Thailand’s Defense Ministry on Friday retracted statements warning of diplomatic repercussions if Cambodia continued with its bid to have the Preah Vihear temple inscribed on the World Heritage List, the Thai press reported.
The Thai Defense Ministry response follows Thursday statements by ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Pichasanu Putchakarn asserting that Cambodia had created “false evidence” in order to claim the temple “for its unilateral benefit.”
The Bangkok Post reported Saturday that Thai Defense Minister Boonrawd Somtas had said Friday that the spokesman’s comments were made based on an “internal meeting” and represented a “misunderstanding” by Pichasanu.
“It was not intended to be announced, and the information [given by Pichasanu] was incorrect and included personal views,” Boonrawd was quoted as saying.
However, the Thai News Agency quoted Pichasanu on Friday as saying the Cambodian government may have misunderstood the news.
Information Minister and government spokesman Khieu Kanharith wrote in an e-mail Sunday that the Cambodian government “did not misunderstand the report,” adding that the “Thai Ministry of Defense should discuss and try to understand the issue first before making any official statement.”
Khieu Kanharith said the Cambodian government had “downplayed” Pichasanu’s allegations and remained steadfast to previous agreements between the countries.
“The Thai Foreign Ministry shows its commitment to discuss the border issue in a [spirit of] mutual respect,” he wrote.
The Thai Embassy could not be reached for comment Sunday.
According to a Council of Ministers statement issued Saturday, Cambodia’s “High Committee in charge of the inscription file of Preah Vihear on the Unesco World Heritage List” holds the “view that the utilization of [a] non-existent border dispute as [an] argument in an attempt to delay the inscription process is an obvious violation of the judgment of the International Court of Justice in 1962.”
In that year, the ICJ ruled that the Preah Vihear temple lay within Cambodia’s borders. The temple was denied a spot on the heritage list during a July 2007 meeting of the World Heritage Committee, the secretariat of which is handled by Unesco, in part because of objections by Thailand.
The statement also announced that the high committee had submitted a progress report to the World Heritage Committee regarding the conditions for conservation of the temple, as well as a report on the progress made in preparing a site management plan. Under conditions laid out last July by the World Heritage Committee, this progress report had to be submitted by Feb 1 for the temple to be potentially inscribed on the list this year.
