- By Stingray, Thai Intel’s national security journalist
The Thai military, has a long tradition of being the protector of the Thai King and Nationalism-and have been involved in countless bloody crack-down on the Thais and also of taking power from the elected government by way of Coups.
- What that have resulted in, is a Thai military that thinks and feel it is not accountable, to either people or the law. The situation, was made worse, by the 2006 coup constitution, that currently runs Thailand, giving little power to the government in military personal management-resulting in what democratic activist in Thailand calls-an independent state within a state.
The World Court, have recently, called for additional documents from both Thailand and Cambodia, on Cambodia’s petition to the World Court-in making its final ruling, after a temporary ruling, calling for Thailand and Cambodia to “De-militarized” a dispute area between the two countries, near the Phra Vihear relics.
The Thai government in recent days, submitted the additional documents, as requested.
Since that temporary ruling, little is known to the progress towards a “De-militarize” of the area, as both Thailand and Cambodia, have made statements of troops movement, but all of them, are without independent confirmation from anyone.
- Today, local press, reports, the Thai military joint chiefs of staff, saying, quote: “Thailand will not follow the ruling of the World Court, because Thailand has sovereignty over the disputed area…..The World Court has no rights to order Thailand to pull troops out of the area or to have outside observers.”
Relations, between Thailand and Cambodia have warmed under Thailand’s Yingluck government as it erupted into military clashes with Cambodia, under Abhisit.
Abhisit took a highly “Hawkish” position against Cambodia, a reaction mostly against Taksin close relationship with Cambodia, to the extent that one of his minister, pulled Thailand out of the World Heritage Foundation, to protest the foundation involvement in protecting Phra Vihear relics.
That “Pull-Out” was hotly debated in Thailand, however, the Thai press, part of the Thai establishment, mostly welcomed and support the move.
- However, a Thai election that shortly followed that pull-out, and saw the pull-out minister, losing the election with his political party that did poorly and with the Abhisit’s Democrat Party, losing the election in a land-slide-particularly, in the E-Sarn region of Thailand, where the region is adjacent to Cambodia.
Traditionally, the Thai military have play a key role in Thailand’s Foreign Policy. The Thai Foreign Ministry, traditionally, is nothing much more than a rubber stamp and the public relations arm of the Thai military, for the global level.
- Cambodia, lodge a complaint to the World Court, after successive attempts to negotiate with Thailand, under hawkish Abhisit, that failed. The conflict reached the extent that a global level anti-in-humane munition unit, made statements that the Thai military was using those dangerous munitions, that is out-law by many countries.
The conflict also saw, Abhisit, sending spies to observe the disputed area, independent of the Thai military knowledge or the Thai Foreign Ministry knowledge. The group of spies was caught by Cambodia and the Cambodian court found them guilty of espionage. Two Thais, belonging a radical far extreme right-wing group, Yellow Shirts, remained in jail.
Many, wants a fast resolution to the Thai Cambodian Phra Vihear conflict-as there are other disputed area to tackle, particularly, in the Gulf of Thailand, where the dispute have slowed oil and gas development there.
However, Abhisit and the Thai press, attacked Yingluck, accusing her brother Taksin, of having made deals with Cambodia to develop that oil and gas area, hurting Thailand’s national interest. News, that subsequently surfaced, says in fact, Abhisit sent his security chief, Suthep, to hold secret talks with Cambodia, with speculations that it was on oil and gas issues.
- Thailand and Cambodia are members of ASEAN, where an integration is fast approaching-where global press, reports the Thai Cambodian conflict, have greatly tarnished the reputation of ASEAN globally. Within ASEAN, the grouping supports the concept of “Neutral Observers” with Indonesia offering to send in observing troops to the area.
Culturally, much of Cambodia belonged to Thailand, until the colonial era bought France to the Indochina Region, and carved out an empire, taking that Thai segment being Cambodia away from Thailand. With Cambodia having gained independence, the re-construction of Cambodia, saw a resurgence of Nationalism. Much of that nationalism, is expressed by the grassroots Cambodia in an anti-Thailand position. The Cambodian ancient empire of Khmer, ruled much of the South East Asia region in the past, and the empire produced a rich historic global level cultural heritage-including the Pra Vihear relics.
Much of what is known as the Thai culture, in fact, takes its root in the Khmer Empire.
The following is from MCOT:
BANGKOK, Nov 22 — Thailand on Monday presented its ‘Written Observations’ regarding Cambodia’s petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) requesting interpretation of the 1962 verdict on the historic Preah Vihear temple and was confident regarding its evidence, according to Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Surapong Tovichakchaikul.
Mr Surapong said that his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong, who is also deputy prime minister, wanted the issue to be concluded peacefully as soon as possible. The foreign minister said the legal team led by Thailand’s ambassador to the Hague Virachai Plasai, as agent of the Thai government and Treaties Affairs Department Director-General Ittiporn Boonprakong, assistant to the agent, submitted the written observations to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at 5pm (Thailand time) within its requested timeframe.
The report contains 300 pages of detailed narrative and 600 pages of annexes which cannot be disclosed unless permitted by the ICJ, Mr Surapong said. The Thai legal team, set up by the Abhisit Vejjajiva government on May 3, is led by Virachai Plasai and includes three foreign lawyers, one each from France, Canada and Australia.
Mr Surapong said that all members of all three legal teams were the same who worked on the case from the beginning. Only the minister of foreign affairs has changed. He said the case needed continuity as it was an important issue and the foreign lawyers were all well qualified and have experience in international cases. The minister said he was confident regarding the evidence.
The relations between Thailand and Cambodia have been improving since the Pheu Thai-led government took office. He said he believed this could be a factor to finding a solution to the dispute easily. Mr Surapong said that he has had an informal conversation with Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong in which expressed his desire to see a peaceful solution and wanted the committees representing the two nations to move on.
The Cambodian government in April asked the court to interpret its 1962 verdict on the ownership of Preah Vihear and the disputed surrounding area. Cambodia also asked the court to issue an injunction ordering Thailand to withdraw its troops from the disputed area around the Preah Vihear after relations between the two countries soured in the wake of Cambodia’s bid to have the temple listed as a World Heritage Site. The court ruled in 1962 that the historic temple was on Cambodian soil, but its ruling was not clear about ownership of the surrounding 4.6 square kilometre area.
Thai and Cambodian troops have clashed repeatedly as each side attempted to assert sovereignty of the disputed adjacent areas. As for the injunction, the ICJ ruled on July 18 that both Cambodia and Thailand with their troops to temporarily develop the disputed areas as a demilitarised zone and that Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) observers should be present in the zone. (MCOT online news)
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