February 13, 2011
By Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Island (Sri Lanka)
Armored personnel carriers of Cambodian Army drive through a road at Kampong Thom town, about 168 kilometers (104 mikes) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011. Kampong Thom is the neighboring province to Preah Vihear of the disputed 11th century Hindu Preah Vihear temple near the border between Cambodia and Thailand. The battle over a hilly patch of land in this remote countryside is rooted in a decades-old border dispute that has fueled nationalist passions and been driven by domestic politics on both sides. (AP)
Asean often claimed political utopia that its members have never fought an open war was shattered to smithereens during the three-day (February 4-6) fighting along Thai-Cambodian border. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen even went as far as declaring it a real war, which has unwittingly placed the Asean leaders and their organization under the world’s microscope. He has opened a Pandora box in Asean. Now, they altogether have to find ways to smooth out these troubled relations. Otherwise, the grouping’s creditability in the global arena will be severely undermined.
The attention this week will be focused on the briefings at the UN Headquarters in New York given by the foreign ministers of the warring parties, Kasit Piromya and Hor Nam Hong, and their aftermath. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, current Asean’s rotating Chair, will also be there as well to provide the Asean view and to ensure after the meeting, there would emerge a consensus or two, which the Asean chair can later on utilize to facilitate further peace process to end the hostilities.
Obviously, it was rare that Asean warring parties appeared so readily at the UNSC. The last time Asean was a subject at the UN was the burning issue of East Timor in 1999. Burma, although an Asean member, has been an "international issue" of longer standing. Since 2008, Cambodia has always wanted to raise the border fighting to the UN platform, but they were not successful. However, this time, with intense fighting and heavy artillery exchanges, quite a few UNSC members expressed concern over the renewed hostilities and decided to call for a meeting. The new composition of the UNSC, comprising new emerging powers, allows new dynamism that permits the Thai-Cambodian clashes to be discussed. However, the outcome of UNSC briefings and deliberations—possibly through a presidential statement— are non-binding.
Marty knows the trend. His call for a "brief, urgent and informal" meeting with his Asean counterparts on February 22 in Jakarta is indeed an anticipation of a mandate for the UNSC for Asean, under his leadership, to take up the same "regional" responsibility. It was an open secret that during his "shuttle diplomacy" he had been in close touch with both the members of UNSC and the UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon. In a nutshell, the informal gathering will follow up on the UNSC meeting and what Asean can do next to mitigate further conflict and salvage the grouping’s reputation. A more systematic approach to conflict resolution and dispute settlements as outlined in the Asean Charter as well as those contained in the Asean Political and Security Community blueprint will be discussed and put into practice.
Indeed, Marty is well positioned to take up this formidable challenge. He knows the UN system by the back of his hand, having served there before taking up the current ministerial position. He is a respectable and world-class diplomat with friends aplenty at the UN top echelon, especially the current president UNSC Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti from Brazil. With abundant UN experience, connections and diplomatic skills, he can speak on behalf of Asean and the UNSC will listen. He will certainly win support from all the council members to bring the matter back to existing regional mechanisms. Albeit their confrontation, Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to use the MOU 2000 and Joint Border Committee as a basis of their negotiation. Now with the ball in Asean’s court, its members need to find common solutions that augur well with Asean norms and practices.
Asean Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan understood the situation well when he released a statement early last week from his office that the discussion at the UN represents an evolution of Asean’s effort to resolve bilateral disputes among the members under the Asean Charter. He reiterated that the meeting would set precedence for future Asean dispute settlement mechanisms.
As such, it is the most ironical development in Asean history to have Cambodia as the catalyst. Both Prime Minister Hun Sen and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong have been engaging with the UN authorities at all levels—both as friends and foes—for more than three decades. Throughout the 1980s, Asean fought hard with them to push out foreign troops to attain peace in the war-torn country. Asean dispatched its tripartite team to Phnom Penh in 1998 to help work-out political stand-off before its admission into Asean a year later.
Indeed, modern Cambodia is the product of longstanding UN peace efforts and dividends—the most cited UN success—during the 1990s followed the signing of Paris Peace Agreement in 1991. UN sponsored election in 1993 saw the unstoppable rise of Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party as well as other opposition leaders. As of today, however, these opposition leaders are all living in exile including Sam Rainsy. The only credible voice to monitor the government and its ruling party these days is the burgeoning civil society organizations, which are currently under threats by a new NGO law.
What will be the perceived future role of Asean in peace and conflict issues? As chair, Indonesia is in a delicate situation. If previous efforts to mediate and end conflicts within Asean were any guide, Asean members would remain extremely cautious. Jakarta did not succeed when it tried to mediate the Burmese crisis in 2008 even at the leaders’ level. Bangkok encountered a similar problem when its proposal on the amnesty of Dawn Aung San Suu Kyi was backed by only half of the members during its chairmanship in 2009.
