PM blames all border woes on Noppadon

Published: 26/07/2011
Bangkok Post

Outgoing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (pictured) is piling all the blame for the current border problems with Cambodia on the shoulders of former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama.

Mr Abhisit yesterday said this was because Mr Noppadon signed a joint communique with Cambodia and supported Phnom Penh's unilateral request for the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a world heritage site.

He was responding to criticism by Mr Noppadon of the Abhisit government's performance at the hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Cambodia filed a case requesting an interpretation of the 1962 ruling on ownership of the temple which the court awarded to Cambodia.

Mr Abhisit said Mr Noppadon's support allowed Cambodia to advance its case in demanding the right to manage the 4.6-square-kilometre disputed area around the temple ruins, and his government was then left to find ways to protect Thai territory.

Asked if there would be any problem in protecting Thai soil when the new government headed by the Pheu Thai Party, which Mr Noppadon supports, takes office soon, Mr Abhisit said he hoped the new government would do its best to protect the national interest.

The border issue had a number of sensitive factors in terms of military strategy and the law.

He said his government had blocked Cambodia's attempts to occupy the disputed area over the past three years and presenting its case to the ICJ had led the court to order the withdrawal of both Cambodian and Thai forces.Mr Abhisit, also the acting leader of the Democrat Party, said he hoped the new government would listen to the armed forces which were determined to protect the nation's sovereignty.

He also warned that if the next government supported Cambodia's unilateral listing of the Preah Vihear temple, that would jeopardise Thai sovereignty because Cambodia would manage the Thai territory next to the temple and it would be harder for Thailand to insist that it owned the land.