KI Media: “Cambodian Politics: The true Democratic Party Vs the fake ones” plus 24 more

KI Media: “Cambodian Politics: The true Democratic Party Vs the fake ones” plus 24 more

Cambodian Politics: The true Democratic Party Vs the fake ones

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 10:06 AM PDT

The banner in the background in Khmer says: True Democracy!
Picture from SRP Website

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Op-Ed by Timothy Chhim
Originally posted at http://timothychhim.blogspot.com

The battles have begun, but who will win the war?

There are 28 months to go for the next general election to be held in July 2013. Cambodia's Democrats or the non-CPP political parties have begun their series of fighting to become the number 2 spot.

Some leaders of the oppositions are hoping to become Hun Sen's partner in the next Cambodian government. It is one of the promises used to string along those gullible members who can come up with large sum of money.

The hot battle this month is the struggle for Kg Cham's province where verbal artillery between Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy had been launched. Cell phone or personal discussions are unsuitable; thus, both leaders exchanged their punches via open mails.

Kampong Cham belong to top leaders of all parties. Kem Sokha ran as the number one candidate in 2008 and "won" without having to spend much of his own money. The person who spent most money in that province didn't win and subsequently defected to the CPP. If you could ask him about the democratic processes inside HRP, he would tell you how much he needed to spend to be listed as a top ranking candidate in that province.


Kampong Cham is the most populated province in Cambodia. It is one of SRP's strongholds besides Phnom Penh where SRP also holds 5 seats. 18 congressional seats will be up for grab in 28 months. For this mandate, the CPP holds 11 seats, SRP 5, NRP 1 and HRP 1.

CPP's big gunners Heng Samrin and Hor Namhong and 9 others are in Kampong Cham making this province a must win for the CPP. Meanwhile Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha and You Hokry, the heavyweight from the Non-CPP parties, are struggling to maintain their presence there. Every ones are hoping to maintain their current seat or to win more votes in July of 2013.

There is a slim chance for non-CPP parties to get more votes from the CPP's members; hence, it is easier for Kem Sokha to target SRP's voters, especially when this party's leaders are in trouble with the CPP.

It is necessarily for HRP to push for a few thousands more votes to get an additional seat. Otherwise, there will be no chance for others besides Kem Sokha to pay for the campaign in Kg Cham. In 2008, HRP got 72,772 votes and won only one seat. Some 30,000 votes were wasted.

The Absence of Sam Rainsy from Kg Cham may have contributed to the internal or personal fighting that caused Mao Monyvan to be expelled and later on defected to the so-called "true Democratic Party." People may wonder if there is such a true Democratic Party, then the rest of Democrats are the fake ones.

In 2013, Mao Monyvan will probably be appointed "democratically" by Kem Sokha to run in Kg Cham. More than likely he will be listed as one of the top candidates for he claims that most of SRP members will follow him. It would be interesting to know what will happen to those hopeful HRP candidates who have already been promised to be listed as one of the top contenders as well.

According to RFA news, the recent reception held by Kem Sokha in Kg Cham before the Cambodian New Year brought in about 500 new members for HRP. They were not all SRP members. It was included those dubious "hidden members" from the ruling party and other parties.

Why such a small number if the majority of SRP members in Kampong Cham were so unhappy about Sam Rainsy? Was it because of the Khmer Rouge styled system (accused by Mao Monyvan) that made SRP members decided not to defect en mass?

As reported by Soy Sopheap, there were about 90 percents of SRP signs were supposedly bought down. People may scratch their head for there must be something wrong with the above figure.

What Party the CPP would use to break up SRP?

The CPP's interest is to see the fight goes on; especially, between the "true" Democratic and the "fake" ones. The best party for the CPP to support or employ in the fight against SRP is HRP. It knows that Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy will never get along. NRP and FUN are already tainted as CPP's allies. Some clues are found with Soy Sopheap's suggestion to Kem Sokha and to Mao Monyvan as seen on Bayon TV's Special program recently. Please click here.

If the CPP and HRP succeed in chopping down SRP, HRP will not hesitate to become a partner of the CPP in the next Cambodian government. This will leave SRP to remain the biggest opposition for the next 5 years.