In recent international security issues, the UNSC often makes use of its Article 52 of the UN Charter to share burden and delegate responsibility to existing "regional arrangements"—for instance, the African Union in Sudan, NATO in Kosovo and Afghanistan, Organization of American States (OAS) in Haiti. Ironically, a long standing common aversion for anything UN and anything collective within Asean has to be revised by the requirement of the Asean Charter, which cross-references itself to the UN Charter. In particular, Article 22-23 and 28 of the Asean Charter must be read in light of, or in conjunction with Article 52-53 of the UN Charter, which the 1945 founding document clearly calls for the world body to work in collaboration "existing regional arrangements" in the maintenance of peace and security.
In the final analysis, Asean has been brought to this "reality show" by its mercurial member, which would force Asean to measure up to what Marty calls "the expectation of the international community." One big question is in order: Is Asean ready to become a pro-active, forward-looking organization which could expose individual members to outside scrutiny and eventually erode the principle of non-interference and consensus making?
The Island (Sri Lanka)
Armored personnel carriers of Cambodian Army drive through a road at Kampong Thom town, about 168 kilometers (104 mikes) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011. Kampong Thom is the neighboring province to Preah Vihear of the disputed 11th century Hindu Preah Vihear temple near the border between Cambodia and Thailand. The battle over a hilly patch of land in this remote countryside is rooted in a decades-old border dispute that has fueled nationalist passions and been driven by domestic politics on both sides. (AP)
Asean often claimed political utopia that its members have never fought an open war was shattered to smithereens during the three-day (February 4-6) fighting along Thai-Cambodian border. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen even went as far as declaring it a real war, which has unwittingly placed the Asean leaders and their organization under the world’s microscope. He has opened a Pandora box in Asean. Now, they altogether have to find ways to smooth out these troubled relations. Otherwise, the grouping’s creditability in the global arena will be severely undermined.
The attention this week will be focused on the briefings at the UN Headquarters in New York given by the foreign ministers of the warring parties, Kasit Piromya and Hor Nam Hong, and their aftermath. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, current Asean’s rotating Chair, will also be there as well to provide the Asean view and to ensure after the meeting, there would emerge a consensus or two, which the Asean chair can later on utilize to facilitate further peace process to end the hostilities.
Obviously, it was rare that Asean warring parties appeared so readily at the UNSC. The last time Asean was a subject at the UN was the burning issue of East Timor in 1999. Burma, although an Asean member, has been an "international issue" of longer standing. Since 2008, Cambodia has always wanted to raise the border fighting to the UN platform, but they were not successful. However, this time, with intense fighting and heavy artillery exchanges, quite a few UNSC members expressed concern over the renewed hostilities and decided to call for a meeting. The new composition of the UNSC, comprising new emerging powers, allows new dynamism that permits the Thai-Cambodian clashes to be discussed. However, the outcome of UNSC briefings and deliberations—possibly through a presidential statement— are non-binding.
Marty knows the trend. His call for a "brief, urgent and informal" meeting with his Asean counterparts on February 22 in Jakarta is indeed an anticipation of a mandate for the UNSC for Asean, under his leadership, to take up the same "regional" responsibility. It was an open secret that during his "shuttle diplomacy" he had been in close touch with both the members of UNSC and the UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon. In a nutshell, the informal gathering will follow up on the UNSC meeting and what Asean can do next to mitigate further conflict and salvage the grouping’s reputation. A more systematic approach to conflict resolution and dispute settlements as outlined in the Asean Charter as well as those contained in the Asean Political and Security Community blueprint will be discussed and put into practice.
Indeed, Marty is well positioned to take up this formidable challenge. He knows the UN system by the back of his hand, having served there before taking up the current ministerial position. He is a respectable and world-class diplomat with friends aplenty at the UN top echelon, especially the current president UNSC Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti from Brazil. With abundant UN experience, connections and diplomatic skills, he can speak on behalf of Asean and the UNSC will listen. He will certainly win support from all the council members to bring the matter back to existing regional mechanisms. Albeit their confrontation, Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to use the MOU 2000 and Joint Border Committee as a basis of their negotiation. Now with the ball in Asean’s court, its members need to find common solutions that augur well with Asean norms and practices.
Asean Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan understood the situation well when he released a statement early last week from his office that the discussion at the UN represents an evolution of Asean’s effort to resolve bilateral disputes among the members under the Asean Charter. He reiterated that the meeting would set precedence for future Asean dispute settlement mechanisms.
