Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Cool off

The Bangkok Post
By Anucha Charoenpo and Wassana Nanuam at 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 Visaro, 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".

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