While the battles between the so-called True Democratic Party and the fake ones go on, the real winner in the political warfare will be the CPP.

Police violence against Boeung Kak Lake protesters in front of Phnom Penh city hall

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 09:18 AM PDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WK9yHopZcc&feature=channel_video_title

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itfID-EEZPg&feature=channel_video_title

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy's response to HRP's Kem Sokha's letter on Candle Light Radio

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 09:08 AM PDT


Click the control below to listen to Sam Rainsy

Boeung Kak Residents ask Donors to Check Development Project

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 09:00 AM PDT


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-QcOHUU9Q&feature=channel_video_title

3 passed out, 11 arrested against Beoung Kak Lake protesters

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 08:56 AM PDT


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZjzwsAhsdg&feature=player_embedded

The Violent Past Present

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 08:19 AM PDT

Blood-drenched CPP showing its revolutionary RED

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 08:14 AM PDT

The New KHMER ROUGE in Action

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 08:09 AM PDT

Police Beatings, Arrests as Lake Resident Protest

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 07:30 AM PDT

(All Photos: CEN)


Residents refuse to take a buyout from the company that they say is too low.

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 21 April 2011
"The arrests of children and beatings of elderly women represent a new low in what has already been a hard-fought land conflict."
Residents of Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake development were violently dispersed by riot police outside City Hall Thursday, marking an escalation in their prolonged protest against eviction.

At least 11 demonstrators were arrested and four were injured in police beatings, as around 100 residents gathered to demand a meeting with city officials over their impending eviction from a development site.

More than 100 riot police stormed into the gathered crowd on Thursday morning, hitting protesters with batons and shocking them, while arresting nine women and two underage boys.

"The police beat me with a baton on my head, causing bleeding, and on my right hand, causing swelling," Ngeth Khun, a 71-year-old resident told VOA Khmer after the incident. "I came here to protest and protect my house, but the police come and beat me like this. I am old. I have no power to fight back against the police."


The violence comes just one day after donors warned Cambodia that it must do more to protect citizens caught in land disputes or facing evictions.

Chan Saveth, head of monitoring for the rights group Adhoc, called the police action brutal and unusual.

"We regard it as a serious human rights violation," he said. "In particular the police do not think of humanity and of [the protesters] needs for a fair resolution."

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, called the beatings a "shocking and entirely unjustifiable response to a peaceful protest."

"The arrests of children and beatings of elderly women represent a new low in what has already been a hard-fought land conflict," he said.

Residents want the city to stop Shukaku, Inc., a development group owned by a ruling party senator, from pumping fill into the lake and flooding homes they say they have not agreed to leave. They want more compensation from the company or a plot of land for resettlement.

Rights groups met with city officials late Thursday in an effort to secure the release of those detained in the morning.

Chan Saveth said Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema agreed to release them if they "recognize their mistake."

SRP's Appeal to Stop State Act of Violence against Women

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 07:21 AM PDT

Appeal to Stop
State Act of Violence against Women

(Translated version)

"Violence against women constitutes a violation of basic human rights and is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace", Fourth World Conference on Women- Platform for Action

As elected representatives of the people, we recognize the vital participation and contribution made by women in all sectors, in particular the garment industry, agriculture and micro-business.

As elected representatives of the people, we are gravely alarmed by and condemn the excessive use of force by the military police, local police and hired security guards to crack down on female factory workers who demand better working conditions and fair wages.(1)

As elected representatives of the people, we have intervened on behalf of women farmers and hundreds and thousands of families who are brutally forced out of their land and their homes.(2) These evictions are often carried out violently by police, military police or private armed forces, despite prohibitions under the Land Law.(3)

These systematic acts of violence against women are widespread and committed by the state against its own people. Serious injuries including miscarriages have occurred without proper compensation, medical treatment, investigation or prosecution.(4)


As elected representatives of the people, we have the right and the duty to remind the Government of Cambodia of its obligations stipulated in the Constitution, the national laws and the UN instruments which Cambodia is signatory to.

Articles 2, 3 and 4 of the Declaration on the UN Elimination of Violence against Women defines physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs, as an act of violence against women.

