Lame duck or dead duck?

DAILY EXPRESS

By Daily Xpress
Published on July 10, 2008

The foreign minister returns to a nation baying for the 'traitor's' blood for signing away historic landmark

Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama returns from his travels today to a country that is enraged. Many people are accusing him of treason for signing the historic Preah Vihear Temple over to Cambodia.

In fact, some are calling for his head, literally.

The foreign minister signed a communiqu้ with Cambodia agreeing to that country's application to Unesco for the 10th-century temple to be declared a World Heritage site.

Disputed area

The two countries have disputed the area's ownership for decades. In 1962, the International Court of Justice declared that the temple was on Cambodian soil, but the only practical access to the site was via Thailand.

Unesco's World Heritage committee this week agreed to Cambodia's application.

Sources at the Foreign Ministry say Noppadon's aides have been packing up his personal effects, but no one can confirm if the former lawyer for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra is actually quitting.

Thaksin's ex-consiglieri returns to Bangkok from London after a week of last-minute lobbying of the 21 Unesco committee members. They unanimously shunned his plea to delay Phnom Penh's admission until Thailand and Cambodia could come to terms about the status of the Hindu shrine.

Hoping to clear his name

He is scheduled to meet the press tomorrow at 2pm at the Foreign Ministry.

After Noppadon's initial endorsement of Cambodia's bid in May at the Unesco meeting in Paris, a court injunction last week forced him and the government to change their stance.

However, Unesco ignored the injunction and passed one of the most controversial decisions of its eight-day meeting in Canada by putting the temple on the World Heritage list.

Preah Vihear is a stunning, cliff-top temple dedicated to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

The Surayud Chulanont government successfully blocked Cambodia's efforts to have the temple listed in 2006 and 2007 on grounds that maps include the 4.6-square-kilometre disputed territory.