As such, it is the most ironical development in Asean history to have Cambodia as the catalyst. Both Prime Minister Hun Sen and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong have been engaging with the UN authorities at all levels—both as friends and foes—for more than three decades. Throughout the 1980s, Asean fought hard with them to push out foreign troops to attain peace in the war-torn country. Asean dispatched its tripartite team to Phnom Penh in 1998 to help work-out political stand-off before its admission into Asean a year later.
Indeed, modern Cambodia is the product of longstanding UN peace efforts and dividends—the most cited UN success—during the 1990s followed the signing of Paris Peace Agreement in 1991. UN sponsored election in 1993 saw the unstoppable rise of Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party as well as other opposition leaders. As of today, however, these opposition leaders are all living in exile including Sam Rainsy. The only credible voice to monitor the government and its ruling party these days is the burgeoning civil society organizations, which are currently under threats by a new NGO law.
What will be the perceived future role of Asean in peace and conflict issues? As chair, Indonesia is in a delicate situation. If previous efforts to mediate and end conflicts within Asean were any guide, Asean members would remain extremely cautious. Jakarta did not succeed when it tried to mediate the Burmese crisis in 2008 even at the leaders’ level. Bangkok encountered a similar problem when its proposal on the amnesty of Dawn Aung San Suu Kyi was backed by only half of the members during its chairmanship in 2009.
In recent international security issues, the UNSC often makes use of its Article 52 of the UN Charter to share burden and delegate responsibility to existing "regional arrangements"—for instance, the African Union in Sudan, NATO in Kosovo and Afghanistan, Organization of American States (OAS) in Haiti. Ironically, a long standing common aversion for anything UN and anything collective within Asean has to be revised by the requirement of the Asean Charter, which cross-references itself to the UN Charter. In particular, Article 22-23 and 28 of the Asean Charter must be read in light of, or in conjunction with Article 52-53 of the UN Charter, which the 1945 founding document clearly calls for the world body to work in collaboration "existing regional arrangements" in the maintenance of peace and security.
In the final analysis, Asean has been brought to this "reality show" by its mercurial member, which would force Asean to measure up to what Marty calls "the expectation of the international community." One big question is in order: Is Asean ready to become a pro-active, forward-looking organization which could expose individual members to outside scrutiny and eventually erode the principle of non-interference and consensus making?
9 comments:
I am glad that ASEAN starts to get involve with it own member affaire now. Had it started earlier from the 2006 coup in Thailand the internal Thai conflict could not sprang up into Cambodia by the opportunist opposition party who drag Preah Vihear issue into polical hostage and now in the state of war. To undo all this mess ASEAN have to start from the origine of all conflicts by restoring TS back in Thailand.
Hell no.. Asean has been a spineless organization that has done very little to resolve any issue. They held meeting just to look pretty. When it comes to resolving issue between Cambodia and Thailand, Asean chikened out. In the eyes of the Asean, Cambodia is still a small insignificant country who has not yet earn a spotlight, while a bigger and more influential Thailand get to have all the eyes and ears for attention. Thailand want to go bi-lateral route, Asean agreed with that. What kind of fucking decision making is that. There will be a time when Asean face another obstacle. You can bet that Asean will be display another coward act. Appearantly, members don't know or don't care why they joined in the first place. They opt for their own national interest. This is why China will easily conquer Southeast Asia in the near future. Unity among Asean members is just a joke.
Unity among Asean member is just a joke because the fricking co founder who suppose to promote Asean commits an act of betray by invading it small neighbor. Big or small, member have the same one vote.But arrogant Thai think she could have more voice than the others. Not only Cambodia look insignificant in Thai eye ,UNESCO also needs permission from this stupid Thai nation to come to inspect Preah Vihear right? Bet all your money on Thai fella you will win big.
Why do Kos Trol, sea and lands proximately over 10 000 km2 have been lost to Vietnam by who treaty? Why don't Cambodia goverment transparency explain to cambodia army at front line and the whole nation about this? Why don't they include this into education system? Why?
Cambodian army are fighting at front line for 4.6 km2 and what's about over 10 000km2 of cambodia to Vietnam. Nobody dare to talk about it! Why? Cambodian army you are decide the fade of your nation, Cambodian army as well as cambodian people must rethink about this again and again. Is it fair?
Kos Trol, Sea and lands over 10 000km2 have been lost to Vietnam by who treaty at 1979 to 1985 treaty! treaty! Cambodian army at front line as well as all cambodian people must rethink again about these issues. Are cambodian army fighting to protect the Cambodia Nation or protect a very small group that own big lands, big properties or only protecting a small group rather in the real name of protecting khmer nation?
