A Change of Guard

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Saturday 31 July 2010

Tea Banh rules out joint development


By Panya Tiewsangwan
The Nation
"Cambodia never thinks about violating Thailand's sovereignty," Tea Banh said. When asked if a joint development of the site would be a solution, he replied: "There are principles for everything. You cannot try to be co-owners of properties you don't have rights over them."

The World Heritage Committee's decision to delay the Preah Vihear management issue to next year must have hit Cambodia hard, but Phnom Penh's Defence Minister Tea Banh (pictured) took it on the chin, albeit quiet bitterly.

"We know from history what the issue is like," he told The Nation in a phone interview. "What has happened doesn't give any new signal. It's an old issue, nothing new."

While saying that the Unesco setback will not create military tension at the border, Tea Banh, who is also deputy prime minister, couldn't help feeling Thailand could have just stopped being "stubborn" and learned to "let go".

"To us it's deja vu all over again. Thailand has never let go in spite of the World Court verdict and Thais have tried everything" to oppose Cambodian rights over the temple, he said.

Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy, who demonstrated at the Bangkok head office of Unesco yesterday against Cambodia's management plan for the temple, cheered the World Heritage Committee's decision. But observers believe the one-year postponement is unlikely to soften the PAD's sometimes vociferous campaign for Thai territorial claims around the temple.

It was the PAD's strong protests that galvanised the government to resort to tough diplomacy that saw Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva threatening this week to sever ties with the Unesco committee.

The World Heritage Committee, part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, had been scheduled to rule on Thursday on the Cambodian management plan for the 11th-century Hindu temple. But at the meeting in Brasilia, the Thai-Cambodian conflict flared up. As a result, the 21-member committee decided to postpone the decision until next year's meeting in Bahrain, after Thai accusations of procedural errors.

"The Thais know best what they want and I can't speak for them," Tea Banh said. "You don't have to ask me what caused the delay after Thailand threatened to end its Unesco membership.

"Should this conflict be mediated by a third party? I really don't want to comment. Let me just say if one side refuses to accept truth, it will be very difficult to move on."

The stone Hindu temple ruins were listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site two years ago and Phnom Penh was required to submit a management plan to the committee. Thai opponents of the management plan feared it "hid" some sensitive territorial information that would bolster Cambodia's territorial claims in the future.

"Cambodia never thinks about violating Thailand's sovereignty," Tea Banh said. When asked if a joint development of the site would be a solution, he replied: "There are principles for everything. You cannot try to be co-owners of properties you don't have rights over them."

3 comments:

Mora Mao said...

You are absolutely right, General Tea Banh. We, as Cambodian can not even imaging that they would made this claim, the Thai people are very unscrupulous people on this planet.

Anonymous said...

Where is my comment? Why did you delete it? Please explain me?

True Khmer

Khmerization said...

Dear True Khmer,
Khmerization is an open forum and is open to all comments and criticism. Khmerization have never moderated any comments for a long, long time. However, recently, there are an increasing number of offensive language and profanities made by some readers, as such Khmerization was forced to review and moderate all comments before publishing. All comments and profanities have to be deleted to avoid offending other readers and visitors. However, please rest assured that all comments, including the severe criticism against this blog will be published if they do not contain offensive language or profanities. I am not sure which comment you referred to, but I have never deleted any of your comments so far because all your comments are rational and never contained any profanities. Please keep making comments. Thanks.