We urgently appeal to all citizens, members of the civil society, trade unions and the international community to join us in calling on the Government of Cambodia to take the immediate following measures:

1/ Stop the excessive deployment of security forces, the use of electric batons and deadly weapons on demonstrators, most specifically where women and children have gathered;

2/ Stop the use of armed forces and hired security guards in forced evictions;

3/ Strictly implement the Penal code in cases of abuse and violation committed by the armed forces, military police, police and security guards against demonstrators and/or during evictions and land grabs;

4/ Drop all charges against women who have been wrongly accused in cases of land grabs, forced evictions and workers' strikes;

5/ Release all women detained on false accusations related to land disputes.

Fair wages, safe working conditions, decent housing and land tenure are women's rights. Women should not be exposed to violence, shame or mistreatment by the Government in their enjoyment of these rights.

Preventing violence against women is essential to provide women and their families the fundamental guarantees of a life free from fear and abuse.


Signed by Members of Parliament
Sam Rainsy Party

April 04, 2011
---------
(1) Land and Housing Rights in Cambodia
Parallel Report 2009; Land and Housing Working Group, Cambodia
April 2009
(2) Bitter sweet- A Briefing Paper on Indistrial Sugar Production, Trade and Human Rights in Cambodia- David Pred, September, 2010
(3) Losing Ground-Forced Evictions in Cambodia. The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) September 2009
(4) Justice for the Poor? An Exploratory Study of Collective Grievances over Land and Local Governance in Cambodia.
Center for Advanced Study-world Bank, Phnom Penh-October 2006

CCHR media comment - CCHR condemns beatings and arrests of lake protestors

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 07:12 AM PDT

Dear all

Please find attached in PDF a Khmer version of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights' (CCHR) Media Comment titled "CCHR condemns beatings and arrests of lake protestors".

Raw pictures of police violence against protesting women from Boeung Kak Lake

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 07:08 AM PDT

Cambodian police beat, arrest women and children in land protest

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 06:51 AM PDT

Apr 21, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - Land rights activists demanded an investigation after police on Thursday beat and arrested 11 villagers, including women and two children, who were protesting their imminent evictions in a land deal in Phnom Penh.

The residents were in a group of 100 villagers who gathered at the municipality's head office, seeking discussions over their pending evictions.

Rights workers said the villagers were surrounded by more than 100 armed riot police and military police. At least four women were knocked unconscious after being hit with electric shock batons, they said. Two others were injured in beatings, and two boys, 11 and 12, were among those arrested, they added.

The Housing Rights Task Force, a local non-governmental organization, said the authorities must stop intimidating residents of Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake area.

'Beating the villagers and ignoring their voices won't make the problems go away,' the organization said in a statement.


'The authorities have failed to resolve the increasingly tense situation surrounding the land grab,' it charged. 'Instead, they are using delay tactics, empty promises and have repeatedly used violence to disperse the villagers.'

Last month, the World Bank admitted that its land-titling programme, which was shut down in 2009, had failed thousands of Boeung Kak's residents who have been forcibly evicted over the past two years.

Thousands more residents - including those protesting Thursday - are under imminent threat of being evicted with little or no compensation in a controversial development deal of a 133-hectare site that is linked to a senator from the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

Few if any of Boeung Kak's residents have been able to get land title documents from the local authorities despite legal experts saying that many are entitled to them.

Cambodia's land tenure system was destroyed during decades of conflict. The World Bank's project was designed to ensure people could get land title documents.

In March, the Cambodian government warned the remaining 2,000 families to accept compensation ahead of their pending evictions or face legal action. Residents and land rights activists have long said the compensation on offer is far too low.

In recent years, land prices have rocketed across Cambodia as the economy strengthened, and tens of thousands of people have been driven off their land by the powerful and well-connected.

Maundy Thursday

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 04:18 AM PDT

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
Expanding our Mind Series

Maundy Thursday is observed during Holy Week on the Thursday before Easter. Also referred to as "Holy Thursday" or "Great Thursday" in some Christian denominations, Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper when Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples on the night before he was crucified. In contrast to joyful Easter celebrations when Christians worship their resurrected Savior, Maundy Thursday services are typically more solemn occasions, marked by the shadow of Jesus' betrayal.

