Apr 26, 2011
By Daniel Ten Kate
Bloomberg
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva headed to a border area to visit residents displaced by a week-long clash with Cambodian forces, as one of his aides said a resolution to the conflict may be reached within days.
Abhisit visited camps for a few hours today in Surin province, where battles have killed at least 13 people since April 22. Both sides blame each other for starting the fighting that continued for a sixth day along their disputed border, the site of sporadic clashes over disputed temples since 2008.
A resolution to the conflict could take place “sooner rather than later, maybe in two or three days,” Sirichoke Sopha, an aide to Abhisit and a lawmaker in the premier’s Democrat party, said by phone. “War isn’t good for anyone.”
Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan pulled out of planned cease-fire talks after Cambodian media reports indicated they were a sign that Thailand was surrendering, deputy army spokesman Veerachon Sukondhadhpatipak said by phone today. Abhisit told reporters later that Prawit was heading to China on a business trip today, and would reschedule the meeting.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said today that the countries could hold one-on-one negotiations over Ta Moan and Ta Krabey temples, where most of this week’s fighting has occurred, Xinhua reported, citing comments to reporters in Phnom Penh. Talks over Preah Vihear temple, a United Nations World Heritage Site, must be resolved with a third party, the report said.
“Cambodia doesn’t want the conflict to spread further,” Xinhua quoted Hun Sen as saying.
Meeting Planned
A meeting between Prawit and Cambodian counterpart Tea Banh would take place in Phnom Penh “in the very near future,” Cambodia’s defense ministry said in a statement yesterday. Today it accused Thailand of trying to seize Ta Moan temple as fighting with “heavy weaponry” continued.
Thailand denies any territorial ambitions and says it’s acting in self defense.
“It is quite simple to settle this border conflict,” Veerachon said. “If Cambodia stops firing, nothing will happen.”
The latest fighting is more than a hundred kilometers (62 miles) from Preah Vihear temple, the site of battles in February that claimed at least 10 lives and displaced 30,000 people. The border conflict erupted in 2008 after Thailand opposed Cambodia’s efforts to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site.
Casualty Toll
Five Thai soldiers and one civilian have been killed in fighting over the past week, Veerachon said. Seven Cambodian soldiers have also died, the Phnom Penh Post reported yesterday.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled in a 9-3 vote that Cambodia had sovereignty over Preah Vihear. It didn’t rule on the land surrounding the temple, and the two countries also have yet to reconcile 10,422 square miles (26,993 square kilometers) of disputed waters in the Gulf of Thailand that may contain oil and gas reserves.
Thailand’s $264 billion economy is more than 26 times the size of Cambodia’s. The Cambodian army spent $191 million in 2009, compared with $4.9 billion for the military in Thailand, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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