[Thai] PM meets military chiefs

Published: 10/05/2012 

Bangkok Post 

Writer: Wassana Nanuam 

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will meet the military top brass today to discuss issues including the situation along the Thai-Cambodian border near the Preah Vihear temple.

The prime minister will meet and have lunch with the supreme commander, armed forces chiefs, the defence minister and the permanent secretary for defence, the source said.

The PM had hoped to call such meetings every two months but they had been postponed several times.

Cambodia has resumed the construction of its tarmac road to the Preah Vihear temple and part of the road encroaches on Thai territory.

"Army chief Gen Prayuth [Chan-ocha] has ordered the Suranaree Task Force to monitor any movement closely, respond with building a road in Thai territory, launch a protest and wait for negotiations," said the source.

Thailand and Cambodia maintain their forces along the border near the Preah Vihear temple. There are about 2,000 Thai soldiers. Cambodia has protested about the construction of Buddha images at Thai military bases along the border from the Ta Kwai temple in Surin province to Phu Ma Khua mountain in Khao Phra Wihan area, said the source.

Although the Joint Working Group meeting between Thai and Cambodian military representatives in Bangkok early last month concluded that both sides would jointly remove landmines along the border, Cambodian soldiers continue to plant more landmines, which injured two Thai soldiers on Monday.

The army chief will ask the prime minister to order the allocation of a budget for the army to pay per diem allowances to soldiers deployed near Preah Vihear. The Budget Bureau has not allocated the budget since last October. The allowances cost the army 30 million baht monthly and the army must borrow the sum from other sources.

Armed forces chiefs will also discuss budgetary requests for buying weapons.

The meeting will also address the situation along the Thai-Myanmar border as the Myanmar government is opening up to the international community and ethnic groups along border areas in Myanmar may increase their drugs production and smuggling into Thailand.

Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat confirmed the meeting today.