gen Boonsrang, key Thai officials involved in the meeting were army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda, army chief-of-staff Gen Songkitti Chakkrabat, Border Affairs Department director-general Lt-Gen Niphat Ethnical and permanent secretary for foreign affairs Virasakdi Futrakul.

The Cambodian negotiators comprised Deputy Defence Minister Gen Neang Paht, Deputy Foreign Minister Long Visalo, Senior Minister Var Kim Hong and deputy chief-of-staff Gen Pol Saroeun, as well as Gen Tea Banh.

An army source said a key issue which prolonged the talks and resulted in no agreement was the proposed military withdrawal from the contested area. Two other issues discussed in the talks were the need to avoid any armed action and a promise not to use the border conflict for political gains by the respective governments, the source added.

Thailand did not expect any breakthrough in the talks yesterday as Cambodia will hold a general election on Sunday.

An official in the Thai delegation expected several more rounds of talks to take place before the border issue could be resolved as the issues were sensitive.

''The problem cannot be simply resolved overnight,'' he said.

With the meeting making no progress, Gen Anupong told the commander of the Second Army, Lt-Gen Sujit Sithiprapa, of the need to station troops in the area, said another army source.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in his second letter to Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on July 19 that the disputed area was part of Cambodia.

His second letter, which was released by the Cambodian embassy, was to counter Mr Samak's position that the area was inside Thailand.

Mr Hun Sen said Mr Var Kim Hong, who is in charge of border demarcation, had been assigned to hold a Joint Boundary Commission with Thailand ''as soon as possible''.

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.

Cambodia wants ASEAN mediation in border row with Thailand

SINGAPORE, July 22, 2008
Kyodo

Cambodia on Monday accepted an offer by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to help it and neighboring Thailand resolve a military standoff along their disputed border while Bangkok wanted the issue settled bilaterally.

The development came after talks between the two countries earlier in the day failed to end the tense confrontation.

In a letter sent to Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo, who is chairing an annual series of ASEAN ministerial meetings in Singapore this week, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong asked him to form an "ASEAN Inter-Ministerial Group" comprising the foreign ministers of Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos.

The group would be asked "to help find a peaceful solution to the current crisis and to avoid military confrontation between two ASEAN members," Hor Namhong said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Kyodo News.

He complained that Thai troops, artillery and tanks "are building up along the border, constituting a very serious threat not only to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia but also to peace and stability in our region."

Meanwhile, Thai deputy Prime Minister Sahas Bunditkul said Thailand wants to settle the issue bilaterally.

Speaking to reporters after the ASEAN ministerial meeting, Sahas said he understands the goodwill of ASEAN members in offering to resolve the border standoff with Cambodia. But he added Thailand wants to handle the matter bilaterally.

"I will show you an example. If A and B have a conflict, they probably want to resolve by themselves. A and B have to talk and it will take time to resolve the problem. It's not possible to set deadline only one day and then let another hand to mediate", he said.

The Cambodian letter comes after ASEAN foreign ministers on Sunday issued a joint statement urging Cambodia and Thailand "to exercise utmost restraint and resolve this issue amicably, in the spirit of ASEAN solidarity and good neighborliness."

They said ASEAN would place its facilities at the two countries' disposal "in the event that they felt the need for further support to find an early resolution to the issue."

The ministers also expressed hope that Cambodia and Thailand could find a way to resolve the issue between themselves at a special session of their General Border Committee.

But that meeting, which was held Monday in the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet involving Cambodian Defense Minister Gen. Tea Banh and Thai Supreme Commander Gen. Boonsrang Niumpradit, ended after some 8 hours with only pledges to refrain from violence and avert armed confrontations.

Boonsrang admitted to reporters the two sides were unable to come up with "proper" recommendations to make to their respective governments.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters Monday that he had proposed in Singapore that a "contact group" be set up by ASEAN "to facilitate their talks over the dispute if the two sides fail to find solutions in their border meeting."

"I'm afraid that if we don't manage this issue well, it will affect the political stability in this region. So there is a need to deal with this issue seriously," he added.

He said ASEAN was "uncomfortable" that Cambodia last week approached the U.N. Security Council on the matter, claiming Thai soldiers have been encroaching on its territory since last Tuesday in the vicinity of the Preah Vihear temple, which has been at the center of a bitter 50-year bilateral dispute.

The ancient cliff-top temple was earlier this month inscribed as a World Heritage site, capping seven years of efforts by Phnom Penh over Bangkok's objections.

Thailand had occupied the area from 1949 when Cambodia was a French protectorate, but Cambodia won possession of the temple through an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (with contributions from Puy Kea in Phnom Penh and Varunee Torsricharoen in Bangkok)

Cambodian-Thai Border Talks Fail to Reach Solution

By Liam Cochrane, VOA
21 July 2008

Click here to listen to Cochrane report

Top-level talks between Thailand and Cambodia have failed to resolve a dispute over who owns an ancient temple. The talks were called after Thai soldiers entered Cambodia and troops from both countries gathered along the disputed border. Liam Cochrane reports from Preah Viheah temple on the Cambodian-Thai border.

