DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Hundreds of Police to be deployed at "red-shirts" rally sites” plus 6 more

BANGKOK, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Altogether ten companies of police will be deployed to maintain peace at the two main rally sites Saturday, said the police chief, as the anti-government movement " red-shirts" is staging a rally at Bangkok.

Pol Maj Gen Wichai Sangprapai, Metropolitan Division 1 commander, on Friday afternoon said that two companies of police will be deployed at the downtown Ratchaprasong Intersection, two companies at the Supreme Court building compound near Sanam Luang and another six companies at the Democracy monument.

Wichai revealed the plan after he discussed security measures with the "red-shirts" co-leader Jatuporn Promphan, who is also a opposition Puea Thai party MP, for the planned anti-government rally.

Wichai said he had asked Jatuporn to ensure that the "red- shirts" would refrain from attacking the high institution during their rally and to watch out any possible violence inciting by the "third-hand".

Jatuporn said the "red-shirts", whose massive rally during last March to May was dispersed by the military on May 19th, will start rally at about 01:00 p.m. local time on Saturday at the Ratchaprasong intersection, before they marched to the Supreme Court to read out complaining letters by their leaders being detained at Bangkok Remand prison. After that the protesters will move to the Democracy Monument for further political activities, he said.

He said the "red-shirts" will peacefully disperse around midnight.

Several key leaders of the "red-shirts" have been detained in prison since May 19th, 2010, when they surrendered themselves to police after calling an end to the rally.

The "red-shirts" complained double standards of judicial system, which accused those leaders and some of the "red-shirts" members of terrorism.

WELLINGTON, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) on Friday strengthens Bahrain travel advice.

The unrest in Bahrain has prompted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to update its travel advice for New Zealanders in, and going to, the Gulf country.

Bahrain's army has sealed off a square in the capital, Manama, where violence was used to clear a camp set up by anti-government protesters.

Several days of rallies there have turned violent, with six people reportedly killed and more than 200 injured.

The ministry says people should avoid the areas of the unrest, monitor the media and take advice of local authorities.

It's also urging travelers to the Middle East to register their details on the Safetravel website, which will help embassy staff contact New Zealanders if there's an emergency.

The ministry has lowered its travel advisory for Egypt from extreme to high risk.

But it is still advising against all tourist and other non- essential travel due to the country's unpredictable security situation.

TOKYO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government on Friday announced it is ending its whaling season early due to persistent disruptions from anti-whaling activists.

"We've decided to wind up our research whaling unavoidably from the viewpoint of securing the safety of the crew and the boats," Japan's Farm and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano said, adding that the whaling fleet will return to Japan shortly.

Japan had said it had suspended its hunt on Feb. 10. Usually the season continues until mid-March.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says one of its boats has been blocking the main ship, Nisshin Maru's stern loading ramp, preventing any harpooned whales from being loaded on to the ship.

Japan's whaling fleet involves 180 people on working on four ships. During the southern winter season they aim to kill upwards of 945 whales in Antarctic waters, officials said.

Sea Shepherd ships have been chasing the Japanese fleet for weeks in the icy seas, trying to prevent the whalers from filling their seasonal quota

Commercial whaling was banned in 1986 but Japan uses a regulation permitting hunting for scientific research. Some anti- whaling environmentalists maintain that this is simply Japan's way of exploiting a loophole for the continuation of commercial whaling.

CANBERRA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Ex-tropical cyclone Carlos on Friday caused extensive flooding in low-lying areas across Darwin of Northern Territory (NT), Australia.

After causing extensive damage to roads and homes across the NT, Darwin residents breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday morning when the category one storm weakened to a tropical low and moved southwest.

However, the threat from the tropical storm is not yet over. The Bureau of Meteorology said ex-tropical Cyclone Carlos is moving very slowly across the southwest regions and dumped hundreds of millimeters of rain on Thursday night, leading rivers and dams outside Darwin reached capacity and began to overflow.

On Thursday morning, NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson said the Daly River was at 12.6 meters.

"That community starts to get into trouble when the river peaks between 13.5 and 14 meters," he told Australia Associated Press on Thursday night.

By Friday morning, Daly River had reached 13.6 meters and started to encroach on low-lying homes. The river is expected to rise to 14 meters by 4 pm (CST) on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Darwin River Dam is at capacity since Thursday night with excess water to spilling over. ABC News reported that five to seven households in low lying areas were inundated and some residents were reportedly winched to safety on Friday by helicopter.

The Adelaide River reached 12.4 meters on late Thursday night.

Northern Territory Police have been on flood watch at Adelaide River and at the Darwin River Dam area.

Henderson warned residents to be vigilant, especially as creeks and rivers were still rising, and as the Darwin Dam exceeded capacity and overflowed.

"We've got a lot of water around, creeks and streams have risen, we've got a lot of billabongs overflowing, and the advice from Parks and Wildlife is that crocodiles are on the move," he said.

Also, Acting Commander Tony Fuller said there is a danger of crocodiles moving close to houses in areas affected by floodwaters near Daly River.

