August 3, 2010
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
The boundary dispute with Cambodia and controversy over Preah Vihear Temple have become mixed up and widely politicised as political groups inflame the issues and accuse each other of losing Thai territory.
Some of the most vociferous of those charges and issues are:
- Nationalist groups under the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) umbrella have accused the government of possibly losing territory to Cambodia due to a document signed in 2000 by the Democrat-led administration headed by Chuan Leekpai.
- Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has shifted the blame to former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama for giving Cambodia the chance to list the Preah Vihear as a world heritage site.
- Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti called a press briefing on his return from the World Heritage meeting in Brazil to claim credit for convincing the committee to delay consideration of Cambodia's management plan for Preah Vihear.
- Unlike Abhisit, Suwit thanked PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang for a protest staged in front of Unesco's regional office in Bangkok last week, in support of his efforts to block the Cambodian temple plan. Suwit implied that his mission was defending Thai sovereignty over the Preah Vihear.
- Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya called another press conference yesterday to defend the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding on boundary demarcation, while his yellow-shirt alliance group turned their guns on the government for demanding its abolition.
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