Sep 29, 2009
(Post by CAAI News Media)
BANGKOK - THAILAND'S ex-premier and foreign minister face prosecution after an anti-graft body ruled Tuesday that they illegally backed Cambodia's bid to get UN heritage status for a disputed border temple.
The National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) said former prime minister Samak Sundaravej and former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama had not sought parliamentary approval for the move.
Cambodia and Thailand have fought several deadly clashes near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple since it was granted UN World Heritage Status in July 2008.
'The NCCC has ruled that they (Samak and Noppadon) violated the law and the constitution,' said Mr Klanarong Chantik, the body's spokesman.
He added that the commission would submit the case to the state prosecutor and to the speaker of the senate to have them removed from the upper house of parliament.
Samak was forced from office in September 2008 over his participation in TV cooking shows. Noppadon quit in July last year when the country's top court ruled that the cabinet illegally backed the Cambodian bid.
The pair were part of a government linked to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and now lives in exile to avoid corruption charges.
The dispute over the temple added to the fury of anti-Thaksin 'Yellow Shirt' protesters, who eventually drove Thaksin's allies from government by blockading Bangkok's airports in December 2008.
The temple row has rumbled on, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen saying on Monday that he had ordered troops to shoot any trespassers on disputed land around the temple, following a new 'Yellow Shirt' protest there this month.
Current Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva hit back on Tuesday, accusing Mr Hun Sen of seeking to make headlines and saying that Thailand still wanted a peaceful negotiation of the dispute. The World Court ruled in 1962 that the mountaintop temple belonged to Cambodia. -- AFP
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