Archive for July 25th, 2008
Cambodia: UN help if border talks fail
Thailand Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej speaks during a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, July 4, 2008. Samak said Cambodia has agreed to meet Monday to discuss disputed land near a historic temple, rather than take the matter to the United Nations Security Council. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
Cambodia is only postponing — not canceling — its request for the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the dispute over contested land near a historic temple, Hor Namhong told reporters.
Foreign ministers from both countries are scheduled to meet Monday in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap.
“This is a new step in our goodwill to try to find a solution to the problem through peaceful negotiations,” Hor Namhong said after meeting with ambassadors to Cambodia from the Security Council’s five permanent members.
The session was called to inform diplomats about the Monday talks.
He said he was “quite hopeful” that the Monday meeting could resolve the standoff near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple. However, if the talks fail, “resorting to the United Nations is still more preferable than waging a war.”
The comments came a day after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a statement saying he had advised the Security Council to “temporarily postpone its meeting while awaiting results of the negotiations between Cambodia and Thailand.”
Military tensions between the two countries over 1.8 square miles of land intensified earlier this month after UNESCO approved a Cambodian application to have the temple designated a World Heritage Site.
Thailand sent troops to the border July 15 after anti-government demonstrators lashed out at Samak’s government for supporting Cambodia’s application. They claim the temple’s new status will undermine Thailand’s claim to land around the temple.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej spoke by telephone Thursday and agreed to schedule the meeting next week between their foreign ministers.
Political attempts earlier this week to resolve the crisis failed, prompting Cambodia to take the issue to the U.N.
Thailand opposes the involvement of the U.N. or ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which both countries are members of. Thailand’s U.N. ambassador, Don Pramudwinai, has accused Cambodia of bringing the quarrel before the Security Council because “the Cambodian target is not only Preah Vihear but the entire common border.”
Don said Cambodia was trying to force Thailand to accept a French colonial map’s demarcation of the border.
Thailand relies on a different map drawn up later with American technical assistance, but accepts a ruling by the International Court of Justice that awarded the disputed temple to Cambodia in 1962.
Add comment July 25, 2008
Thailand, Cambodia to talk Monday on border dispute, not to bother UN
BANGKOK, July 24 (Xinhua) — Thailand and its neighbor Cambodia have agreed to hold a ministerial meeting on next Monday over the disputed border areas adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple, and Cambodia would withdraw its petition filed earlier with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to ask for mediation, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Thursday.
Samak and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen had a telephone conversation Thursday afternoon, in which the Cambodian Prime Minister told Samak that Cambodia would withdraw its request for the UNSC to convene an urgent meeting to discuss the Thai-Cambodian dispute.
 |
|
Thai soldiers greet Cambodian soldiers near the Cekakiri Svarak pagoda of the Preah Vihear temple, about 245 km (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, July 24, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
Samak said both sides had agreed that the Foreign Ministers of both countries would meet in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Monday (July 28).
At a press briefing Thursday, Thai Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tharit Charungvat said that Samak and Army Chief Anupong Phaochinda have reaffirmed that there had been no “military-buildup” by the Thai armed forces in the area adjacent to the temple.
The two also reiterated their instructions that all military personnel in the area exercise utmost restraint and avoid any violence in order to strictly follow what had been agreed during the General Border Committee (GBC) on Monday.
 |
|
Cambodian soldiers stand guard at the Cekakiri Svarak pagoda near the Preah Vihear temple, 245km (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, July 24, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
The meeting, conducted at the Thai border province of Sa Kaeo, produced no breakthrough except for a promise from both sides not to use force as a resolution.
Thailand’s former Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama had resigned from the post early this month, following a court ruling that found it an unconstitutional act for Noppadon to sign the Thai-Cambodian Joint Communique in June, which endorsed Thailand’s support for Cambodia’s application with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to list the ancient Preah Vihear temple at the disputed border area as World Heritage Site.
Samak said the government would have to pick a new Foreign Minister to fill the vacancy left by Noppadon before July 28 to represent Thailand in the border talks, but he refused to elaborate on who will be the candidate.
The Samak cabinet is expected to experience a major reshuffle since it took office in early February since three ministers, including the Foreign Ministry head, have been forced out of their office after a series of legal battles and the government faced sharp criticism upon their performance on issues including the Preah Vihear temple.
The UNESCO approved the application from Cambodia earlier this month despite Thailand’s withdrawal of support, 46 years after the International Court of Justice ruled to confirm Cambodia’s ownership of the 11th-century Hindu temple, which had been claimed by both Cambodia and Thailand.
The two neighbors have also been engaged in a conflict about a 4.6-square kilometers border area claimed by both sides adjacent to the temple, an issue which was boiled again amidst Thailand’s recent domestic political turmoil, as opponents of the Samak government claimed its earlier endorsement of support for Cambodia’ s World Heritage bid would put Thailand at a disadvantage in border demarcation.
The atmosphere at the border has intensified after both countries dispatched more troops to the disputed border area.
Cambodia earlier filed a complaint with the Security Council to ask for UN to help resolve the border dispute.
However, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the regional bloc of which Thailand and Cambodia are both members, and the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have expressed the view to leave the matter be solved on a bilateral level, rather than to bother the UN, on the sideline of ASEAN ministerial meeting in Singapore.
On Thursday, the UNSC convened a one-hour special session on the Thai-Cambodia border row upon Cambodia’s request to decide whether to interfere, but has postponed a decision, according to Thai Ambassador to the UN Don Pramudwinai.
Add comment July 25, 2008
(The RGC temporarily stopped asking for help from the UN Security Council) Cambodia, Thailand to resume bilateral talks over land dispute
PHNOM PENH, July 24 (Xinhua) — Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen agreed Thursday not to refer both countries’ ongoing land dispute to the UN Security Council, but resume to bilateral means to solve it, said a senior official.
Samak called Hun Sen around noon (0500 GMT), but the latter was too busy to receive. At about 16:30 (0930 GMT), he called again and the top-level conversation started and yielded the result, Cambodian government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told Xinhua.
According to the premiers’ oral agreement, both sides will initiate foreign minister negotiations on Monday in Siem Reap province of Cambodia to seek solution for their nine-day military stalemate in the border area near the Preah Vihear Temple, he said.
”We have shown good will and we await the outcome in Siem Reap,” he added.
Also Thursday, Hun Sen issued a statement, saying that his government will temporarily stopped asking for help from the UN Security Council over the Cambodian-Thai spat and turn to bilateral way to find solution.
Earlier Thursday, George Yeo, Singapore’s foreign minister and host of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), said the border between Thailand and Cambodia should never have become a problem, and it was unnecessary to take it to the UN Security Council.
On July 21, bilateral defense minister-level talks in Thailand once failed to reach any agreement to end the military face-off.
The Cambodian government then wrote to ASEAN, UNESCO and UN Security Council for higher level intervention.
The UN Security Council had reportedly planned to hold urgent meeting Thursday or next week to help Cambodia deal with the situation.
On July 15, three Thai protesters trespassed the border to reclaim the Preah Vihear Temple, but were immediately arrested.
Thai troops then came in to fetch them, thus triggering standoff with Cambodian soldiers there. Bilateral military force was then built up on daily basis until the current scale around one thousand at least.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the 11- century classic Khmer-style Preah Vihear Temple, together with the land it occupies, to Cambodia. The decision has rankled the Thais ever since.
Besides, both sides also have different versions of historical maps to define their border, which has aggravated the dispute.
Add comment July 25, 2008
