"The border demarcation is a technical problem. The PAD politicised it, not the Democrat Party," Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said

Govt optimistic over appointment of new Thai PM: Minister
Written by Neth Pheaktra and Brendan Brady
Wednesday, 17 December 2008

But civil society leaders say that Cambodia is simply wasting time
negotiating with a succession of powerless Thai governments

WHILE the newly selected premier of Thailand, opposition leader
Abhisit Vejjajiva, had criticised his country's ruling party for
allowing Cambodia to list Preah Vihear temple as a UN World Heritage
site in July, the Cambodian government insists the change will not
reshape the border talks, which they say have always been rooted in
past treaties and not in the personalities of the negotiators.

"The border demarcation is purely a technical problem. The PAD
politicised it, not the Democrat Party," Information Minister Khieu
Kanharith said, distancing the new premier's party from the mobs of
the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy movement that has
led six months of disruptive and, at times, violent protests to oust
the ruling party, and had sent protesters to the border to lay claim
to Preah Vihear temple.

While he acknowledged that the new government "will have a tough time
dealing with the (border) issue", he said they could not deny the
existing treaties in place to support Cambodia's claims.

Union leader Rong Chhun, who has been a vocal critic of the
government's hands-off approach in negotiations with Thailand over the
disputed territory along the shared border, said the time to abandon
bilateral talks was long overdue.

"I've requested that the government stop negotiating with the Thai
government. We will just lose a lot of time trying to negotiate with
the new government. The Cambodian government must send a new letter to
the United Nations' International Court," he said.

He also suspected the new premier's Democrat Party of involvement in
the PAD's protest against Cambodia's ownership of the 11th-century
border temple, despite there being no formal links between the
groups.


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I've requested that the government stop negotiating with the Thai
government.

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But Thun Saray, the president of local rights group Adhoc and a
regular commentator on social and political affairs, said without
crippling resistance from PAD protesters, the new administration
should prove a more able negotiating partner.

He also pointed to the newly approved Asean charter, which some say
will give the bloc, often dismissed as toothless, greater clout in
brokering disputes in the region.

"Only if the new regime blocks the negotiations, then it will be time
to bring the case outside Cambodia."
Pending approval by the Thai king, which officials expect will happen
in the next few days, 44-year-old Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva
will become the country's third prime minister in four months.

The office of prime minister in Thailand has been a veritable rotating
door this year, limiting the chance of any resolution being reached on
its disputed territory with Cambodia.
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