While different denominations observe Maundy Thursday in their own distinct ways, two important biblical events are the primary focus of Maundy Thursday solemnizations:

Before the Passover meal, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. By performing this lowly act of service, the Bible says in John 13:1 that Jesus "showed them the full extent of his love." By his example, Jesus demonstrated how Christians are to love one another through humble service. For this reason, many churches practice foot-washing ceremonies as a part of their Maundy Thursday services.

During the Passover meal, Jesus took bread and wine and asked his Father to bless it. He broke the bread into pieces, giving it to his disciples and said, "This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Then he took the cup of wine, shared it with his disciples and said, "This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you--an agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you." These events recorded in Luke 22:19-20 describe the Last Supper and form the biblical basis for the practice of Communion. For this reason, many churches hold special Communion services as a part of their Maundy Thursday celebrations. Likewise, many congregations observe a traditional Passover Seder meal.

What Does "Maundy" Mean?

Derived from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "commandment," Maundy refers to the commands Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper: to love with humility by serving one another and to remember his sacrifice.


Source: http://christianity.about.com/od/easter/qt/maundythursday.htm

Speak Truth To Power (“Courage without Borders”) Series in KI Media - Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala) “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights”

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 01:41 AM PDT

Speak Truth To Power ("Courage without Borders") Series - Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala) "Indigenous Peop...

http://www.scribd.com/full/53515588?access_key=key-q1r953w4cyfhr0gqbnn

Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) Comment to Media – Phnom Penh, 21 April 2011

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 01:39 AM PDT


CCHR condemns beatings and arrests of lake protestors

Eleven Boeung Kak Lake residents were arrested today, 21 April 2011, during a demonstration outside the Phnom Penh Municipality office. Two of the eleven arrested are said to be children. The arrests were made during a brutal crackdown on a demonstration in which violence was used against protestors. Human Rights monitors at the scene have stated that protestors as old as 70 were beaten by police in uniform and plain clothes using electric batons. The protestors had gathered outside the office of the Phnom Penh Municipality as seven community leaders had been invited by the Deputy Governor to attend a meeting. After the meeting the seven leaders were arrested together with four other protestors.

Responding to the violent crackdown on the demonstration and the arrest of the protestors, Ou Virak, President of CCHR, a non-political, independent, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect democracy and respect for human rights throughout Cambodia, commented:

"This is a shocking and entirely unjustifiable response to a peaceful protest by the disenfranchised lake residents. The arrests of children and beatings of elderly women represent a new low in what has already been a hardly fought land conflict. If anything, the actions of the authorities today illustrate that the rights to freedom of assembly and expression of ordinary Cambodians is secondary to the business operations of the wealthy and well connected. What is of particular concern however is the extent to which the authorities are clearly willing to go to facilitate those business operations".

For more information, please contact Ou Virak via telephone at +855 (0) 12 40 40 51 or via email at ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org

Officials meet donor groups

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 01:28 AM PDT

April 21, 2011
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post

DONOR countries and development groups raised concerns about the controversial draft NGO law and other issues during a meeting with government officials yesterday in connection with more than US$1 billion in aid pledged to Cambodia last year.

NGOs and foreign governments have come out forcefully against the proposed law, which many say would create burdensome registration requirements and allow the government to shut down civil society groups arbitrarily. The law is expected to be advanced to the Council of Ministers in the coming weeks.

In prepared remarks at yesterday's meeting, United States Agency for International Development Mission Director Flynn Fuller said the NGO law posed a significant threat to the Kingdom's development.

"In these times of fiscal constraint, justifying increased assistance to Cambodia will become very difficult in the face of shrinking space for civil society to function," Fuller said.

World Bank Country Manager Qimiao Fan also called for further discussion of the law. He too raised concern about property rights, an increasingly dire concern in a country where tens of thousands of people have been pushed off their land in recent years.

