Unesco, and Cambodia's solo bid for Preah Vihear

On January 24, 2007, Virachai Plasai - the then-director general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department of the Foreign Ministry - headed a delegation to Paris for a discussion with high-level officials from Unesco. The Thai delegation was there to explain why Thailand raised objections at the earlier meeting in Siem Reap. On the same day, the Defence Council of Thailand held a meeting on Cambodia's unilateral move to register Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site. At the meeting, the council passed a resolution to officially protest the act and condemn Cambodia's moves to fabricate historical evidence, as well as its efforts to solicit support from other countries.

Back then, we still thought that Cambodia would use the original map in its nomination file. As the original map covers an overlapping area claimed by both Cambodia and Thailand, we believed Cambodia would need our endorsement for its proposal to move ahead. We thus lodged our protest and notified Cambodia that we would not cooperate. We did not imagine Cambodia would use other means to push forward.

On March 3 and March 4, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, in a bilateral talk in Cambodia, that Cambodia would go ahead with its plan to register just the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage Site. It marks the first time that the temple alone was the area of focus. Thailand still failed to see that preparations had already been made to register just Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site. Cambodia could file its bid to have Preah Vihear Temple registered as a World Heritage site on its own. Moreover, the World Heritage Committee could approve such a nomination without breaking any rules.

On March 25 and March 26, Unesco invited Thailand to a meeting to assist in planning for the conservation and management of Preah Vihear Temple and surrounding areas. The meeting was intended as a forum in which Thailand's comments could be reviewed. These comments were to be attached to the last proposal to the World Heritage Committee. Thailand chose not to send a representative to the meeting because it believed that withholding its support for Cambodia's bid would mean the World Heritage Committee would not give its stamp of approval. However, as things turned out, it seems that Thailand lost an opportunity to raise an objection to the report in which experts distorted facts about Preah Vihear Temple. This report is included in the appendix of documents submitted before the World Heritage Committee.

On April 29, the Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that then-Foreign Affairs minister Noppadon Pattama would head a Thai delegation to Paris to discuss Cambodia's plan to nominate the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site. The move was in response to an invitation by Unesco.

It should be noted that Unesco played an unusually active role over Cambodia's bid. Unesco even dispatched its official, Francesco Caruso to Thailand and Cambodia in May to assist in coordination. Wasu Posayanand, an expert who has been working on the Preah Vihear Temple case, comments on a website that, "Unesco - an organisation that should be neutral over a conflict between two countries - has done everything it can to help war-embattled Cambodia to get a new World Heritage site". A World Heritage site will help attract more money to Cambodia. Aside from that, when Thai delegates asked Unesco for the opportunity to let Thailand and Cambodia jointly file the nomination, Unesco officials responded that it is not possible to amend any information in a nomination file that has already been assessed, unless the file is withdrawn. If withdrawn, the nomination file would have had to wait in a queue before being considered again.

However, on May 22, Cambodia was allowed to replace the "Sacred Site of Preah Vihear Temple", listed in its nomination file, with Preah Vihear Temple.

Although a Unesco official commented that the registration of the Preah Vihear Temple alone contradicted academic principles, the chair of the meeting, who is a high-level executive at the Unesco, says this case should be an exemption based on a "political decision".