"There's some fairly large crocodiles in that area," he told The Australian newspaper on Friday.

"Members of the community are keeping an eye on the waterways and we urge anyone down there to keep away from the water, not only for the crocodiles but the potential for drownings."

The Bureau of Meteorology said the ex-Tropical Cyclone Carlos was expected to continue moving southwest and into the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf on Saturday.

SINGAPORE, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The two casino resorts in Singapore contributed 3.7 billion Singapore dollars (2.9 billion U. S. dollars), or 1.7 percent of nominal gross domestic product, in the first nine months of 2010, local media reported on Friday.

The sum is almost half of the 7.9 billion Singapore dollars (6. 2 billion U.S. dollars) contributed by the tourism industry.

It also means Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, both inaugurated last year, are now well on track to surpass the 5.4 billion Singapore dollars (4.2 billion U.S. dollars) they were expected to jointly generate by 2015, the Straits Times reported.

Analysts said they were not surprised, given that both resorts have reported strong quarterly results.

Marina Bay Sands said earlier this month it made 390 million Singapore dollars (305 million U.S. dollars) in pre-tax profit in the fourth quarter last year, following a record 315 million Singapore dollars (246 million U.S. dollars) in the third quarter.

Resorts World Sentosa has not announced its fourth quarter results. Its third-quarter pre-tax profit was 346.5 million Singapore dollars (270.7 million U.S. dollars).

Analysts expected the two resorts' profit to continue to rise. Greg Unsworth, an entertainment and media industry specialist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said he expected the gaming revenue of Singapore's two casino resorts to hit 2.8 billion U.S. dollars for 2010 and 5.5 billion U.S. dollars this year.

YANGON, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- An Indian pharmaceuticals exposition is being held in Myanmar's Yangon, showcasing pharmaceutical products and medical equipment of India.

With the aim of exchanging information about pharmaceutical industry and medical treatment and promoting trade between India and Myanmar, the three-day Indian pharmaceutical expo-2011, jointly organized by the Myanmar-India Business Chamber and Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India, is participated by 31 Indian companies.

According to the exposition sources, pharmaceutical entrepreneurs of the two countries met on Thursday and seminars on latest findings on obstetrics and gynecology will run until Saturday.

Statistics show that Myanmar imported over 5,000 categories of pharmaceutical products from abroad annually and the import in the fiscal year 2009-10 registered a value of 147.7 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 17.4 percent from 2008-09.

Figures also indicate that Myanmar-India bilateral trade reached 1.19 billion U.S. dollars in  2009-10, increasing by 26.1 percent from the previous year and standing as Myanmar's fourth largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore.

Of the total, Myanmar's export to India amounted to 1 billion U. S. dollars, while its import from India was valued at 194 million dollars, the Central Statistical Organization said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has rejected Cambodia's proposal for the two countries to sign a ceasefire agreement, stating that it was too early to talk about such a move. Mr Abhisit said the two countries in conflict must hold talks and Asean could act as a facilitator.

"We were not the ones that started the fight. It is still too soon to talk about signing any agreement," Mr Abhisit was quoted by the Thai media as saying, in response to the call made by Cambodia.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has proposed yesterday that Thailand and Cambodia sign a definitive and permanent ceasefire deal, witnessed by other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the Asean chair, when Asean foreign ministers meet in Jakarta next Tuesday.

Asean is not in a position to be involved in the matters to be discussed by Thailand and Cambodia, Abhisit had said, adding Cambodian Prime Minister's Hun Sen's proposal was still not clear.

Questions to be asked are:

1)      If Thailand did indeed not start this fight in the first place, what is it afraid of in signing a  Definitive and Permanent Ceasefire as demanded by the UNSC?

2)      If Thailand did not play up to the pressures imposed on it by its own political parties and mount this war of aggression, why is it rejecting United Nations or ASEAN Observers who would provide a buffer zone? Is it because Thailand is afraid it would be caught red-handed mounting repeated attacks on Cambodia to permanently annex the Temple of Preah Vihear and the Thai so-called disputed areas, make it its own and thereafter hoodwinking the international community that Thailand is indeed the owner and custodian of the so-called disputed areas when in history, in law and in the international community's eyes, especially the ICJ and UNESCO it is not.

3)      Is it not a fact that Thailand has capitulated by agreeing to ASEAN being a facilitator while the initiative of Prime Minister is an extension of the same ASEAN initiative for calling a definitive and permanent ceasefire, which is also mandated by the UNSC?

4)      What is not clear of Prime Minister Hun Sen's proposal? What part of this does premier Abihisit does not understand? Is Thailand's premier really an incorrigible upstart who wants to sacrifice peace overtures from a smaller neighbor?

5)      Is Thailand afraid of committing to a permanent ceasefire because it has close to 30,000 troops in the so-called disputed border, armed with main battle tanks, squadrons of attack helicopters and jet fighters, batteries of heavy artilleries, clearly and indisputably equipped with cluster bombs and toxic gasses and since these are in such close proximity that the ASEAN or other military observers can easily spot and thus point the finger at Thai aggression?