The Defense Ministers of Cambodian and Thailand met Monday at a border town away from the disputed temple site.

They spoke for eight hours, but the discussion ended without a solution to the dispute or a schedule for further talks.

The Director General of the National Authority for Preah Viheah, Professor Hang Soth says the two sides had different ideas on how to resolve the standoff, but said the Cambodian government was committed to finding a non-violent solution.

"No matter how long it takes, Cambodian government still calm, still use any new way to find peace, never want to make the conflict and no want to have fighting with each other," he said.

At Preah Vihear temple, Cambodian and Thai soldiers chatted and posed for photographs together in an atmosphere that was mostly friendly.

But both sides have hundreds of well-armed troops and heavy machine guns in place in case fighting does break out.

Thailand sent troops to the border after anti-government demonstrators attacked Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government for supporting Cambodia's request to designate the temple a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Thai protesters say the temple's new status will undermine their country's claim to land around the site.

Talks Fail as Border Standoff Escalates

By Reporters, VOA Khmer
Original reports from Banthey Meanchey province and Phnom Penh
21 July 2008

Members of a Thai-Cambodian border committee failed to find common ground Monday as they sought resolution to a continued military build-up that has escalated to include tanks and artillery, officials said.

A Cambodian delegation remained in Thailand late Monday, but officials were unsure they would resume negotiations Tuesday.

Monday's meeting was not successful, because the Thai side asked Cambodia to discuss border demarcation that was not acceptable, Defense Minister Tea Banh told VOA Khmer.

Both sides have so far kept calm on both sides of the border, he added.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong meanwhile sent a request to Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo for an Asean inter-ministerial group to solve what he called a "grave situation" where "tension between Thailand and Cambodia is escalating."

"Thai troops with artilleries and tanks are building up along the border, constituting a very serious threat not only to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia, but also to peace and stability in our region," Hor Namhong wrote.

More than 4,000 Thai and Cambodian troops have moved to the border near Preah Vihear temple, more than double the number Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Cambodian troops remained in an alert posture Monday, although there was no sign of fighting.

Soldiers on both sides said they remained safe.

One Thai soldier told VOA Khmer he was impatient to leave and was not anxious to fight.

Thai officials maintain their soldiers are firmly on Thai soil, a claim disputed by Cambodia, which claims the land surrounding Preah Vihear temple, an 11th-Century Hindu structure dedicated to the god Shiva.

The temple's July 7 inclusion on a Unesco World Heritage site list was celebrated in Cambodia but led to a political crisis in Thailand. On July 8, a contingent of Thai troops entered a pagoda claimed by Cambodia following the detention by Cambodian police of three Thai protesters in the temple.

Soldiers on both sides of the border at Preah Vihear temple have been ordered not to drink, as the standoff entered its seventh day, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said.

Most villagers from the Preah Vihear area have fled for fear of fighting, but the situation remained calm Monday. Not all were prepared to go, however.

"I will not leave if there is no order for me to leave," said Van Son, 44, who lives with his wife in a small home at the top of the mountain, about 40 meters from troops north of the temple.

Thai-Cambodia temple talks fail

Monday, July 21, 2008
Al Jazeera

Thai and Cambodian officials have failed to resolve mutual claims over land near an ancient temple along their border.

Both sides said that troops would remain in the region, after talks in an eastern border town in the Aranyaprathet district of Thailand on Monday.

Tea Banh, the Cambodian defence minister, said that Thailand and Cambodia had agreed not to use force in the confrontation over land near the Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia.

Tea said: "The temperature ... hasn't been reduced."

The closed-door talks lasted nearly eight hours.

No troops increase

It was decided that troops on the border would not be increased and that negotiations would continue at an unspecified time.

Thailand has more than 500 and Cambodia about 1,000 troops on the border.

General Boonsrang Niumpradit, the Thai supreme commander, said that both nations' troops would "not use any violence or weapons".

"We both have legal problems, which we have informed our superiors to discuss."

Cambodia maintains that Thai troops are trespassing on its territory.

Last week, hundreds of Cambodian and Thai troops massed at the border and came close to a shootout as the confrontation escalated over the territory near the temple complex.

Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minister, said on Saturday in a letter to Samak Sundaravej, his Thai counterpart, that a previous international court ruling showed that Thailand did not have a claim to the territory.

The letter said the map used in the 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice shows that the temple "is legally located approximately 700m inside Cambodian territory".

"Nonetheless, I have full confidence that our joint efforts will result in a mutually satisfactory solution to [our] current problem," Hun Sen said.

