La Tension à Preah Vihear

LA TENSION À PREAH VIHEAR

Bangkok veut mesurer les capacités des Cambodgiens à se battre. Malgré la présence de plus de 500 soldats Thaïs, nos bonzes n'ont pas quitté la pagode construite de longue date sur le territoire reconnu cambodgien au Nord du temple Preah Vihear. Puis les soldats Cambodgiens ont amené tranquillement des vivres pour nos bonzes. Ainsi les Cambodgiens n'ont pas peur des attitudes provocatrices irresponsables de l'armée thaïe. Les Cambodgiens ont agit en responsables et en défenseur du territoire national. Le peuple cambodgien a une très longue tradition militaire. Ce n'est pas l'armée thaïe qui n'a pas combattu depuis un demi siècle qui peut nous intimider.

PREAH VIHEAR : Update
(Collected articles from KI Media of July 18, 2008)

Opinion on Preah Vihear by readers of the Bangkok Post
Friday July 18, 2008
PostBag
Bangkok Post
Temple of doom?
The current hoohah over the border temple of Khao Phra Viharn is an unnecessary disaster and by far the biggest loser is Thailand.Virtually all tourist arrivals are from Thailand and they pay the same to pass through the national park on the Thai side as the Cambodians charge for entry.Thailand should accept that the temple is irrevocably part of Cambodia and co-operate in developing the temple as a World Heritage Site.A few disputed square kilometres are unimportant and developing tourism in Si Sa Ket, a poor province, and promoting good relations with Cambodia are far more important.There is everything to lose from making the issue a political football and stirring up hysterical nationalistic fervour, and nothing to gain. The temple should become a symbol of a history and culture that can be equally shared between the two nations.ANDREW HICKS SurinPointless conflict It is sad to read about the unrest in Thailand that has caused more harm to the economy and credibility of the country. It seems the country is "heading back to the klong" instead of going forward. As for the Preah Vihear temple, some hot-headed people are taking reckless actions that could spark an unnecessary war between Thailand and Cambodia. I hope the situation will be resolved peacefully without military involvement.SRILADA MARTIN NOVATO

Thailand: Military Adventurism is NOT an Option
Thursday, July 17, 2008Op-Ed by Rath Khemara
The current military face off between Cambodia and Thailand over a parcel of land near Preah Vihear Temple is a lose-lose confrontation. The one question that both sides should ask and take a serious look at it is: WHO WILL LOSE THE MOST? With that said, let us examine some scenarios or disastrous consequences which could result from a war.From a military perspective, it is clear that Thai military has more superior weapons in their arsenals than their Cambodian counterparts. But, one must remember that a superior weapon is good only when it could find and destroy its target. If anyone doubted that, just look at the U.S. army’s pursuit of Osama bin Laden.As for the Cambodian military, they might lack good weapons, but they have experience and knowledge of the terrains—the most important asset that no superior weapon could defeat. Let me point out that the majority of Cambodian soldiers stationed along the Dangrek Mountain frontiers are former resistant fighters in the 1980’s. They know the Dangrek Mountain ranges like the back of their hands. In addition, the memory of Thai black clad soldiers abusing Cambodian refugees when they were gathered on the Thai-Cambodian border in the 1980’s are still fresh in their mind. The desire to see past wrong-doings pay back in a just manner is enough to motivate a rag-tag army to become an effective fighter. “I haven’t used it in 10 years and it’s gotten a bit rusty….But I am ready and I’m thirsty.” This quote from a Cambodian foot soldier should serve as a good advice to Thai supreme military commanders to think twice before embarking on any military adventurism. If the Thai armies still believe that strength and brute forces will always win, then they need to read the Cambodian children book story below to learn the truth.
Rath Khemara

http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2008/07/thailand-military-adventurism-is-not.html';