"With rapid urbanisation, the resumption of fast economic growth and the increasing interest from investors in large-scale commercial farming, land issues will become only more challenging, as exemplified in the Boeung Kak Lake area," Qimiao Fan said, referencing the high-profile land dispute in Phnom Penh in which more than 4,000 families may ultimately be displaced by a project run by a ruling party senator.


But Karl Anders Larsson, a counselor at the Swedish embassy, said there was little debate on the NGO law or land rights yesterday beyond the prepared statements.

"It's part of the overall discussion on development and poverty reduction – you have to include these issues, you can't just leave them out of the discussion, but still, there was certainly not a real discussion" on these points, he said.

Reporters were ushered out of yesterday's meeting during the opening remarks, and numerous government officials subsequently declined to comment on the gathering.

At a meeting last June, donors offered a record US$1.1 billion in aid to the Cambodian government. As part of that process, the two sides agreed on a set of 20 development benchmarks known as "Joint Monitoring Indicators", which cover issues ranging from land rights to demining to judicial reform.

Ahead of yesterday's meeting, working groups established by the government in cooperation with donors presented a report on the various indicators, saying that progress had been "encouraging in many cases". They noted, however, that gains had in some cases been limited by a lack of resources and "the complexities of issues that are being addressed".

Local civil society groups, meanwhile, submitted their own report on the indicators, raising serious concerns about the NGO law, land rights and government transparency,
among other issues.

Larsson said the NGO report was "unfortunately not discussed", nor was the government report.

Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, said the JMIs were "a wonderful mechanism", though he stressed the need for donors and the government to follow up on the benchmarks that have been set.

"If there's a goal that's not been met, who's accountable?" he said.

Yesterday's meeting also focused on the government's National Social Protection Strategy, budgetary issues and the structure of future meetings. In his own opening remarks, Finance Minister Keat Chhon said the Kingdom was "well-positioned to take forward an ambitious and successful programme of growth that will deliver benefits for all Cambodians".

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VONG SOKHENG

CITA lost its funding

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 01:25 AM PDT

Rong Chhun (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

21 April 2011
By Sambath
Cambodia Express News
Translated from Khmer by Soch

Phnom Penh – Rong Chhun, President of the Cambodia Independent Teachers' Association (CITA), claimed that his organization is out of fund to operate since April 2011. He is currently calling on donors to help fund his organization so it may operate again.

CITA was set up in 2000. Its mission involves educational work, such as denouncing corruption in education, denouncing irregularities involving the school administrators, the quality of education, irregularities during exams, etc… Rong Chhun claimed that CITA has tens of thousands members throughout the country.


Government officials have labeled CITA as an organization whose activity serves the opposition party, just like Chea Mony's Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC). The government does not consider CITA as its partner, but rather as an opposition politician. Rong Chhun is also the President of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) grouping CITA and FTUWKC.

Rong Chhun is known as a protestor on various issues, including the problem of borders, the rise of gasoline price. However, the government always considers his protests as serving the opposition SRP party. The stop of funding to CITA by donors countries could force it to inaction.

Brain Food for Young Cambodians

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 12:07 AM PDT

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

China’s critics are being silenced in South-East Asia

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:47 PM PDT

Bang a Gong

China's critics are being silenced in South-East Asia

Apr 20th 2011
The Economist
BANGKOK

IN ITS foreign relations, China parades a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of others. It routinely vetoes UN resolutions on this ground (on Libya, it abstained). It boasts that unlike meddlesome Westerners it offers trade and aid without strings, (see article).

Yet in its pursuit of domestic enemies, China is making more demands of its neighbours. Inviting the Dalai Lama to visit has long been a no-no. The same goes for rebellious Uighurs. A group of 20 that fled to Cambodia in 2009 were handed back to China before they could claim political asylum.

Now the target is Falun Gong, a quasi-Buddhist sect that China banned in 1999. Apparently prodded by China, Vietnam and Indonesia have shut down Falun Gong-affiliated radio stations and prosecuted station operators, though neither country forbids the group. Two Vietnamese men arrested last year face up to five years in jail if found guilty of illegal broadcasting. Their trial had been due to begin on April 8th but was postponed. In Indonesia a station manager went on trial last month for a similar offence.


