Friday, 13 August 2010Cheang Sokha and James O’Toole
The Phnom Penh Post
Hun Sen seeks talks over dispute
PRIME Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he planned to discuss the Preah Vihear border dispute with Ban Ki-moon when the United Nations secretary general visited Phnom Penh later this year.
In remarks at a meeting on the protection of the Tonle Sap lake at the Ministry of Water Resources yesterday, the premier said that Ban Ki-moon would come to Cambodia for an official visit.
“I will talk [about the border dispute] with Ban Ki-moon on October 27-28 when he visits here,” Hun Sen said.
“I will seek a compromise from the UN representative."
“Thailand should not be afraid of international intervention … and if Thailand is afraid, it means Thailand does not have good intentions.
“Real gold is never afraid of fire.”
A statement from the Thai government’s public relations department on Wednesday said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva would meet Ban during a trip to New York next month.
Abhisit planned to “clarify the Thai-Cambodian rift resulting from the registration of the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site” and “discuss with Mr Ban an exit for the dispute”, the statement said.
Margaret Lamb, a spokeswoman for the UN in Phnom Penh, and Farhan Haq, an associate spokesman for the UN secretary general in New York, said they could not confirm Ban’s visit to Cambodia.
Thai ministry of foreign affairs deputy spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said yesterday that Thailand’s position on the issue was “unchanged in that we believe that any outstanding issues between Thailand and Cambodia should be addressed bilaterally within the existing mechanisms”.
In a speech on Monday, Hun Sen called for an international conference to resolve the ongoing border dispute, saying that the existing bilateral mechanisms were not working. A day earlier, he wrote to the UN Security Council and General Assembly to denounce comments printed in Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper in which Abhisit reportedly contemplated the use of military force at the border.
“No Thai prime ministers have ever spoken of using armed force against Cambodia, only Abhisit Vejjajiva,” Hun Sen said yesterday.
“This matter is very serious, and it looks down on the Cambodian people as well as [abuses] the UN Charter.”
The Thai government has since said Abhisit’s comments were misquoted and “taken out of context”.
The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia stretches back to July 2008, when Preah Vihear temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. Both countries claim a 4.6-square-kilometre zone adjacent to the temple.
The latest round of bilateral antagonism came to a head after a meeting of UNESCO’S World Heritage Committee in Brazil that concluded earlier this month.
The Cambodian delegation to the meeting submitted a management plan for Preah Vihear that will be discussed by the committee next year.
In remarks at a meeting on the protection of the Tonle Sap lake at the Ministry of Water Resources yesterday, the premier said that Ban Ki-moon would come to Cambodia for an official visit.
“I will talk [about the border dispute] with Ban Ki-moon on October 27-28 when he visits here,” Hun Sen said.
“I will seek a compromise from the UN representative."
“Thailand should not be afraid of international intervention … and if Thailand is afraid, it means Thailand does not have good intentions.
“Real gold is never afraid of fire.”
A statement from the Thai government’s public relations department on Wednesday said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva would meet Ban during a trip to New York next month.
Abhisit planned to “clarify the Thai-Cambodian rift resulting from the registration of the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site” and “discuss with Mr Ban an exit for the dispute”, the statement said.
Margaret Lamb, a spokeswoman for the UN in Phnom Penh, and Farhan Haq, an associate spokesman for the UN secretary general in New York, said they could not confirm Ban’s visit to Cambodia.
Thai ministry of foreign affairs deputy spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said yesterday that Thailand’s position on the issue was “unchanged in that we believe that any outstanding issues between Thailand and Cambodia should be addressed bilaterally within the existing mechanisms”.
In a speech on Monday, Hun Sen called for an international conference to resolve the ongoing border dispute, saying that the existing bilateral mechanisms were not working. A day earlier, he wrote to the UN Security Council and General Assembly to denounce comments printed in Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper in which Abhisit reportedly contemplated the use of military force at the border.
“No Thai prime ministers have ever spoken of using armed force against Cambodia, only Abhisit Vejjajiva,” Hun Sen said yesterday.
