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Published on March 11, 2008

Through his own misreading of your news piece Ric Souen went into a frenzy thinking that Thailand was still maintaining that the Preah Vihear temples are theirs. The piece's last paragraph referred to the ownership of Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin, which was wrongly included in the French map as being within Cambodia. I would like to correct his misconceptions.

First, Thailand has matured since the World Court's unfavourable decision in 1962 and it is now able to accept Preah Vihear temples as belonging to Cambodians. We have accepted the inevitable.

Second, Thailand's current protest to France and Cambodia is a normal registration of objection to the map that shows the Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin as within Cambodia. Per the World Court's ruling, we lost the Preah Vihear temples because of our lack of objections  to the mapping as made by the French and given to us during the days of French colonialism in early 1904.

Third, ownership of assets cannot be logically claimed based on the history of the Khmer Empire in the 11th century, otherwise Phimai in Nakhon Ratchasima and many temples in Laos, Vietnam and Burma would be on the desired list of the Cambodians or Italians could also claim almost the whole of Europe because of the great Roman Empire.

Fourth, the third-time application by the Cambodian government to Unesco is again likely to fail since the only natural access to the site is via Thai territory. One of the conditions for a World Heritage site is easy access. Without Thailand's support, there is definitely no easy access. Even though, in legal terms, the temples belong to Cambodia, to relish the Preah Vihear temples one needs to come via Thailand and take an uphill drive for a few minutes, rather than an uphill (38-degree gradient) half-day trek on a motorcycle in Cambodia. It is not only the temples that are involved, but the whole mountain range which includes Thailand territory.

Fifth, Thailand is willing to give support to the application, if the pending demarcation line is confirmed and the conclusion made that the Ta Mean Prom temple is within Thailand. Without being nationalistic, I consider Thailand's offer to be the conduct of a good neighbour staving off future disputes with our neighbouring country. Citizens of both countries especially in the border area can then live peacefully and prosperously with no dark clouds above their heads.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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Students doing their best to cope with many pressures

Re: "Confessions of a young and dangerous mind", Opinion, March 10.

The dilemma that the Thai student who wishes to enter a top university faces is realism in the face of idealism. The title of the article, "Confessions of a young and dangerous mind", implies that this student, along with their fellows, is "dangerous", which is certainly not the case.

I pity the poor students who are not "dangerous" at all. They are just young people attempting to fit in with the present-day set of arbitrary rules made by a government desperate to "do something" about the educational system, and, at the same time, to satisfy their parents and families. It's quite a dilemma: what is a student to do?

Governments and families must understand the dilemma of the serious student - serious to get on with their lives in the best way possible and to meet both the requirements of government policies and the standards of their families at the same time.

John D Williams

Bangkok

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