Thailand: Military Adventurism is NOT an Option

PREAH VIHEAR TEMPLE: Si Sa Ket locals clash with PAD
Friday July 18, 2008Bangkok Post
Members of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday clashed with a group of local people in Si Sa Ket who set up tents to block them from heading to the Preah Vihear temple. The PAD protesters, whose procession with over a hundred carloads was about two kilometres long, confronted a group of some 200 locals who blocked a road in tambon Saothongchai of Kantharalak district, about 8 km away from the temple ruins, with tents at around 7 pm.Police barriers were also set up in the area with about 200 police officers standing guard. The PAD wanted to march to the temple ruins to protest against Cambodia's listing of the temple as a World Heritage site.Leading PAD figures ordered their security guards to break through the police barriers. This prompted angry local residents to throw wooden objects at the PAD protesters, who used flag poles to hit back. Police rushed to intervene. The clash left several PAD demonstrators and local residents injured. After the clash, the PAD protesters marched toward Preah Vihear national park, the entrance to the temple, in Kantharalak district. Officials had to barricade it with barbed wire and wooden barriers to keep them out.Suranaree Task Force commander Maj-Gen Kanok Nettarakawaysana said he has been in the border area for three days awaiting negotiations with Cambodian authorities about the overlapping zone between the two countries.Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej lashed out at three Thai protesters who crossed the border into the overlapping zone on Monday and were detained, saying the three wanted Cambodian soldiers to arrest them in a bid to ignite violence.The crossing of the three Thais - two Buddhist lay people, one a man, another a woman, together with a Buddhist monk - resulted in both countries reinforcing troop levels in the border area, he said. The three Thais were detained and later released on Tuesday.A source said the three yesterday returned safely to the Thai side of the border after meditating in the disputed area near the temple ruins for a while after being released.Mr Samak also accused the PAD of trying to instigate another coup.Air force chief ACM Chalit Phukpasuk said Royal Thai Air Force aircraft are on standby, prepared to evacuate Thais living in Cambodia if tensions flare over the disputed Thai-Cambodian border and Preah Vihear temple.So far, the prime minister, who also serves as defence minister, has not yet issued any orders to the air force, he added.''If the situation worsens, the air force can assist around the clock and airlift out Thai people to repatriate them within one hour,'' the air force chief said.He said Thai security officials - including Mr Samak, military commanders, the supreme commander and the permanent secretary for defence - are conducting ongoing discussions on ways to defuse the tensions.In response to the PAD move, ACM Chalit said that people have the right to express their opinions but they must be based on the truth and that protesters must strictly follow orders issued by the Suranaree Task Force.He also said that PAD members and supporters should refrain from intruding into the disputed area because it is dangerous.

Thai protesters blocked from disputed Preah Vihear temple
Friday, 18 July, 2008 Reuters
KANTARALAK, Thailand: Thai police and angry villagers blocked nationalist protesters yesterday from rallying at an ancient temple at the centre of a diplomatic row with neighbouring Cambodia.A political uproar in Thailand over Cambodia’s listing of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site has been stoked by anti-government groups seeking to oust Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s shaky ruling coalition.The issue has also raised fears the spat could escalate, five years after a dispute over another Cambodian temple, Angkor Wat, saw a nationalist mob torch the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh.“Go home, go home, you troublemakers!,” one woman shouted at members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which is leading a nearly 2-month old street campaign against Samak, whom they accuse of being a proxy for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ousted in a 2006 coup.

The 900-year-old temple has been a source of tension for decades since the International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, a ruling that still rankles Thais.The latest flare-up – which has seen a buildup of troops on both sides of the border – was sparked by Bangkok’s support for the Unesco listing, which the PAD said was tantamount to selling out Thailand’s heritage.Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama quit last week after a Thai court ruled the joint communique he signed backing Preah Vihear’s listing was illegal because it was an international treaty that required parliament’s approval.The case has left Thai diplomacy in limbo, with Samak saying this week his cabinet ministers were afraid to sign any statements after a bilateral meeting.The PAD seized on the court ruling, vowing to go after the rest of Samak’s cabinet and step up a street campaign that has worried investors. The main stock index has dropped 23% since the protests began on May 25.“Political temperatures will rise inexorably, and Thailand will become increasingly ungovernable, in the interim,” Chulaongkorn University professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak wrote.Hundreds of riot police and villagers blocked the PAD convoy 11km from the temple, which sits on a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary between the two nations.“These people have been mobilised by local businessmen who have interests in Cambodia,” PAD leader Veera Somkwamkit said.Prasert Aramsrivorapong, chief of the Kantaralak district where the villagers live, said the PAD had no right to stir up trouble on the border.“Soldiers are dealing with the problem at the temple. We don’t want these people to cause any trouble,” Prasert said.Thailand and Cambodia have accused each other of border violations and sent more troops since the stand-off began on Tuesday when three Thai activists were briefly detained on the Cambodian side for trying to plant a Thai flag there.Despite the aggressive rhetoric from both sides, diplomatic efforts appear to be underway to end the stand-off.

