[Thailand's] Border panel reshuffled

By The Nation
Published on September 24, 2011

Asda's replacement with diplomat Bandhit boosts Thai-Cambodian ties

The government opened a new chapter in Thailand's relations with Cambodia yesterday, announcing a major shake-up in the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC), which is responsible for demarcating the countries' land boundary and negotiating a deal over petroleum resources in the Gulf of Thailand.

The JBC reshuffle saw outspoken hard-liner Asda Jayanama dumped as the body's chief in favour of seasoned diplomat Bandhit Sotipalalit, seen as a moderate.

"Adjustment is a normal thing; the previous JBC team has achieved nothing over the past two years. I hope the new team will make some progress on the boundary task," Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul told reporters yesterday.

Bandhit, whose last official position was ambassador to Australia before his retirement in 2009, has good relations with and connections in Cambodia, Surapong said.

Boundary demarcation with Cambodia became politicised in 2008 when a group of nationalists and the opposition Democrat Party questioned the handling of an ongoing border dispute by the then government under late prime minister Samak Sundaravej. The party and yellow shirts accused Samak and his foreign minister, Noppadon Pattama, of handling the boundary demarcation in a way that favoured Cambodia, particularly with respect to the area adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple.

After the Democrat Party took power under Abhisit Vejjajiva, then foreign minister Kasit Piromya appointed Asda to the JBC's top position, replacing career diplomat Vasin Teeravechyan, in November 2010.

Asda has strong ties to yellow shirt group People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which pressured the Abhisit administration to take a tough stance against Cambodia, a stance supported by Asda, who held only one meeting with his Cambodian counterpart, in Indonesia's Bogor in April this year. The meeting failed to achieve any progress due to the soured relations between the two countries.

In addition to appointing a new JBC chief, Surapong has appointed as advisers to the commission two ambassadors who are versed in boundary issues and Cambodian affairs. They are Prasas Prasasvinitchai, a former ambassador to Phnom Penh who is now the ambassador to Manila, and Nuttavudh Photisaro, an expert on Cambodian affairs who is now ambassador to Israel. Prasas is considered particularly knowledgeable about boundary demarcation.

The changes at the JBC were justified as giving the government greater flexibility in dealing with Cambodia on land-boundary demarcation.

However, Surapong said he would maintain the tough team, led by ambassador to the Hague Virachai Plasai, currently waging a court battle related to the Preah Vihear dispute on behalf of the Kingdom at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

"I also love our land and have no intention of doing anything to hurt the country. What we have done well should not be changed, so I have no intention of removing ambassador Virachai from his position of Thai agent in the Preah Vihear case. He is keen and has done a good job," Surapong said.

Thailand is party to a case in which Cambodia requested that the ICJ interpret the scope and meaning of its 1962 judgement on the temple.

Besides the JBC shake-up, Surapong said yesterday he would continue to negotiate with Cambodia on overlapping claims on the continental shelf in the Gulf of Thailand, with the aim of sharing petroleum resources in accordance with a 2001 memorandum of understanding. He would chair the joint technical committee on the maritime deal. During the previous government, the committee was chaired by then deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban.

"I will work for the national interest, with no secret deals. The issue will be brought for the consideration of Parliament in accordance with Article 190 [of the Constitution]," he said.

"Those who want to debate the issue, please prepare answers as to what you have done in the past," Surapong said, in an apparent reference to Cambodian allegations that the previous Thai government tried to cut a secret deal on maritime resources.

In a separate development, Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha visited Phnom Penh yesterday and reached an agreement with his counterpart Tea Banh to call a meeting of the General Border Committee to set guidelines facilitating compliance by the two countries with the ICJ's order to withdraw military personnel from a court-determined 17.3-square-kilometre demilitarised zone.