Cambodia denies Thaksin link in Thai temple spat

Fri Jun 27, 2008
By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia denied on Friday claims by a group trying to oust the Thai government that Bangkok had covertly ceded land near the disputed 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple on their joint border.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said there was also no truth in the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) assertion that Thailand had backed Cambodia's bid to list the temple as a U.N. World Heritage Site in return for business concessions for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"This has nothing to do with that. But these people used it as pretext for their own political exploitation," he told a news conference.

"Thailand did not lose any land -- not even a square centimeter or handprint," he said.

"They took up this issue for political purposes in their aims to topple the Thai government, which would hurt the cooperation and friendship with Cambodia."

Preah Vihear, built by Khmer kings in the 11th century at the start of the Angkorian period, sits on top of a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary between Cambodia and Thailand and has been a source of tension for decades.

The site was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962 in a decision that rankles with most Thais.

The ruins were off-limits for much of the 1970s to the 1990s, while the temple and surrounding forest were occupied by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia closed the temple again this week for fears a nationalist frenzy whipped up by the anti-Thaksin PAD and the opposition Democrat party during a no-confidence debate in parliament could turn into a major ruction.

Several dozen Thai activists with 40,000 signatures went to U.N. cultural agency offices and the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok calling for a delay in the listing until both countries had settled the dispute.

"We want to tell them that the people of Thailand disagree with what our stubborn government is doing," campaign leader Walwipha Charoonroj, who said she had received help from the PAD, told Reuters.

Fears of a major fallout over Preah Vihear are not fanciful, given that a nationalist mob torched the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh in 2003 over purported comments from a Thai soap star that Cambodia's Angkor Wat temples actually belonged to Thailand.

After the closure, Defence Minister Tea Banh denied a Thai newspaper report he was sending extra soldiers to the border, but said he was "watching the situation closely".

Tea Banh was quoted last month in Thai newspapers as saying Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, was looking to invest in a resort-style entertainment complex on the Cambodian island of Koh Kong.

(Additional reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan in Bangkok; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Thai protestors storm Government House

Anti government protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in front of the Foreign Ministry to force the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, in Bangkok, on June 18, 2008. Just four months after forming a government, Thailand's elected Premier Samak Sundaravej is under attack both in the streets and in parliament, raising new fears about the nation's stability. (AFP/File/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Jun 20, 2008
DPA

Bangkok - Thousands of anti-government protestors marched on the Thai cabinet's headquarters Friday, demanding the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his ministers.

The demonstrators, organized by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which led similar mass protests against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006, broke through a blockade of about 300 riot police to push their way toward Government House.

'PAD protestors have no weapons, so if there is any shooting, it is not by us,' PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang said, urging the demonstrators not to attack police.

The protesters shouted, 'Put Thaksin in prison,' as they took their places outside Government House, which was closed Friday.

The PAD has vowed to camp outside the seat of government until Samak and his cabinet resign, accusing them of mishandling the economy and diplomacy and of acting as 'nominees' for Thaksin and his cronies, who have been barred from power by a Constitutional Tribunal ruling last year.

'We want Samak and his cabinet to get out,' said Janikha Korkhalong, 45, one of the protestors. 'Just what this government has done on the Phra Viharn issue is enough reason for them to go.'

The Thai government this week backed a Cambodian proposal to list the Preah Vihear Hindu temple, the subject of a bitter ownership dispute more than 40 years ago, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site next month.

The decision has irked many in Thailand who still believe the ancient Khmer border temple - called Phra Viharn by Thais - belongs to their country although the International Court of Justice in The Hague passed it to Cambodia in 1962.

There is a widespread belief that the cabinet approved the Cambodian proposal as part of a Thaksin business deal. Thaksin on Wednesday announced plans to invest in a hotel-casino project on Cambodia's Koh Kong island.

The PAD began its anti-government protests May 25 after the cabinet launched a motion to amend the 2007 constitution, leading to speculation that its intent was to undermine several corruption cases against Thaksin and pave the way for his return to power.

Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon, was prime minister from 2001 to 2006 before he was toppled in a bloodless coup on September 19, 2006.

Thaksin, whose Thai Rak Thai party won widespread backing from the rural poor through a host of populist policies, lost the trust of Bangkok's middle class and political elite in early 2006 and soon found himself the target of a military coup.

