Deputy PM Suthep: No third party should be involved with Thai-Cambodian border issue

24 Mar, 2011
(MCOT online news)

BANGKOK, March 24 -- Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban voiced support Thursday for Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha's view that no third party should be involved in the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) meeting as it was a bilateral issue.

He said Indonesia, in its capacity as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), or any other country, should not meddle in the border committee meeting.

Mr Suthep said that the GBC was suspended because the Thai Parliament had not yet approved documents related to the previous Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Committee (JBC) meeting.

Meanwhile, he said, the Cambodian side felt that the meetings in the past had made no progress so that it did not cooperate to make the meeting happen.

However, Mr Suthep stressed that the joint parliamentary session on Friday which was scheduled to deliberate the JBC documents would approve them to let the border demarcation meeting proceed, and he said he could guarantee that Thailand would not lose even one inch of territory.

He added that the government would not let foreign forces enter the disputed zone but if they come, Thai and Cambodian troops must be present with them.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan said that he believed Gen Prayuth did not object to team of observers from Indonesia, but he thought that the issue on observers should be discussed and decided at the general border meeting. which until now had not occurred.

He said Cambodia was scheduled to host the next session but Thailand is prepared to host the meeting if the Khmer side is not ready, as the issue is under discussion by both countries' defence ministries.

As for the report that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wanted Indonesia as a witness in the GBC meeting, Gen Prawit said he still did not understand how Indonesia could serve as a witness. He said the committee was a bilateral tool for the two countries to find a mutual solution.

Gen Prayuth on Wednesday expressed disagreement following reports that Indonesian observers will enter the contested zone at the Thai-Cambodia border to observe the situation, no matter from which country.

He said the border meeting should be held first so that the defence ministers of two countries will talk and find a solution as to whether the ASEAN observers should enter the area or not.
If the observers will really cross the border, he did not want them to enter the disputed area as it is a dangerous zone and their foreign observers presence will make it more difficult to solve the conflict.

Indonesia called for meetings of the GBC and JBC on March 24 and 25, but later postponed then to April 7 and 8 in Indonesia.

The arrangement was part of a deal to settle the boundary conflict between the two neighbours. The agreement included a plan to dispatch Indonesian observers to the disputed area adjacent to the ancient Khmer Hindu temple of Preah Vihear.

However Gen Prayuth said he and other Thai armed forces commanders resolved not to attend the GBC meeting in Bogor proposed by Indonesia and agreed to by Cambodia, saying that any talks must be bilateral only.