Friday, July 18, 2008
Preah Vihear: has thailand been duped?
July 18, 2008
By Tulsathit Taptim The Nation
One of the key questions still left hanging after the Preah Vihear temple became a World Heritage site has to do with whether Thailand has been "duped", or whether the whole issue is highly charged and highly politicised nationalism gone awry. Should we be genuinely concerned, or write it off as a political game and forget about it?In a long, detailed article on the temple's history and the controversy surrounding it, to be published in The Nation starting on Monday, MR Pridiyathorn Devakula touches upon this question. He says a main point to look at is the acceptance statement of the World Heritage Committee after it decided to list the temple.A main cause for concern, he says, is resolution number 14 that deals with how to mobilise international efforts to preserve the temple's universal values. This particular resolution "requests the State Party of Cambodia, in collaboration with Unesco, to convene an international coordinating committee for the safeguarding and development of the property no later than February 2009, inviting the participation of the Government of Thailand and not more than seven other appropriate international partners, to examine general policy matters relating to the safeguarding of the outstanding universal value of the property in conformity with international conservation standards"."The wording looks so harmless," says Pridiyathorn.But "the safeguarding of the outstanding universal value of the property in conformity with international conservation standards" may contain far-reaching obligations that could cover the management of surrounding zones affected for decades by both countries' overlapping claims, or even undisputed areas on the Thai side, he says.This, combined with the "unprecedented" requirement Cambodia enlist seven other appropriate international partners, may bode ill for Thailand, he cautions. Boldly put, it can be a case of eight against one when it comes to key matters where Thai and Cambodian interests clash.Speculation about a "conspiracy" will live on, thanks to Unesco's connection with the French and France's role in the past Thai-Cambodian dispute over the temple. But it must be noted the World Heritage Committee is an intergovernmental panel for which Unesco serves only as a neutral, non-voting secretariat. Unesco Bangkok director Sheldon Shaeffer's insistence that the World Heritage Committee is by no means a Unesco committee underlines the extreme sensitivity of the whole issue.Follow Pridiyathorn's take on the Preah Vihear temple controversy, on Monday.

Friday, July 18, 2008
Thai politics at heart of temple dispute
Friday, July 18, 2008ABC Radio Australia
Click here to listen to the audio program
Cambodia has urged Thailand to withdraw its troops from the border near the Preah Vihear temple, warning a that a territorial quarrel was damaging relations between the two neighbouring countries.Prime Minister Hun Sen has written to his Thai counterpart Samak Sundaravej, asking him to "ease the tensions and to order Thai troops to withdraw from the area. More than 400 Thai troops and more than 800 Cambodian soldiers remain assembled around a small hilly Buddhist pagoda, near the ruins of an ancient temple at the centre of the dispute.Presenter: Sen LamSpeaker: Dr Milton Osborne, author, and former diplomat to CambodiaOSBORNE: To some extent I think that is correct, but at the present moment, I think much more important is the fact that it's become an issue in domestic Thai politics.LAM: Yes, indeed. Is domestic political consideration part of the problem here, the fact that the Thai Government is deeply unpopular at the moment and also there are general elections in a weeks time in Cambodia?OSBORNE: Yes, I think the elections in Cambodia, which of course are very important are not the real issue in terms of what's happening at the moment. It's much more the case that the People's Alliance for Democracy is looking for every possible opportunity to attack the Samak Government and this was particularly so in the demonstrations mounted against Prime Minister Noppadon Pattama who last week ruled that the joint communique was satisfactory and that he backed the Thai court in accepting that communique for the listing of Preah Vihear on the World Heritage List and the fact that he has to resign, is a reflection of the extent which this whole issue has become central to the attack upon the Samak Government.LAM: But if the Samak Government wants to diffuse the situation, they can just quite easily withdraw the troops from the border?OSBORNE: They can, but of course to the extent that it has become an issue in domestic politics. All of the past resentments that have been present underlying the fact of the Preah Vihear temple being listed as Cambodian boiled to the surface.LAM: Well both prime ministers are scheduled to hold talks next week, assuming that they go ahead with the talks, do you think they might be able to sort something out?OSBORNE: I would think there's a real possibility that they can. It's in neither countries interest for the issue to escalate to the point where there might actually be actual conflict between the two armies.LAM: Have there been Thai-Cambodian skirmishes within recent years?OSBORNE: Nothing significant no. You have to go back really to the 60s to find any significant skirmishes. But the fundamental fact is there have been difficult relations between the two countries ever since they both claimed independence, or Cambodia attained independence in the 1950s.LAM: Well both sides as we've heard have troops assembled in the region. One young Cambodian soldier was quoted as saying that he was willing to die for the temple. Is such strong feelings about Preah Vihear common among Cambodians do you think?OSBORNE: I think that particular statement has to be read with a degree of reservation. There are strong feelings on both sides about this particular temple. It is in what might be described outside of legal terms as in an anomalous position. But legally, I don't believe there is any question about it being definitely under Cambodian sovereignty.LAM: Indeed I understand that some villages on the Thai side of the border were quite angry with Thai protesters for disrupting business?OSBORNE: Well, I think that's entirely possible and at least for the last 25-30 years, it's been an issue that has been left undisturbed and as a tourist site, it's been an area that's approached from the Thai side, rather than from the Cambodian side of the border.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
From: Bl...@Runner.com (Deckard)
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:16:04 GMT

