The Foreign Ministry yesterday launched a public hearing on boundary demarcation in preparation for the resumption of border negotiations with Burma .
The ThailandBurma Joint Boundary Committee (JBC), set up since 1993 to take care of boundary demarcation, has left many unsettled issues on the border since its previous meeting in 2005.
The ministry is consulting with Burma to resume the meeting of the committee to push forward the demarcation, said chief of Thailand 's JBC Vasin Teeravechyan.
Of the 2,401 kilometre boundary with Burma, only 60kms have already been demarcated while the remaining large portions have yet to be cleared.
Basically the ThaiBurma boundary was set by BritishSiam treaties. The JBC only needs to survey and mark the boundary in accordance with the treaties.
However, both sides remain with no common ground on the terms of reference for the survey and demarcation of the boundary, Vasin said.
Burma , which agreed to draft the terms of reference during a previous JBC meeting in 2005, has not yet proposed the draft or called the next meeting which was supposed to have been in 2007.
Vasin met his counterpart- Burma 's deputy foreign minister Maung Myint who chairs Burma 's JBC - recently when Maung stopped over in Bangkok to explore the possibility of resuming border negotiations.
"We are seeking ways to continue communication on the issue at least in an informal form until we can resume the formal meeting of the JBC," Vasin said.
Both countries need to talk urgently on the border problems at the Moei and Chan rivers, where erosion is affecting the boundary line, he said.
There are at least six locations along the border where both countries have difficulties in demarcation due to change in natural geography, construction by local people, and different interpretation of treaties and maps.
The six locations included KutengNayong, Doi LangDoi Huay Ha, Moei River , Mae Konken, Three Pagoda and Ta Yim Island, according to Colonel Chakhon Bounpakdi of the Royal Thai Survey Department.
While engaging with Burma to resume border talks, the JBC has also prepared a negotiation framework for Parliament's reading as required by Article 190 of the Constitution.
The draft of a negotiation framework is now awaiting Cabinet's consideration before submission for the parliamentary reading, Vasin said.
A public hearing yesterday at Mahidol University 's Kanchanaburi campus was part of the constitutional process to take into account local input.
Many local residents in the hearing raised issues such as development plans in the disputed area of Three Pagodas pass. Local people want a permanent checkpoint there but authorities cannot decide where it should go because of the unclear boundary.