PM says Cambodia must respect borders

via Khmer NZ

Published: 26/07/2010

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has vowed that Thailand will not accept any loss of its territorial sovereignty following Cambodia's announcement of a proposed management plan for the Preah Vihear temple

Abhisit: ‘Sovereignty the top priority’

In his weekly address yesterday, Mr Abhisit said he had ordered Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti to oppose the management plan Cambodia was presenting at a Unesco meeting in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, which began yesterday and will continue until Aug 3.

Thailand objects to the Cambodian management plan because it includes the disputed 4.6 square kilometre buffer zone claimed by the two countries. The Thai side says sovereignty over the area has yet to be settled.

Mr Abhisit said the Foreign Ministry would lodge a protest if it finds that Cambodia was threatening Thailand's territorial sovereignty.

He said the government would not recognise the map that Cambodia is expected to submit to the World Heritage Committee, as the 1962 map, which awarded Preah Vihear to Cambodia, did not demarcate the border between the two countries.

Tensions have been high and troop stand-offs frequent along the disputed border since July 2008, when the Preah Vihear temple was granted World Heritage status by Unesco.

Mr Abhisit said that if the heritage committee approved Cambodia's management plan, Thailand had a strategy in place to oppose the decision.

Mr Abhisit had earlier dismissed calls from the People's Alliance for Democracy for Thailand to boycott the World Heritage Committee meeting in Brazil.

Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutharak has reiterated the demarcation of the area around Preah Vihear must be settled before Cambodia can propose a plan to unilaterally manage the site.

He said he believed the Cambodian side would cite an earlier communique from the Samak Sundaravej administration that acquiesced to Phnom Penh's right to apply for World Heritage status for the site alone.

The joint declaration was signed by former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on June 18, 2008, a day after the Thai government gave it the green light.

The Constitution Court later ruled the communique was unconstitutional as it bypassed parliamentary approval.