P. Penh delays plans for landmine mission [Another Thai badmouthing of Cambodia?]

Writer: Wassana Nanuam & Apinya Wipatayotin 

Bangkok Post

26 July 2012

 

Cambodia has delayed plans to send military officials to work out details of landmine clearance around the Preah Vihear temple with their Thai counterparts in Thailand, a military source says.

The source yesterday said Cambodia had neither informed the Thai army about the reason for the postponement nor fixed a new time for the meeting.

"I still don't understand why Cambodia won't abide by the agreement made during the meeting," the source said.

Thailand and Cambodia agreed in June to carry out landmine-clearing operations in areas designated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), following the second round of the Joint Working Group talks in Cambodia.

The talks were held on June 27 to further bilateral discussions on troop withdrawal from the 17.3 sq km Provisional Demilitarised Zone (PDZ) surrounding the Preah Vihear temple but the group failed to discuss the issue.

Instead they agreed to establish Thai and Cambodian bomb disposal teams and had planned to hold further talks on the continued mission framework yesterday.

The bomb-clearing operation has to be completed before Asean observers are allowed to monitor the ceasefire in the disputed area.

The two countries have moved their soldiers from the PDZ after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen agreed to the redeployments on July 13.

In a related matter, Vice-Minister to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Pithaya Pookaman said Cambodia would not reap any benefits from its area development plan around the Preah Vihear temple when it chairs the 37th World Heritage Committee (WHC) meeting in Phnom Penh next year.

Mr Pithaya, head of the Thai delegation to the WHC meeting in Russia on July 4, was reacting to the opposition's claims that Cambodia's chairmanship of the next WHC meeting will put Thailand at a disadvantage when Thailand has to challenge a Cambodian petition lodged with the ICJ. Cambodia asked the ICJ to interpret whether the court's 1962 ruling granting sovereignty over the Preah Vihear temple includes the area around of the temple.

" I don't think Cambodia, as the host, will raise its area development plan around the Preah Vihear temple for discussion at the next meeting," Mr Pithaya said.

But if Cambodia raises the matter at the next meeting, Thailand has the right to oppose it because the area development plan includes the 4.6 sq km disputed area that the two countries both claim ownership to and the ICJ has yet to rule on the Cambodian petition, he said.

Cambodia, as the chairman of the next meeting, should not do anything that will prompt the international community to question its fairness and propriety.

Cambodia offered at the July 4 WHC meeting in Russia to host the next WHC meeting in Phnom Penh, and its offer was approved unanimously.