[Thai] Army won't send more troops to temple area [... or so it claims]

Forces will be rotated, tensions ease after talks

7/04/2009
BANGKOK POST AND AFP

The army will not be deploying more troops in the disputed border area in and around the Preah Vihear temple despite the clashes last week with Cambodia, Second Army commander Wiboonsak Neepal says.

Lt Gen Wiboonsak yesterday said instead of pouring in reinforcements, the army would rotate its forces to bring in fresh legs.

The rotation is necessary if morale and confidence is to be boosted in the area which was the scene of last week's clashes.

Tensions look to have eased after talks on Sunday between Suranaree Task Force commander Kanok Netrakawesan and Maj Gen Srey Doek, head of Cambodia's military division 3.

The two generals arm wrestled after their talks to ease tensions between the two armies.

Maj Gen Kanok said the two countries had no plan to withdraw their troops from the area, so the possibility of future confrontation could never be ruled out.

Nothing could be taken for granted no matter how disciplined the soldiers, he said.

Two Thai troops and two Cambodians were killed in the fighting on Friday. Another 10 Thai troops were injured, one seriously. The clashes took place in a 4.6 sq km area claimed by the two sides.

Thailand claims the area is in Kantharalak district of Si Sa Ket, while Cambodia insists it is in Preah Vihear province.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon will hold talks with his Cambodian counterpart Tea Banh aimed at preventing more clashes at the general border committee meeting in Siem Reap on April 27-28, an army source said.

The two neighbours have also started joint boundary commission talks in Phnom Penh aimed at resolving competing claims surrounding the Preah Vihear temple.

"The incidents that have happened show that the border issue needs to be resolved very quickly in order to avoid more incidents," Var Kim Hong told reporters before the talks.

Var Kim Hong co-chairs the committee with Thailand's Vasin Teravechyan.

The last meeting of the JBC ended in February with the two sides failing to reach an agreement on any of the key points, including the spelling of Preah Vihear in official documents.

Cambodia insists on using Preah Vihear while Thailand wants to refer to it as both Preah Vihear and Phra Viharn.

The World Court in 1962 gave ownership of the ruins of the Hindu temple to Cambodia, but tensions flared last July when the cliff-top structure was awarded United Nations World Heritage status.

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Khmer Rouge torture chief says he never wanted to run prison

Mon, 06 Apr 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The Khmer Rouge's former chief torturer told Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal Monday he never wanted to become the warden of a notorious prison where more than 15,000 people were sent to be murdered, saying he had hoped to be a teacher after the ultra-Maoist group came to power in 1975. Kang Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, was a mathematics teacher before joining Pol Pot's Communist Party of Cambodia (CPK) in the early 1960s and said he had "sacrificed everything," including his job and salary, for the revolution.
"The only thing I loved in life was teaching," he said. "I wished that when the revolution was over I would be able to teach again."

In the tribunal's first trial, Duch, 66, faces charges of crimes against humanity, torture, premeditated murder and breeches of the Geneva Conventions, allegedly committed while he headed the notorious Tuol Sleng torture prison in Phnom Penh.

The born-again Christian last week begged the families of victims and the handful of prison survivors to forgive him for crimes he committed at the school-turned-torture facility.

It was the first time any Khmer Rouge leader or apparatchik had made such an apology.

As the trial entered its second week Monday, judges questioned Duch about his time in the pre-revolutionary CPK and his involvement in the establishment of M-13 - a centre the Khmer Rouge ran during its rebellion against the US-backed military regime from 1971 to 1975.

Duch displayed a sharp memory for dates and names, recalling the exact dates on which he joined the CPK, met various Khmer Rouge members and when he was arrested and detained during the rule of former king and independence leader Norodom Sihanouk.

He said he was sentenced to 20 years prison for sedition in 1968 but was released after General Lon Nol led a coup against the Sihanouk in 1970.

"Lon Nol released political prisoners to show the world that Sihanouk was vicious," he said. "If Richard Nixon did let Lon Nol start the coup and Sihanouk had not become aligned with the Khmer Rouge, then the Khmer Rouge would never have succeeded."

Duch is one of five former leaders facing trial for their roles in the deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, starvation or overwork when the group sought to transform modern Cambodian society into an agrarian utopia, erase history and start again at "year zero" during its 1975-1979 reign.

His trial resumed as United Nations legal officials met with the Cambodian government to discuss an investigation into alleged corruption at the hybrid court, which has been riddled with controversy since it was established in 2006.

Peter Taksoe-Jensen, UN Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs, and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An have pledged after previous discussions to conduct simultaneous investigations into allegations that Cambodian staff at the court were forced to pay kickbacks to their superiors.

The court has also faced allegations of government interference and disagreement between domestic and international prosecutors over plans to extend the investigation and arrest more former leaders.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week that arresting more detainees would put the country at risk of civil war. He said he would rather see the court fail than let the country return to conflict.

The court's 500-seat public gallery was about half full Monday, but the national TV network suspended its live broadcast of the court, which had run throughout the previous week's sessions.

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Preah Vihear: UNESCO is concerned

04 April 2009
By Maxime Revol
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

The national UNESCO commission in Cambodia wrote a letter to its international headquarters to draw its attention on the major damage risks on Preah Vihear temple resulting from the recent clash that took place in this zone.

While the UNESCO indicated that several of its experts are on the spot in Preah Vihear these last few days, it also said that the situation is strongly degrading in the region. Following the clash on 02 April, and the ensuing escalation, UNESCO said that it is extremely concerned by the security of the temple. According to its communiqué, Thai soldiers have burnt a section of the market located at the bottom of the staircase leading to the temple. Shootings have damaged this portion of the site, as well as buildings belonging to Preah Vihear National Authority, located a dozen of meters away from the temple.

The Cambodian branch of UNESCO launched an urgent appeal to its headquarters, trying to push it to intervene officially. Such an intervention is deemed decisive and necessary for the safekeeping of this exceptional site.

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