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Cambodia demands Thai troops leave second temple site

Cambodia demanded yesterday that Thailand pull its troops back from a second temple site along their border, the latest in a series of territorial claims and counterclaims that have prompted armed tensions between the Asian neighbors.

The dispute surrounding the 13th century Ta Moan Thom temple started when Cambodian officials said some 70 Thai soldiers started occupying the temple site last week and prevented Cambodian troops from entering. Thai military officials countered that their troops had been in the area for years.

Thai army commander General Anupong Paojindasaid said yesterday the temple is within “Thai territory.”

Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh, however, said the temple “is clearly under our sovereignty, and we have to demand it back.”

“Our position is to try to talk to them [Thai troops] and get them to withdraw to where they came from,” Cambodia’s Tea Banh told reporters yesterday.

Cambodian Major Ho Bunthy, an army commander in the area, said yesterday about 50 Cambodian soldiers were stationed near the Thai troops and another 200 deployed about 300m from the temple site.

Thailand’s Lieutenant General Niphat Thonglek, chief of the Border Affairs Department, said yesterday the Cambodian troops were normally allowed to enter the site because they usually came in small groups and they were unarmed.

“Over the weekend, about 40 to 50 of them came and they were armed, so the Thai troops did not allow them in,” Niphat said.

Ta Moan Thom temple was built in the 13th century as a rest house along a road linking the ancient city of Angkor with what is currently northeastern Thailand, said Chuch Phoeun of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture.

It is located several hundred kilometers west of the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, where Cambodian and Thai soldiers have been locked in a standoff for three weeks in a dispute over nearby land.

That dispute erupted last month near the Hindu-style Preah Vihear when UNESCO approved Cambodia’s application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site. Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had backed the bid, sparking anti-government de­monstrations by Thais near the temple. Thailand then sent troops to the border area.

Thai government critics say the temple’s new status will jeopardize their country’s claims to land adjacent to the site.

About 800 troops from Cambodia and 400 from Thailand remain at a pagoda near the temple complex, despite a tentative agreement reached by foreign ministers last week to redeploy them in an effort to ease tensions.
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