Outrage against Thaksin exploded in January 23, 2006, when his family sold its 49-per-cent equity in the Thaksin-founded Shin Corp conglomerate to the Singapore government's Temasek Holding for a tax-free 2 billion dollars.

That sale gave the PAD the ammunition it needed to mount an anti-Thaksin campaign that finally led to the military coup. Now the PAD is back on the streets for similar reasons, accusing the Samak-led government of being a proxy cabinet for Thaksin.

The PAD movement, aimed primarily at uprooting Thaksin's lingering influence in Thai politics, has gained momentum with Thailand's deteriorating economy.

Inflation peaked at 7.6 per cent in May, pushed up by rising fuel and food prices, which have sparked a series of protests and demands for subsidies.

Thais protest over Preah Vihear deal

Friday, 20 June 2008
The Mekong Times, Xinhua & DPA

Just as the simmering controversy over the hilltop Preah Vihear temple seemed set to die down, a new agreement between Thailand and Cambodia appears to have ignited a flammable situation in Thailand.

With coup rumors again rife in Thailand, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) are to march on Government House in Bangkok seeking to force the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet, who have been running the country for less than six months. A recent agreement over the potential listing of the hilltop sanctuary as a World Heritage Site has sparked allegations of corruption in the Thai government.

Thailand and Cambodia on Wednesday signed a joint communiqué concerning the Preah Vihear temple behind closed doors, after the Thai cabinet endorsed a new map drawn by Cambodia delineating the borders of the historic site Tuesday.

The new map will be the cornerstone of Cambodia’s presentation to UNESCO experts at a meeting in Quebec, Canada next month.

After the signing, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama and other senior officials told reporters that the new map delineating the temple ruins “did not affect each country’s rights on surveying and demarcating the common border.”

Pen Ngoeurn, an advisor to the Cambodian Council of Ministers, on Thursday noted that the map drawn “registers only the temple. The Thai government does not oppose Cambodia’s bid to register Preah Vihear temple on the World Heritage List.”

Chuch Phoeurn, secretary of state for the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, played down concerns Thursday, saying that negotiations had been “positively fruitful.”

“From now on there will be no more obstacles because the two governments have officially signed the communiqué to inscribe Preah Vihear temple on the World Heritage List as planned,” he said.

Pen Ngoeurn declined to comment on Thai demonstrations against their government’s decision to back the Cambodian bid, saying it was an internal affair of the Thai government. “Cambodia always respects the internal policies of other countries. We will not interfere in the Thai demonstration,” he added.

However, it is clear that, as growing dissent raises concerns over another possible coup in Thailand, the Thai government’s decision to support Cambodia’s bid to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site has been seen there as part of a sinister business deal, typical of the Thaksin era, DPA reported.

Matters are not helped by the fact that Noppadon Patama is Thaksin’s former lawyer and one day after he disclosed the country’s support for Cambodia’s Preah Vihear bid, Thaksin announced plans to build a casino-hotel complex on Cambodia’s Koh Kong island.

Preah Vihear is a sensitive issue for most Thais. The magnificent Hindu temple was the source of a border dispute in the 1950s that ended up in the International Court in The Hague. The court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia.

Noppadon’s approval of the Cambodian claim should pave the way for the temple’s listing at the July 2 UNESCO meeting, a result that will undoubtedly provide a publicity boost for Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP party in the July 27 parliamentary election, DPA reported.

“It looks like Thailand decided to help Hun Sen in the elections,” said Kraisak Choonhavan, a member of the opposition Democrat Party.

“The government’s way of handling this has created the suspicion that personal gains are more important than national gains,” added Kraisak.

Still, Noppadon was adamant the two countries will jointly submit a management plan for overlapping areas to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for consideration by Feb 1, 2010.

He stressed the new map does “not violate even an inch of Thai territory” and that there is no hidden agenda.

Noppadon denied allegations that Thai approval of the map will assist Thaksin in oil investments in Cambodian territorial waters.

Lt. Gen. Dan Meechooarth, director of the Supreme Command’s Royal Thai Survey Department, said his department has been surveying the disputed area over the last few decades, and assured that Cambodia is not encroaching on Thai territory in its application for Preah Vihear to be listed as a World Heritage site.

Veerasak Footrakul, permanent secretary for the Thai Foreign Ministry, said a tripartite committee will be appointed to discuss supervising the un-demarcated 4.6 square kilometers.