Thai Parliament Defers On Boundary

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Parliament defers on boundary

By The Nation

Parliament yesterday discussed the minutes of the ThailandCambodia Joint Boundary Commission meetings but did not vote to endorse the documents until next Tuesday, officials of the ruling Democrat Party said.

Required by Article 190 of the Constitution, the joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate considered the minutes of three JBC meetings so as to enable the body to continue its negotiations over demarcation of the land boundary.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the lawmakers to endorse the documents and show the international community that the ThailandCambodia bilateral mechanism was capable of settling the boundary dispute.

"If we do not allow the JBC to perform its duty by not endorsing its document, the international community, including the United Nations and Asean, would have to get involved in the issue," Abhisit told Parliament.

The JBC's documents have been lying in Parliament since its last meeting in April 2009 as many factions in Thailand feared the negotiations could lead to loss of territory to Cambodia.

Parliament starting taking the documents into consideration last November when it commissioned an ad hoc committee to study them.

The committee submitted its report to Parliament for consideration and recommended that Thailand should never accept the French map of Dangrek as a document to demarcate the boundary line with Cambodia. The map is a worrisome matter for the lawmakers and many nationalists as the International Court of Justice used this map to judge in 1962 that the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear is situated in territory under Cambodian sovereignty.

Thailand complied with the court's ruling but argued that land surrounding the temple belonged to Thailand. The map indicated that not only the ruins and stone temple but also the area adjacent to the temple are on the Cambodian side.

Abhisit assured Parliament that his government and the JBC would never allow Cambodia to use the map to claim the disputed area.

The Parliament session took place even as the nationalist group People's Alliance for Democracy and Thai Patriot Networks are camping near Government House in protest, demanding that Parliament throw away the JBC documents and also scrap a memorandum of understanding signed in 2000 to establish the JBC.

Many lawmakers urged Parliament to withdraw the JBC document and leave it for the next government after the election, but Abhisit did not agree.

-- The Nation 2011-03-26

[IanPrince99]

"Abhisit assured Parliament that his government and the JBC would never allow Cambodia to use the map to claim the disputed area." Sound funny. Approve it fist, than Mark will never allow it to be used; why approve it in the 1st place? What happen after Mark retirement?