[Preah Vihear] Temple rally to go ahead at Govt House

Protest group ignores Suthep's warning call

Published: 6/08/2010
Bangkok Post

The Thailand Patriot Network led by Veera Somkwamkid (pictured) is insisting it will go ahead with a rally tomorrow at Government House to demand that a border agreement with Cambodia be revoked.

The government has asked the group to scrap the protest.

Network members including politicians, businessmen and other interest groups are expected to join the rally and take turns criticising the memorandum of understanding signed in 2000 by Thailand and Cambodia, said Mr Veera, who is also a member of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

"We can't tell now how long we will stay at Government House," he said yesterday.

"Everything is up to the government. We aren't the source of the problem."

The memo is a framework for the two countries to find ways to demarcate the land border. The network and PAD have said a map submitted by Cambodia to become part of the framework would cause Thailand to lose 4.6 square kilometres of disputed territory near the Preah Vihear temple.

The government argues the memo would not put Thailand at a disadvantage in its attempts to demarcate the border.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday called on the network not to rally while the emergency decree is in effect. The decree has been in force in Bangkok since April, shortly after the anti-government red shirts began demonstrating in the capital.

"Any group who plans to gather to block Government House and stay overnight there is definitely considered as violating the law," Mr Suthep said.

"I'm not challenging them. I just ask for cooperation."

He urged the activists to send their representatives to submit their complaint to him or to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

He also asked them to bear in mind the security situation in the country.

Mr Veera dismissed the warnings and challenged the government to arrest him.

He insisted he would only stage the rally in the capital and would not take demonstrators to the border in Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket, near where the temple lies.

He distanced the rally from any links with the yellow shirt PAD.

"My move will not be politically motivated. It will not be supported by any colour-coded group either," he said.

"It is guaranteed by Sections 70 and 71 of the constitution which allows me as a Thai to express my loyalty to protect the nation's sovereignty."

Mr Veera said the memo signed by the two countries when the Democrat Party was in power was not a solution. In fact, it was a source of the problem as it gave Cambodians a chance to trespass and settle in the disputed area.

Cambodia did not respect the memorandum which bans people from the two countries from entering any areas where the borderline is unclear, he said.

Ties between Thailand and Cambodia became strained after the Preah Vihear temple was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's World Heritage Committee in 2008 in Quebec as a world heritage site.

Last week, the WHC meeting in Brazil deferred a decision on the Cambodian management plan for the temple until next year.