“This matter is very serious, and it looks down on the Cambodian people as well as [abuses] the UN Charter.”
The Thai government has since said Abhisit’s comments were misquoted and “taken out of context”.
The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia stretches back to July 2008, when Preah Vihear temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. Both countries claim a 4.6-square-kilometre zone adjacent to the temple.
The latest round of bilateral antagonism came to a head after a meeting of UNESCO’S World Heritage Committee in Brazil that concluded earlier this month.
The Cambodian delegation to the meeting submitted a management plan for Preah Vihear that will be discussed by the committee next year.
10 comments:
Why Thailand affraid of Third Party mediation? Thailand has something to hide from the world..? Thailand should not scared or face the Truth? Cambodia must not talk with Thailand without third party mediate or witness, otherwise its wasting time again...we must grab Thailand by the neck this time!!
Cambodia will put Thailand on the grills to let the world know that Thailand is the one who started all the problems within cambodia...
Thailand should be more careful. The KR's trial is going well right now in Cambodia. You don't want to jeopardize it and don't forget that Mr. Hun Sen wants war in the first place in order to create chaos and stop this special court. So keep your nerve under control, please.
UN should help draw all borders of Cambodia as promise in Paris agreement!
Forget about Hun Sen and Shihanoukthey not own country nor people! We are free human!!!!!of new demoncracy!
We need this more thant Khmer Rouge court!!!!
We will see what will happen on August 24th in Preah Vihear.
Will the Yellow shirts start to fight against Cambodia with the hidden support of the Thai Government?
We only can wait and see.....
Are you a happy for millions of $ spent on KK's trail? and only to get Duch 19 years in Prison Mr. Ban -Ki Moon? We hope that his case, was only the beginning or a scratch of a real surface.
The gangsters are afraid of the truth to be discovered by the international community. They are always seeking to hide like the ostriches .
The UN should be asked to set up an International Border Observation Commission office in Cambodia to ensure that border marking and border related disputes between Cambodia and all of her neighbours do not lead to the loss of her sovereignty or result in armed confrontation.
The Preah Vihear issue could be just the tip of the iceberg whilst Cambodia and her authoritarian government lack the will to internationalise or make transparent the on-going border delimitation process with all of her neighbours, particularly, Vietnam who has a long history of imperceptibly shifting her boundaries at Cambodia's expense.
So far an opposition leader has been sentenced in absentia to 2 years' imprisonment ‘for falsifying public documents’ and 2 border villagers are being imprisoned for protesting the planting of border markers on their rice fields. These are not the actions of a sovereign country or its deserved national policy makers, committed to defending 'every millimetre' of its territorial integrity on all fronts. Even Vietnamese authorities had reportedly removed some of their border markers in or near the area where the 2 farmers and the Opposition MP uprooted the six wooden markers. In this sense, the guilty verdict must be applied to the said authorities as well as their Cambodian counterparts who had been the parties to have brought about the fiasco in the first place. But, as Winston Churchill once reminded a woman who accosted him for being drunk while on public duty: ‘Madame, in the morning I will be sober, but you will still be ugly!’
Preah Vihear could come to mark as a decisive milestone in halting Cambodia's decline if the Khmer people know in their hearts that they are not fighting and winning a battle only to lose the war by being cannon fodder for another ambitious, expansionist power with whom the country's leadership has shown no concrete desire to question, let alone oppose.
Cambodia simply could not afford to pursue this dangerous and costly policy of selective alignment with relations to Vietnam to the east and Thailand to the west. Both have consistently taken their opportune moments to squeeze the juice out of the nation in the middle; both grasp the roots of Cambodia's anxiety and are ever on the ready to pounce on the country's internal division and its need for an ally to counteract the threat and aggression of the other.
To address this obvious defect in foreign policy decision - making could certainly spell the beginning of the emergence of a truly independent Cambodia that could then stand respected and equal among all other nations including its neighbours.
School of Vice
HunXen is a hippocrit himself.
If he not afraid, why havn't he spoke to UN about youn encroachment and illegal youns in cambodia.
Thailand with Ahbullshist is such a sore loser!!!
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