By first twisting and misleading the silent majority of the Thai people and continuously intoxicating the international community, Thailand and its Prime Minister, has out rightly rejected peace overtures, knowing very well that whatever agreed upon in the past decade since the 2000 MOU could never be implemented or even discussed by the Thai parliament as doing so would mean the end of the Thai Government.

If Premier Abihisit is a man of peace as to what he has proclaimed in the past, rather insidiously, he has nothing to fear for a permanent ceasefire agreement, placing of ASEAN Peace Monitors, maybe even peace keepers. This of course is contingent on the Thai Premier getting his Government's backing and oh yes – that of the PAD as well.

How do you explain this scenario?

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong met and shook hands during the so-called Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission meeting in Siem Reap earlier this month. The Thais had unilaterally claimed that both sides had agreed to revive the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) meetings and tentatively scheduled the next one for later this month. At least that is what the conniving Thais would like the world to believe. In reality, the proposal was raised by the Thai Foreign Minister but was never agreed to by Cambodia. This is because, meetings prior to this particular one as well as this one, had yielded little or no results because Thailand could not get its parliament to agree what was discussed at these meetings. On the contrary, the meeting was a deception as an hour or so later, while the Thai Foreign Minister was still in Cambodia, Thai troops invaded Cambodia! Now, bilateral mechanisms cannot resolve the issue as Thai actions has proven that their diplomats speak with forked tongues.

On the same day, when the question was posed to him, Thai Premier Abhisit was quoted as saying: "I believe the JBC meeting will proceed as scheduled."

But Thailand's JBC chief, Asda Jayanama, and other Thai high ranking officials are so busy with something else. He and his colleagues have not been focusing  on boundary work. Instead, the veteran diplomat in particular, has been busy lobbying Unesco in Paris to try to get officials from the UN cultural body to de-list the Temple of Preah Vihear from the World Heritage list and to stay away from the damaged Preah Vihear Temple, a direct result of the Thai invasion and repeated assaults last week.

Is this not a clear case of Thailand not speaking the same language at any international front?

It is thus, curious to know why Abhisit and his close aides are so afraid of the imminent visit of UNESCO's Assessment envoy, Mr. Matsuura and even stooped to very low diplomatic standards by alleging that Mr. Matsuura is the person responsible for inscribing the Temple of Preah Vihear in the World Heritage list.

This is an insult to Mr. Matsuura, a  former WHC President and 2 term-UNESCO- Director General,  who is well-known for his long time dedication to World Culture i.e. a Typical Man of Culture.

In reality, Mr. Matsuura does not have the authority to inscribe the Preah Vihear temple on the World Heritage List as alleged by the insolent Thais. Inscribing any site to the World Heritage list is a collective responsibility of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) which in turn comprises 21 member states. Thailand, in its haste to threaten UNESCO and WHC, should not misrepresent the facts as by doing so, it is only making itself look more and more foolish day by day.

Mr. Matsuura's   visit to the World Heritage site of Preah Vihear to assess the damage should not be discouraged by any party as it is a directive of the UNESCO and a necessity to understand the seriousness of the situation created by the invading Thais. This UNESCO Envoy's mission is a very noble one since it is the sacred duty of this world organization to protect and salvage this Temple which is under threat of more destruction from future Thai invasions and assaults. Cambodia has every reason to believe that Thailand would not hesitate to destroy the temple through its artillery bombardment. It would then, as is the case now, put the blame squarely on Cambodia by alleging that Cambodia is using the temple as a military base. In reality, which Mr. Matsuura will certainly see, Cambodia is merely defending the temple from being routed or looted by the Thai army.

This is what Thailand does not want the world to see. Thailand is in reality afraid of this visit as its continued aggressive posture is a cowardly act in misleading the international community and in fact, its own people. Cambodia will not allow herself to be a pawn to Thailand's and Abhisit's domestic political woes.

Cambodia wants and demands a permanent ceasefire as mandated by the UNSC and as advocated by Asean via a multi-lateral platform. Thailand rejects this.

Thailand must accept what transpired from the UNSC meeting last Monday wasn't what Cambodia had demanded. Thailand didn't get what it wanted either. It is only a matter of time for the UN to decide to dispatch military observers, peacekeeping forces or fact-finding mission. The UNSC also didn't rule in favor of Thailand's request for bilateral talks either. Asean will be the mediator, which means that it's no longer a bilateral affair.

Thus, Thailand must resign itself to the inevitable fact  that her demands for strictly bilateral talks is now a non starter and is dead in the water, simply because ASEAN has already called for a meeting and have stressed that there is no reason why Thailand should not agree to a permanent ceasefire with Cambodia.  Third party mediation is there, irrespective of whether Thailand likes it or not. It is an absolute necessity for peace to prevail and not an exercise of Thailand trying to enforce its will on Cambodia, ASEAN, UNSC or UNESCO.

A commentary by the Press and Quick Reaction Unit of the Office of the Council of Ministers