Monday April 28, 2008
Unesco calls off joint talks
Separate meetings now on Preah Vihear listing
THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
has cancelled a meeting with Thailand and Cambodia in Paris over
efforts to put the Preah Vihear temple on Unesco's World Heritage
list. The meeting was supposed to be this Friday and Saturday, with
Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama leading the Thai side in the talks.
The meeting has been tentatively rescheduled for May 13, Mr Noppadon
said.
The talks will concentrate on Cambodia's proposal to register the
ancient ruins, which are right on the border with Thailand.
The only easy access is through Thailand, and some of the border is
not demarcated and claimed by both sides.
Unesco will now send its representative, Francesco Caruso, for
separate talks with the Thai and Cambodian governments.
The UN agency gave no reason for the change.
Mr Caruso has been appointed by Unesco as a special coordinator
between Thailand and Cambodia on the issue and is due in Bangkok next
month.
''The Thai government welcomes the proposal and is ready to meet and
discuss in good faith with Cambodia the outstanding issues so as to
facilitate the process of registration of the temple,'' the ministry
said.
Thailand and Cambodia have agreed in principle to jointly manage Preah
Vihear and other ruins in Thailand in the area, but will not allow the
project to affect the plan to demarcate the border there.
Preah Vihear, called Khao Phra Viharn in Thai, is on the Cambodian
side of Si Sa Ket's Kantharalak district.
But it does not look like the issue will be easily settled.
On April 10, the government handed an aide-memoire to Cambodian
ambassador Ung Sean to protest against the deployment of Cambodian
troops at the ancient temple.
The government said the troop deployment violated Thailand's
territorial sovereignty in the disputed areas along the border, and
was also against the spirit of a memorandum of understanding in 2000
concerning the area around the temple.
The Cambodian government countered by summoning Thai ambassador
Viraphand Vacharathit to deny all the allegations a day later
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