Monday, 5 January 2009

Thailand, Cambodia try again to defuse temple row

The Sun Media

SIEM REAP (Cambodia): Thailand's new foreign minister held talks with his Cambodian counterpart on Monday to defuse a row over a 900-year-old temple that has raised fears of a military clash between the southeast Asian neighbours.

Career diplomat Tej Bunnag, who was appointed at the weekend after the resignation of his predecessor over the Preah Vihear spat, declined to talk to reporters as he entered the meeting with Cambodia's Hor Namhong in the tourist town of Siem Reap.

The Cambodian side was also keeping quiet before the talks, which are not expected to yield any major breakthrough, although a landslide victory in Sunday's election by the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) may give Phnom Penh scope to calm tensions.

The CPP, led by wily former Khmer Rouge soldier Hun Sen for the last 23 years, claimed to have won 90 of 123 seats in parliament, meaning it may be able to rule alone for the first time since elections organised by the United Nations in 1993.

The dispute with Thailand centres on 1.8 square miles (4.6 square km) of scrubland near the ancient Hindu temple, which sits on the jungle-clad escarpment that forms the natural boundary between the two countries.

The International Court of Justice awarded the ruins to Cambodia in 1962 in a ruling that has rankled in Thailand ever since. The court did not rule on the disputed bits of land lying nearby.

With troops and artillery building up on both sides of the border, Cambodia has threatened to take the spat to the U.N. Security Council. Thailand wants all talks with its smaller neighbour to remain strictly two-way.

"Attempts to bring the bilateral issue to broader frameworks at this stage could complicate the situation and in turn, produce undesirable repercussions on the good relations and goodwill," Tej said in a statement on Sunday.

The talks -- the second attempt to resolve the dispute through dialogue -- are expected to run until 4.30 pm (0930 GMT).

Negotiations a week ago between top military officials quickly descended into an argument over which of several maps drawn up in the last 100 years should be used to settle ownership of the temple and its surroundings.

General Chea Mon, a Cambodian commander at the temple, said both he and Thai officers had ordered a halt to the digging of trenches and bunkers for the duration of the talks, but made clear that any pull-back was out of the question.

"We are still in a military stand-off," he told Reuters.

The dispute flared when street protesters in Bangkok trying to oust the Thai government seized on its approval of Phnom Penh's bid to list the ruins as a World Heritage site.

The election campaign in Cambodia ensured the row quickly escalated. With that now over, the hope is that Phnom Penh will tone down the rhetoric and move towards some understanding with Thailand.

However, there is still a risk of the row taking on a life of its own, with ordinary Cambodians organising collections of cash, food and clothing in the capital to send to troops on the border.

In 2003, a nationalist mob torched the Thai embassy and several Thai-owned businesses in Phnom Penh after erroneous reports of comments from a Thai soap opera star suggesting Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat actually belonged to Thailand. - Reuters

No comments: