26 August 2008

Cambodia eyes ââ¬ÅâœBerlin wallââ¬~ to protect temple

PHNOM PENH - According to reports from some agencies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia plans to build a "Berlin-style" wall to shut off Thailand and develop tourist facilities around the still disputed Preah Vihear temple.

The Cambodian government will build a series of walls at "complicated border areas," while still calling for talks to mark the frontier, Khieu Kanharith, information minister and government spokesman, told reporters at a press conference.

"Cambodia will allow private companies to invest at least US$2 million at the World Heritage-listed Preah Vihear temple to set up cable cars for tourists," the minister said, adding that the government is also trying to rebuild an existing road to the temple.

For decades, the only way to get to Preah Vihear was through Thailand, because the temple is situated atop a sharp cliff on the Cambodian side.

Cambodia and Thailand share a border of more than 800km with only 73 demarcation markers, the Cambodian official said.

At a meeting on Aug 18-19, Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers agreed to arrange second-phase troop redeployment at the disputed border area near the temple.

They agreed to a meeting of the Cambodian Temporary Coordinating Task Force and the Thai Regional Border Committee on Aug 29 in Cambodia to discuss the troop redeployment.

The two foreign ministers also agreed to recommend to their governments that the next meeting of legal experts and the Thai-Cambodian Joint Border Committee be convened in early October, to discuss the issues related to border survey and demarcation of the relevant frontier sectors.

On July 15, Thai troops went into the border area to fetch three trespassers who had intended to claim Thai sovereignty over the Preah Vihear temple.

The incident triggered a military standoff, as troop strength on each side grew to more than 1,000 soldiers.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice in Den Haag, Holland, decided that the 11-century temple belongs to Cambodia.

Source: Reinhard Hohler and Bangkok Post.

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• Confused Borders and Priorities
  
  

  The Indochina countries, as well as those with China, are confused following years of strife. VietNam and China have resolved their differences and the Vietnamese borders with Laos and Cambodia are well under way to finalisation - all without an exchange of words or bullets. Given the many shared interests between Thailand and Cambodia, as well as a shared border, is is sad to see these two countries at loggerheads. Furthermore, Cambodia is hardly capable, financially, of squandering its limited resources on this border project given that health services are practically non-existent, along with education and general infrastructure. This is not to even mention the extensive land areas still sporting land-mines from earlier military ventures by many parties. Why are cable cars so attractive to these countries, too? VietNam has installed several and all they have done is to provide a scenic blight and, in the case of Nha Trang, prevent many cruise ships from entering the harbour. A refurbished road to this temple should suffice, given that visitor counts are so low compared to the UNESCO blessed Angkor Wat site.

  By Jon Hewson, Tuesday, August 26, 2008