Police Set To Deploy At Preah Vihear Temple

[webfact]

WORLD COURT

Police set to deploy at border temple

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Troop adjustments to be made in the vicinity of the Preah Vihear temple today are intended as a signal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Thailand and Cambodia are complying with the court's order for demilitarisation of the disputed border area.

Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat, together with Army commander-in-chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha and other senior military officers, will preside over a ceremony to pull out some troops and replace police in the area.

At around the same time, Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Tea Banh will do his part on the Cambodian side in the same area.

Phnom Penh will pull out 485 troops and put 250 policemen and 100 security guards into the area and at the Preah Vihear temple.

Thailand will station 200 police in the area but has not made clear how many soldiers are being withdrawn from it. "In fact, the situation at the border has been returned to normal. There is no tension and no clashes in the area, but what we have to do now is to show that we are complying with the court's order," said the Defence Ministry's Chief of policy and planning Niphat Thonglek.

Thailand and Cambodia have been at loggerheads over the Preah Vihear temple since the last century. The ICJ ruled in 1962 that the Hindu temple was situated in territory under sovereignty of Cambodia, but Thailand argued that the land surrounding the temple belonged to it.

The border area has not been demarcated as both sides claim an overlapping area of 4.6 square kilometres. Many military clashes over the years at the border have claimed dozens of lives on both sides.

Last year, Cambodia asked the court to clarify the scope and meaning of the 1962 judgment. The court is in the process of interpreting it and has issued provisional measures since July 18 last year for a demilitarised zone of 17.3 square kilometres near the temple. The court ordered both sides to refrain from military activities and prohibited Thailand from blocking access to the Preah Vihear.

The ICJ asked both sides to continue cooperation with Asean, in particular allowing an Indonesian observer team into the court-determined zone.

Jakarta has drafted a term of reference (TOR) for the observer's role and procedures for access into the area. Cambodia agreed with the TOR but Thailand has sat on it since the previous government, due to internal political conflict.

Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said Cabinet would consider the TOR and might push it forward in Parliament for reading in accordance with Article 190 of the Constitution next month.

Over the past year, both sides submitted documents to back up their arguments. Thailand requested oral testimony, perhaps its last before a final verdict, and the court will open another oral hearing in April next year. The court was expected to reach a verdict by September or October next year, according to Niphat.

The military has done its best to protect national sovereignty over the territory and often sends personnel to help support the Foreign Ministry at court proceedings in The Hague, the Netherlands, he said.

-- The Nation 2012-07-18

[LuckyLew]

effectively immediately, all tourist to the temple not wearing a helmet

will be fined 200 THB

[slapout]

Kind of reflects the present thinking of those appointed, as heads of this group , call the police to handle a border dispute. What next, replace the fire department with police? This group of thugs and their 'sugar daddies' are changing laws, fine fee schedules, interpertation of same, etc, as they are instructed or at a individuals whim.

[bendejo]

This is sure to incite a war, as the police of both countries fight over shakedown money.

[webfact]

Thai Defence Minister presides over military redeployment

BANGKOK, July 18 -- Thai Defence Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat will preside today at a ceremony marking the deployment of Border Patrol Police to replace regular military personnel at the disputed Thai-Cambodian border near Preah Vihear temple.

The ceremony is being held at Si Sa Ket's Kantharalak district at 11am when four companies of Thai Border Patrol Police drawn from the northeastern provinces of Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani and Sakon Nakhon, on standby at a Border Patrol Police camp in Si Sa Ket since yesterday, will officially take over from the army.

Speaking to reporters before leaving Bangkok with army chief Gen Prayuth Chanocha, ACM Sukumpol brushed aside concerns that the military pullout would put Thailand at a disadvantage.

"I can assure (the public) that the army and military personnel have carried out their duties in a well thought out manner. There should be no concern about that and Thailand will definitely not lose territory. We would not be at a disadvantage," the defence minister said.

Bangkok and Phnom Penh announced Friday that they would reduce their troop contingents at the disputed border under the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia will withdraw 486 military personnel from the Provisional Demilitarized Zone (PDZ) surrounding Preah Vihear to comply with the ICJ order.

Today marks the first anniversary of the ICJ provisional measures.

ACM Sukumpol said earlier that he would chair the ceremony on Thai territory and would not cross the border to join a ceremony in Cambodia to be chaired by Cambodian Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh.

He did not specify details on how many Thai troops would be replaced by border patrol police, but he said that it would be carried out with similar numbers as Cambodia.

The minister said that he did not want to reveal more details as it was a technical issue.

He brushed aside concerns that the military pullout would put Thailand at a disadvantage.

