BANGKOK (Reuters) - Opponents of ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are using a 900-year-old temple on the Cambodian border, centre of a bitter 50-year dispute, to try to oust a five-month-old government that backs him.

A Buddhist monk walks through the ancient ruins of Preah Vihear, a long-disputed temple on the Thai-Cambodian border May 30, 2006. (REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang/Files)

With Cambodia seeking Thai support for its bid to list the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site, Thaksin’s enemies are accusing the government of ceding land near the temple to Phnom Penh.

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) — the motley group of businessmen, academics and royalists whose campaign against Thaksin led to his removal in a 2006 coup — is unabashed about whipping up a nationalist fervour.

"The Preah Vihear issue has sent us more people, many of whom are apolitical, white-collar workers," said Suriyasai Katasila, a lead of the PAD, which has accused the government of being ‘Thaksin Puppets’ bent on turning Thailand into a republic.

Specifically to the temple saga, the PAD says the government is ceding 4.6 sq km of disputed land near the temple to Phnom Penh in exchange for business concessions for Thaksin.

The Thaksin camp and Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, whose office has now been under siege by PAD protesters for six days, vehemently deny the accusations, or the handing over of any territory.

SUPPORT BASE WIDENS

The issue of Preah Vihear, which the International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 belonged to Cambodia, is widening the PAD’s support base to include opposition politicians, top bankers and high society bigwigs.

In its no-confidence motion against Samak this week, the Democrat party has focused primarily on the temple and the government’s apparent acceptance of a map of the area drawn by Cambodia that lays claim to the 4.6 sq km of scrubland.

A group of senators petitioned the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, in Bangkok to halt the temple listing, and a Thai court has agreed to an urgent hearing to rule whether cabinet’s approval of the map was constitutional.

Preah Vihear, built by Khmer kings at the start of the Angkorian period, sits on the top of a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary between Cambodia and Thailand.

It has been a source of tensions for decades, but was off-limits for much of the 1970s to the 1990s due to its use as a major jungle outpost by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge guerrillas. The area around the temple is still littered with land mines.

The political uproar in Thailand prompted Cambodia to close the temple on Monday, raising fears the spat could turn into a major diplomatic ruction between the two southeast Asian nations.

Another Cambodian temple, Angkor Wat, lay at the heart of a shouting match that resulted in a nationalist mob torching the Thai embassy and several Thai businesses in Phnom Penh in 2003.

"This nationalistic rhetoric can escalate to hurt diplomatic ties and sow the seeds of hatred between the people of the two countries," said political scientist Boonyakiet Karavekpan of Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng University.

President Nguyen Minh Triet receives Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni at the Presidential Palace in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Khang

HA NOI — Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni’s official visit to Viet Nam has marked a new stage of friendship and co-operation between the neighbouring countries, said President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday.

Triet said that the Vietnamese Party, Government and the people had always appreciated the age-old friendship with Cambodia and now looked forward to expanding bilateral co-operation in the coming years.

The President praised the recent nation-building achievements gained by Cambodian people under the King’s leadership. Likewise, King Norodom Sihamoni expressed his delight in Viet Nam’s socio-economic developments.

The two leaders also expressed their gratitude over the support for their respective countries made during the wars as well as in the present nation-building process. King Norodom Sihamoni vowed to continue in his father, former King Norodom Sihanouk’s footsteps in strengthening and developing traditional bilateral relations. President Triet asked King Sihamoni to convey his invitation to former King Sihanouk and the Queen for an official visit to Viet Nam.

Triet also invited King Sihamoni to return to Viet Nam soon which the King graciously accepted.

On the same day, King Sihamony granted an audience to National Assembly Deputy Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong. — VNS

Cambodian authorities on Monday ordered the controversial Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border temporarily closed while, on Tuesday, about 300 Thai senators and academics submitted a letter to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), urging the world body to delay making a decision on listing the historical temple as a World Heritage Site.

The Cambodian authorities’ action comes after continuing protests in Thailand ahead of a UNESCO meeting in Canada on July 2-10. Both the Thailand and Cambodian governments signed a joint communiqué last Wednesday endorsing the Cambodian application.
 

Thai tourists visit Cambodia’s famed Preah Vihear temple on the Cambodian-Thai- border in Preah Vihear province, about 245 kilometers (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo: AP)

In 2007, Bangkok opposed Phnom Penh’s application to annex 4.6 square kilometers of overlapping land claimed by both sides. The dispute was settled after Cambodia agreed last month to accept that only the temple lay on Cambodian land.

The case quickly became a political issue when opponents noted that Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej bypassed parliament when he endorsed Cambodia’s application for UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the temple, which was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962.

Meanwhile, Senator Priyanandana Rangsit, vice-chairman of the Thai Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a press conference in Bangkok that 300 senators and academics had signed a petition which had been submitted to UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Director Sheldon Shaeffer, requesting a delay in the process for the disputed Preah Vihear temple to be listed as a World Heritage Site.

“Preah Vihear has an overlapping area around the temple between Thailand and Cambodia, so it should be registered as joint-custody of both countries.” Priyanandana said.

Local people in Thailand’s Si Sa Ket Province, where the Hindu temple allegedly overlaps onto, have been protesting since Sunday, accusing the cabinet of endorsing Cambodian sovereignty.

The matter has also been highlighted by the People’s Alliance for Democracy, which has been staging anti-government protests in Bangkok for several weeks.

On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet agreed to minor changes in the wording of its resolution on Preah Vihear in an attempt to tone down public criticism. 

It also asked the Thai Foreign Ministry to detail the exact dimensions of Preah Vihear temple into the Thai-Cambodian joint communiqué to drive home the point that the area in question is part of the disputed territory, according to a report in Thai newspaper The Nation on Tuesday.