Both cases smack of interference by China. The Vietnamese legal indictment cites a May 2010 Chinese diplomatic request for joint action to stop short-wave transmissions into China by the accused pair, who were detained two weeks after the date of the memo. The indictment says their illegal broadcasts in Chinese had "negatively affected" political trust between the two governments.

Indonesia's case is, if anything, more troubling, as it is a democracy with a free press. New Era Radio, the private station forced off-air, carried Chinese-language content—including reports of alleged human-rights abuse in China—provided by Sound of Hope, a radio network based in California. Sound of Hope claims to reach tens of millions of listeners in China, mostly via short-wave (Taiwan leases it airtime). It also broadcasts to overseas Chinese communities.

They have fewer sources of information these days. The cash-strapped BBC recently ended its World Service Mandarin-language short-wave broadcasts after 70 years. The World Service's American equivalent, Voice of America, is due to do the same in October. China used to jam their broadcasts. Now it has found an arm's-length way to keep out unwelcome news.

Win-win Policy of the Kingdom of CPP Wonder

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:43 PM PDT

ឃ្លាន ខ្លាច ខ្លៅ
"Khlean - Khlach - Khlao"
"Hunger - Fear - Ignorance"

ECCC Law (Genocide)

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:36 PM PDT

Law on the Establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea

("ECCC Law")

with inclusion of amendments as promulgated on 27 October 2004

CHAPTER II
COMPETENCE

Article 4


The Extraordinary Chambers shall have the power to bring to trial all Suspects who committed the crimes of genocide as defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, and which were committed during the period from 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979.


The acts of genocide, which have no statute of limitations, mean any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as:

• killing members of the group;

• causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

• deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

• imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

• forcibly transferring children from one group to another group.


The following acts shall be punishable under this Article:

• attempts to commit acts of genocide;

• conspiracy to commit acts of genocide;

• participation in acts of genocide.

Brain Food

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:32 PM PDT

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

- Plato

My rights, my responsibility (Constitution) Series

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:24 PM PDT

Constitution of Cambodia (Sept. 1993)

CHAPTER VIII: THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT

Article 105


The Prime Minister [ of Vietnam ] shall have the right to delegate his power to a Deputy Prime Minister or to any member of the Royal Government.

Suwit stays on to head temple talks

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:14 PM PDT

21/04/2011
Aekarach Sattaburuth and Pradit Ruangdit
Bangkok Post

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti has decided to stay on as head of the Thai delegation to a World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris in June.

Mr Suwit had a change of heart after a meeting with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya yesterday.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Suwit said the meeting agreed to set up an ad-hoc committee to solve the border conflict with Cambodia.

The prime minister wanted him to lead the committee to ensure that there is policy unity in handling the issue, said Mr Suwit.


"The prime minister wants me to head the ad-hoc panel. I am willing to carry out the task to protect the country's sovereignty and create a better understanding between Thailand and Cambodia," said Mr Suwit.

On Tuesday, Mr Suwit said he would quit the delegation, citing conflicts with the Foreign Ministry over the country's stand at the World Heritage Committee meeting which will consider Cambodia's proposal to manage the disputed land around the Preah Vihear temple.

He said the setting up of the ad-hoc panel would ensure policy unity among Thai agencies tasked with solving the border dispute. All must have the same direction in solving the problem and share the same position, he said.

He said that Thailand and Cambodia must demarcate the border in the disputed area around the temple first.

He denied he changed his mind after Mr Suthep was upset with his decision to leave the delegation and asked him to leave the cabinet. He said the duty of heading the delegation was actually not that of the environment minister but rather the foreign minister.

But he voluntarily offered to carry out this duty in the first place as he disagreed with the previous government's decision backing Cambodia's proposal to manage the land around the temple.

A source said Mr Suwit proposed two preconditions for his comeback. He wanted the prime minister to confirm that Thailand and Cambodia must complete demarcation first and he must be made head of the ad-hoc panel with full authority to negotiate about the issue.

Mr Abhisit accepted the two conditions before meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwannakhiri, Mr Kasit and Culture Minister Niphit Intharasombat. All agreed, said the source.

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