Si Sa Ket locals clash with PAD
Members of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday clashed with a group of local people in Si Sa Ket who set up tents to block them from heading to the Preah Vihear temple.
The PAD protesters, whose procession with over a hundred carloads was about two kilometres long, confronted a group of some 200 locals who blocked a road in tambon Saothongchai of Kantharalak district, about 8 km away from the temple ruins, with tents at around 7 pm.
Police barriers were also set up in the area with about 200 police officers standing guard. The PAD wanted to march to the temple ruins to protest against Cambodia's listing of the temple as a World Heritage site. Leading PAD figures ordered their security guards to break through the police barriers. This prompted angry local residents to throw wooden objects at the PAD protesters, who used flag poles to hit back. Police rushed to intervene. The clash left several PAD demonstrators and local residents injured. After the clash, the PAD protesters marched toward Preah Vihear national park, the entrance to the temple, in Kantharalak district. Officials had to barricade it with barbed wire and wooden barriers to keep them out.
Suranaree Task Force commander Maj-Gen Kanok Nettarakawaysana said he has been in the border area for three days awaiting negotiations with Cambodian authorities about the overlapping zone between the two countries. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej lashed out at three Thai protesters who crossed the border into the overlapping zone on Monday and were detained, saying the three wanted Cambodian soldiers to arrest them in a bid to ignite violence.
The crossing of the three Thais - two Buddhist lay people, one a man, another a woman, together with a Buddhist monk - resulted in both countries reinforcing troop levels in the border area, he said. The three Thais were detained and later released on Tuesday. A source said the three yesterday returned safely to the Thai side of the border after meditating in the disputed area near the temple ruins for a while after being released.
Mr Samak also accused the PAD of trying to instigate another coup. Air force chief ACM Chalit Phukpasuk said Royal Thai Air Force aircraft are on standby, prepared to evacuate Thais living in Cambodia if tensions flare over the disputed Thai-Cambodian border and Preah Vihear temple.
So far, the prime minister, who also serves as defence minister, has not yet issued any orders to the air force, he added. "If the situation worsens, the air force can assist around the clock and airlift out Thai people to repatriate them within one hour," the air force chief said. He said Thai security officials - including Mr Samak, military commanders, the supreme commander and the permanent secretary for defence - are conducting ongoing discussions on ways to defuse the tensions.
In response to the PAD move, ACM Chalit said that people have the right to express their opinions but they must be based on the truth and that protesters must strictly follow orders issued by the Suranaree Task Force. He also said that PAD members and supporters should refrain from intruding into the disputed area because it is dangerous.
source (with a gory photo): www.bangkokpost.com/180708_News/18Jul2008_news05.php


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