The conflict over the territory surrounding the ancient Hindu temple escalated earlier this month when Unesco, the UN cultural body, approved Cambodia's application to have the complex named a World Heritage site.

Thai activists say the status undermines Thailand's claim to the compound of a nearby Buddhist pagoda.

Thai-Cambodian dispute over Preah Vihear unresolved

SA KAEO, July 21 (TNA) - Thai and Cambodian officials failed to make headway in resolving the dispute over Preah Vihear temple that straddles the Thai-Cambodian border.

Thailand's Supreme Commander Gen. Boonsang Niempradit and Cambodia's Defence Minister Tea Banh announced at a press conference in this eastern Thai border province following eight hours of informal discussion that the only issue two sides agreed upon for now is to refrain from using force.

As a result of failing to strike any agreement during the informal session, the two sides decided against convening the formal Joint Thai Cambodian Border Committee meeting.

Heads of the two delegations indicated that they will meet again after general elections in Cambodia.

Gen. Boonsang said no agreement was reached because of differences over the legal framework. Thailand wanted to use the US version of cartography whereas Cambodia insisted on the French version of border demarcation.

Both commanders said they now have to report back to their respective authorities for a political decision on what legal basis to follow in order to move talks forward.

But for now, Gen Boonsang and his counterpart are adamant that both sides will refrain from troop reinforcement, and to avoid escalating border tensions.

"The talks did not fail. We both gained and the concrete achievement resulting from the meeting today is that we remain at peace," said Gen. Boonsang.

Gen. Tea Banh, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, said both delegations have tried their best and have reached certain degree of mutual understanding, even though the joint border committee session could not be convened as originally planned.

Asked to comment on why Cambodia brought the case up to the UN, Gen. Tea Banh said the move was part of Cambodia's efforts to resolve the conflict and that the inconclusive talks today amidst tense border stand-off would not lead to violence.

The Preah Vihear issue is high on the agenda at the 41st Asean foreign ministers meeting which started Monday in Singapore. In the latest development on the controversial issue, Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told Thai News Agency late Monday evening that Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Hor Nam Hong had sent a letter to George Yeo, Singapore’s foreign minister and outgoing Asean chairman, highlighting tensions on the Preah Vihear issue had escalated.

The letter also claimed Thailand had deployed more forces to the disputed area. It’s understood an inter ministerial meeting on the Preah Vihear issue has been organised for Tuesday lunchtime on the sidelines of the Asean ministerial meeting.

Asean members expected to attend the talks include Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos.

PREAH VIHEAR: Temple issue bogged

July 22, 2008
The Nation, AFP

Legal matters 'need resolving' as troops told to stay calm

Thailand and Cambodia yesterday failed to resolve a military stand-off at their border, due to legal constraints, the heads of the two countries' delegations said following a lengthy meeting.

"We both have legal problems of which we have informed our seniors to discuss," said Thai supreme commander General Boonsrang Niumpradit, who led the Thai delegation on behalf of premier Samak Sundaravej, who is also defence minister.

Boonsrang said both sides would report the problems to their respective governments.

Cambodian Deputy Premier and Defence Minister General Tea Banh, who led the Cambodian delegation, said both sides had agreed to ease tensions and avoid violence.

Delegates yesterday spent nearly eight hours in closed-door meetings in Aranyaprathet to try to resolve the military stand-off, which started several days ago as a result of a border dispute near the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple.

Thousands of Thai and Cambodian troops are now stationed around a small Buddhist pagoda on the disputed land on a mountain slope leading to Preah Vihear.

Cambodia recently got approval from Unesco's World Heritage Committee to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site, causing anger among nationalist Thais.

Both Boonsrang and General Tea Banh are chairmen of the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC).

Tea Banh told a press conference yesterday that both sides had reached agreement on several points during the lengthy consultation, but there were legal constraints, so the GBC could not commence legally.

He said he wished the problem would soon end smoothly and was happy with results of the consultation.

Boonsrang said both sides had agreed troops would stay in their positions but that neither side would use force.

The Thai supreme commander said the consultation was productive, even though there was no practical solution as of yesterday.

Other senior Thai officials at the consultation session included Army chief General Anupong Paochinda and Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Virasakdi Futrakul.

Both countries have reportedly deployed about 4,000 troops to the disputed 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land near Preah Vihear.

The border spat coincided with the annual meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Singapore this week.

Cambodia also tried to use the Asean ministerial meeting as a mechanism to defuse the stand-off, but Thailand rejected the effort, saying the conflict should be approached bilaterally.

Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo urged Cambodia and Thailand to exercise the utmost restraint while finding a peaceful solution to the row.

"We urge both sides to resolve this issue amicably, in the spirit of Asean solidarity and good neighbourliness," Yeo said prior to the Thai-Cambodian consultation.