Strategy on Preah Vihear is wrong, needs a total re-think

Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti attended the 33rd ses-sion of the World Heritage Committee in Spain from June 23-30 as an observer with gov-ernment officials.

After the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday he told reporters that Thailand had one year to cam-paign against Cambodia's pro-posal.

Acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn also told the media Thailand had time to campaign among the internation-al community and members of the World Heritage panel in sup-port of a Thai proposal to jointly administer the site.

The Thai media has filed consis-tently on the Preah Vihear con-troversy. But the latest reports have ignored the World Heritage committee's decision No. 32COM 8B.102 in Quebec last July, on World Heritage listing for the 11th century Hindu temple. That is significant because the meeting in Seville this year made no change in the earlier decision or its timing.

The date of February 2010 has merely been set for Phnom Penh to submit more details of its plan to safeguard and develop the archaeological site. That has nothing to do with the listing decision.

Phnom Penh has been obligated since February to submit a plan with many details and maps of buffer zones. Cambodia submit-ted a report in April and the com-mittee asked for more details.

The meeting in Spain requested "(Cambodia) to submit to the World Heritage Centre by February 1, 2010, a report on the progress made on the implemen-tation of the recommendations by the committee ... for the exam-ination by the World Heritage Committee at its 34th session." It mentioned nothing if Cambodia could not submit such informa-tion in time.

Suwit claimed the new February time frame was a great Thai vic-tory that left time for the country to press for the listing decision to be revised. He compared the situ-ation to a football game: Thailand lost the first half but scored in the second, he said. "The delay is extra time for us to have a chance to win the game, which might end up with a penalty shoot-out," he said.

However such an approach will never lead to Thailand's ultimate goal of joint nomination of the site. The public has been misled about the listing of Preah Vihear and relations with Cambodia.

Luring Thais into such a misun-derstanding will bring a tempo-rary domestic political gain - until people realise that Preah Vihear was listed as a World Heritage site a year ago and that process is unlikely to be reversed.

It's understandable that the government needs to pacify its supporters with something "hopeful". The Democrats and their allies used the feelings of bruised nationalism stirred up by the Preah Vihear controversy to campaign against the People's Power Party government last year.

Nevertheless, the government must drop this fabricated stance to face reality and find new ways to resolve the Preah Vihear listing dispute. Don't foul the thing up.

Let's get back to the World Heritage Committee's decision last year. Article 10 provides a chance, by saying "archaeological research is underway which could result in new significant discover-ies that might enable considera-tion of a possible new trans-boundary nomination that would require the consent of both Cambodia and Thailand."

Read it carefully and commis-sion archaeological experts to conduct research to find some "new significant discoveries." If any are found, begin negotiations with Cambodia on a new propos-al to jointly oversee the site.

Campaigning against Cambodia's proposals with an empty hand is useless. It will damage our credibility because the international community would regard Thailand as a nation unable to comprehend even a simple procedure of the World Heritage Committee.