"I can assure (the public) that the army and military personnel have carried out their duties in a well thought out manner. There should be no concern about that and Thailand will definitely not lose territory. We would not be at a disadvantage," the defence minister said.

The court last July ordered both Thailand and Cambodia to immediately withdraw their military forces from the PDZ and have no military presence in the zone. It urged both countries to work with ASEAN to reach an agreement allowing the regional bloc's observers to enter the disputed zone.

The two countries were also ordered to revive their stalled talks to resolve the conflicts. Both were to report developments to the court until a decision on Cambodia's main request for interpretation of the 1962 order is finalised.

In April 2011 Cambodia asked the ICJ to clarify and interpret its 1962 ruling on Preah Vihear.

The court ruled in 1962 that the ancient Hindu temple belonged to Cambodia but did not define the boundaries of the area surrounding it, which has led to sporadic clashes between troops of both sides since then. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-07-18

[SuneeTH]

According to PAD, Thaksin barter off this Thai temple in exchange for oil and gas in the gulf (for Thaksin himself).

[Thaddeus]

Right, so to comply with the ruling of the ICJ they are removing the army, and replacing them with armed border police instead.

Don't the armed border police come under the umbrella term of armed forces.

[h90]

That is a smart move!!

The Cambodian will have to pay 500 Baht so many times till the leave.

[webfact]

Redeployment near Preah Vihear unrelated to sovereignty: Sukumpol

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The agreement between Thailand and Cambodia to redeploy their respective forces in the surrounding areas of Preah Vihear Temple has not impacted on the issue of severeignty, Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat said yesterday.

"The redeployment is simply to comply with the World Court's order designating the disputed areas surrounding the temple as the demilitarised zone," he said.

Security agencies had carefully reviewed options and repercussions before drawing the conclusion on the redeployment plan, he said.

Under the plan, the Border Patrol Police will dispatch less than 1,000 police forces to keep peace in lieu of conventional troops and Cambodia is also to deploy policemen replacing soldiers.

Sukumpol said critics should not rush to interpret that the absence of Thai troops in the demilitarised zone would lead to the loss of severeignty, arguing the demilitarisation and the sovereignty were two separate issues.

He said he expected the redeployment would have positive impacts on good neighbourly ties between the two countries.

-- The Nation 2012-07-18

[webfact]

Cambodia, Thailand pull troops from temple flashpoint

Phnom Penh, July 18, 2012 (AFP) - Cambodia and Thailand pulled hundreds of soldiers out of a disputed border area on Wednesday, a year after a ruling by the UN's highest court, replacing them with police and security guards.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 18 last year ordered the neighbours to demilitarise a strip of land adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple which was the scene of deadly clashes in 2011.

"It's an appropriate time to implement the ICJ's verdict," Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh said during the exit ceremony on the Cambodian side, shown live on television, though he warned that "full peace has not been ensured".

Nearly 500 Cambodian troops will be redeployed from the zone around the temple but will be replaced by some 250 policemen and 100 guards supposedly employed to preserve the 11th century site.

Yutthasak Sasiprapa, a Thai deputy prime minister responsible for national security, said Bangkok had also pulled back its soldiers and instead deployed border patrol police, also believed to number in their hundreds.

"Thailand and Cambodia are setting up a joint team to work on the terms of reference for Indonesian observers," he added, referring to a team to be sent by Jakarta to monitor the situation in the 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) area of disputed land.

In February last year, 10 people were killed in fighting at the Preah Vihear temple site and fresh clashes broke out further west in April 2011, leaving 18 dead.

The ICJ subsequently ruled that both countries should withdraw forces around the 900-year-old Khmer temple.

But the order was held up as neither country appeared ready to make the first move.

The ICJ decision came after Cambodia launched a bitter legal battle before the court in late April 2011 in which it asked for an interpretation of a 1962 ruling on Preah Vihear.

Thailand does not dispute Cambodia's ownership of the temple, but both sides claim an adjacent patch of land.

A Thai government spokesman said the withdrawal did not signal a climbdown over the contested land, but was instead a diplomatic compromise to help smooth relations ahead of the 2015 establishment of a Southeast Asian trading bloc.

"The troop pull-out is to pave the way for Indonesian observers to enter the area and also to prepare for the ASEAN Economic Community," said Anusorn Eiemsaard, deputy government spokesman.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2012-07-18

[philw]

Kind of reflects the present thinking of those appointed, as heads of this group , call the police to handle a border dispute. What next, replace the fire department with police? This group of thugs and their 'sugar daddies' are changing laws, fine fee schedules, interpertation of same, etc, as they are instructed or at a individuals whim.

If you have a look at their history, they are something short of a bunch of avuncular coppers...................