Cambodian army at front line suffer under rain, wind, bullets, bombs,lack of foods, lack of nutrition, their families have no health care help, no securities after they die but a very small group eat well, sleep well, sleep in first class hotel with air conditioning with young girls message, have super health care from oversea medical treatment, they are billionairs, millionairs who sell out the country to be rich and make cambodian people suffer everyday as cambodian people know already.
Who signed the treaty 1979-1985 that result lost over 10 000 km2 of Cambodia??? Why don't they transparency inform all Cambodian and cambodian army at front line about these issues? Why don't include Kos Trol ( Kos Trol size the same as the whole Phom Phen with planty of natural resources ) in education program?
Thai will jam all common sense and good communication by this type of cut and past in every topics.
when they finally jam the Cambodian command communication channel all Khmer fighting units are very close to Bangkok by then. We are not fighting Khmer Surin Sisaket Buriram Srah Keo Ect.. Our main target is Bangkok where those stupid PAD are located.
Thai armies send a lot of their snipers to Phom Pehn for secret missions.
Do you know why Thai did not go to war with Malaysia???
Because Malaysia employ hundred of thousands Thai prostitutes.
Dear Dr. Hun Sen and Ten Thousands stars Dr. Hun Manet,
Why do you and your relatives give Kos Trol, sea and lands to Vietnam? Why? and Why? Over 10 000 km2 have been given to Vitenam by Dr. Hun Sen treaty 1982. Why???
Why do you and all of your relatives involve a lot of murder cases in Cambodia? Why? Why?
Why do you murder Cambodian K5, 1997 events and so on and so on with lost count? Why?
If you are so good why do you and your families murder Cambodians? Why? And Why?
If you are so good, why do above 90% Cambodians are so poor but you and your relatives are billionaires and millionaires? Why? Why? Why do ordinary cambodians are poor ? Why don't they rich like you?
Why do you try to kill people from telling the true? Why? Why?
What is the difference from Khmer Rough and you, Sir?
If you are so good why do you block KI from Cambodians?
If you are so good, why do you steal all Cambodian life such as well being, health, cut down Cambodians life expectancy as well? But you and your small group are eat well, sleep well, exercise well, have oversea doctors and best medical treatment from high class private doctors from oversea. Most Cambodians that have no money, your healthcare system left Cambodians patients to die in front of your hospital. Why? Why?
If you are so good why more than 6 millions Vietnamese are living permanently in Cambodia, right now? Why, Dr. Hen Sen? And Why
Everywhere, I walk in Cambodia I see Vietnamese speak Vietnamese every where, why? Why?
Don't you and your families scare of hell for eternity?
When you die can you bring all of your power and money with you?
How come only real Khmer with dark skin, skinny with no big land and property willing to go to the frontline to defiance Cambodia land but Chinese Cambodians are hiding and waiting to take the lands and benefit after war, Is that fair to real dark skin Khmer, Dr. Hun Sen???? When the country in trouble only Khmer with dark skin willing to die to protect Cambodian nation but rich fat Cambodians that have big lands, big properties abuse poor dark skin Khmer as stupid after the war over, why Dr. Hun Sen??? Why??? Most Chinese Cambodians are prejudice toward poor dark skin Khmer and they always look down to real Khmer as stupid. They are very hardly let’s dark skin Khmer married their children. Can Dr. Hun Sen please explain to all dark skin military of Cambodia at frontline? Where is the Chinese Cambodians at frontline? Where are they? Is this really fair to poor dark skin Khmer army, Dr. Hun Sen?
Dr. Hun Sen and Dr. Big first lady and his beloved Dr. Hun Manet Please don't put us in jail or kill us for this! We want to live like you and your families do!
Khmers victim of 1997 and K5, Khmer Girl Ms. Rattana Keo
PS
If Dr. Hun Sen and Dr. Hun Manet remove the tablet it is show they are extremely coward and his star are just joy stars given by his daddy not by patriotism. Dr. Hun Manet is very coward as his daddy they only aim to kill innocent Cambodians that all. Dr. Hun SEn and Dr. ten stars Hun Manet are very great at bullying Cambodians and killing Cambodians but cowardly toward Thai and Viet.
CPP are not just corrupted, CPP are extremely corrupt. They are even sell the country such as Kos Trol, Seas, lands, Cambodian people, Cambodian health and well being, all resources in the Cambodia…with lost count. You name it!
Seriously where is the win win policy of Dr. Hun Sen represent? The country is getting smaller and smaller and shame by Dr. Hun Sen and Dr. Hun Manet and his families, his relatives and friends.
We urged United Nation, World Court, Human Right to find justice for all cambodian lifes that have been murdered by Dr. Hun Sen and his families, friends and relative.
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