Thailand and Cambodia agree to cut more troops

Cha Am - Thailand and Cambodia made further progress yesterday in reducing border tension by agreeing to cut more troops from the area near the Preah Vihear temple.

Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag and his Cambodia counterpart Hor Namhong met yesterday at Cha Am to try to find a lasting solution to the border dispute at the Khmer sanctuary, which was the scene of a military standoff last month.

The head of Cambodia's Temporary Coordinating Task Force, Neng Phat, will meet Suchit Sitthiprapa, head of the Thai Regional Border Committee, in Cambodia on August 29 to discuss a further reduction in troop numbers, Tej said.

Hor Namhong said that Cambodia would unilaterally withdraw all regular soldiers from the temple so that only police and military police remain in the area.

Once troops have been com¬pletely withdrawn from the Hindu temple site, Phnom Penh would look at reopening the temple to tourists, he said.

Yesterday's meeting follows one in Siem Reap, where both countries agreed to redeploy troops from disputed areas. The number of troops has been reduced significantly to just 10 on both sides currently.

The ministers also agreed to convene a meeting of the Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC) by early October to discuss issues related to the survey and mark¬ing of the sector under the terms of reference and JBC master plan, Tej said.

The JBC, set up in accordance with a memorandum of under¬standing signed in 2000 has made slow progress defining the 798 kilometre border.

But Tej said the new consti¬tution required the Thai Parliament to endorse the bor¬der committee's mandate to negotiate the boundary line.

The ministers still had no no solution in relation to the Cambodian community set up years ago in the overlapping area claimed by both sides, according to an official at the meeting.

Both sides agreed to also con¬sider Ta Muen Thom temple, which both sides claim to own at the next meeting of foreign min¬isters. No date had been set yet for that but it was likely to be held after the border committee meets, Tej said.

With demilitarisation and depoliticisation of the problem, Cambodia would drop its plan for the dispute to be raised at the United Nations Security Council, Hor Namhong said.

During the meeting, a dozen people from the Dhamma Yatra, formerly linked to the People's Alliance for Democracy's antigovernment protests, gathered in front of the meeting place to demand that Preah Vihear be "returned to Thailand".

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belongs to Cambodia.

The group is the same one whose protesters stormed the Khmer sanctuary on July 15 after the site received World Heritage listing.

A Foreign Ministry official took their letter of demand as foreign ministers Tej and Hor Namhong left for an audience with His Majesty the king at Klai Kangwon Palace, just nearby in Hua Hin.