[Buddha-l] Thai-Cambodian war over Temple ownership

[Dan Lusthaus]

Ok, Chris. Now you're hopeless. I've invited you to set the record straight
as you see it, and instead you falsely accuse me of *authoring* news stories
that were published elsewhere. You claim THE NEWS REPORTS are wrong, and
phrase that as"*your* misrepresentation of this conflict".

Take a deep breath. Here are selections from the NYTimes report: (I didn't
write them)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/world/asia/16cambo.html?scp=1&sq=thai&st=cse

2 Killed on Thai-Cambodian Border

By SETH MYDANS
Published: October 15, 2008

BANGKOK - Thai and Cambodian soldiers exchanged rocket and rifle fire for
about an hour on Wednesday in a confrontation at their border over a
disputed 900-year-old mountaintop temple, according to reports from the
area. At least two Cambodian soldiers were killed, the Cambodian foreign
minister said.

Thai soldiers on a military truck drove to the front line after clashes with
Cambodian troops in a disputed border area.

Several hundred soldiers from both sides have faced each other at the border
since July, when Unesco, the United Nations agency, approved Cambodia's
request to have the temple named a World Heritage Site.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong of Cambodia said two Cambodian soldiers had
also been wounded. A spokesman for the Thai Foreign Ministry said seven Thai
paramilitary soldiers were wounded. Ten Thai soldiers surrendered to the
Cambodians, according to news reports in the capital, Phnom Penh.

The two nations have made claims for decades over the temple, Preah Vihear,
which stands at the lip of an escarpment on the border looking out over the
mountains of northern Cambodia.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia,
based on a map prepared at the start of the century by colonial French
rulers. Unesco placed the temple in Cambodia partly based on that map when
it awarded Preah Vihear world heritage status.

As a result of the rising tensions, Thai officials said they had prepared
aircraft to evacuate some 1,500 citizens living in Cambodia. Thai
authorities ordered a similar evacuation in 2003 when Cambodians rioted in
the capital in protest against Thailand, setting fire to Thai businesses and
to the Thai Embassy.

That earlier violence also involved claims to a temple, in that case the
crown jewel, Angkor Wat, which is well within the borders of Cambodia.

"Thai businessmen who have no need to be in Cambodia now, please rush back
to Thailand," Foreign Minister Sompong Amornwiwat said Wednesday.

Thai nationals were reported to have huddled in a hotel in Phnom Penh for
safety, uncertain if they should evacuate. Riot police were deployed outside
the Thai Embassy.

---

I suggest you write a letter to the Times (and LA Times, Washington Post, et
al.) and set them straight.

Tell them:

> there was *no* "war",
> there was *no* dispute over any "temple",
> there were *no* "armies shooting at each other";
> all reported as being present by you in your undisciplined and misleading
> writings.

The "you" will, of course, be them.

And cc a copy to the Associated Press:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-fg-thaicambodia16-2008oct16,0,2345560.story

Thailand-Cambodia agree to joint border patrols