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Thai, Cambodian leaders meet on border dispute at ASEAN summit

Sun May 8, 2011
By Neil Chatterjee

Myanmar”s Thein Sein (L-R), Philippine President Benigno Aquino, Singapore”s Senior Minister S. Jayakumar,Thailand”s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his wife Tran Thanh Kiem, Indonesia”s First Lady Kristiani Yudhoyono, Cambodia”s Prime Minister Hun Sen, Brunei”s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Prime Minister of Laos Thongsing Thammavong, Malaysia”s Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor and ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan and his wife Alisa pray before having dinner at the 18th Association of Southeast Asia.

JAKARTA (Reuters) – The prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia met on Sunday after pressure from other regional leaders to end deadly border skirmishes, but there was no sign of a breakthrough to resolve Southeast Asia’s bloodiest conflict in nearly a quarter century.

The clashes around crumbling Hindu temples in disputed border areas are getting in the way of an annual meeting of Southeast Asian leaders and damaging the credibility of the region’s pledge to forge a united economic community by 2015.

Burmese Proposal Gets Cool Reception in Asean

Top row, left to right, Brunei’s Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Burmese President Thein Sein, Cambodian PM Hun Sen and Laotian PM Thongsing Thammavong;bottom row from left, Malaysian PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Rajak; Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III, Singaporean Senior Minister Shunmugam Jayakumar; and Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung arriving at the Asean summit in Jakarta on Friday. EPA Photos

By Ismira Lutfia & Ulma Haryanto
The Jakarta Post
May 07, 2011

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Jakarta during a two-day summit starting today may discuss giving military-led Burma the chair of the grouping in 2014 instead of 2016 despite grave concerns about human rights abuses and a sham democracy.

Burma has asked to switch its turn with Laos and serve as the chair of Asean in 2014. Marty Natalegawa, the foreign minister of the host nation, said that although it will be discussed during this year’s summit, an immediate decision on the request would not be likely.

“We are aware that [Burma] has formally submitted its request to exchange its chairmanship with Laos, and no doubt it should be a matter that our leaders should look into,” Marty said after talks with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

He added that the matter was also discussed on Wednesday during bilateral talks between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the current Asean chair and visiting Burmese President Thein Sein at the State Palace.

Southeast Asian leaders fail to resolve deadly border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia

By Associated Press,
The Washington Post
Updated: Sunday, May 8,

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong (pictured) rejected a Thai demand to withdraw troops from an 11th-century Khmer temple at the disputedborder, saying Bangkokwas not sincere about peace. The Indonesians are trying to broker a ceasefire and the deployment of neutral military observers to the flashpoint area on the border where some 18 people have died in fighting in recent months.
(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Southeast Asian leaders made little headway Sunday in helping Thailand and Cambodia end a deadly border dispute that could undermine peace and stability in the region as it pushes for economic integration.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was also poised to agree toMyanmar taking over the rotating chair as scheduled in 2014 despite doubts about the country’s human rights record, according to draft statement seen by The Associated Press.

Indonesia kicks off tripartite talk on Thai-Cambodia border row

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Jakarta

Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (L) called a tripartite meeting with Thai Prime MinisterAbhisit Vejjajiva (middle) andCambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) on 7th May, 2011.

Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called a tripartite meeting with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss border conflict between the two Asean members.The meeting produced no breakthrough to settle the border dispute between the two conflicting neighbor but would kept the Indonesia facilitated peace process to go on, said Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn.

Cambodia-Thailand border spat heats up ASEAN meeting

AMITA O. LEGASPI,
GMA News
8th May, 2011

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (R)shakes hand with Hun Sen.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Cambodia-Thailand border dispute took the center stage Saturday when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen raised the issue during the plenary session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 18th Summit.

The usually sober plenary session of ASEAN leaders became heated Saturday, officials from the Philippine government who were present during the session told reporters.

“By ASEAN standards, medyo mainit [it was heated] but if you are to compare it to a regular session of our Congress, malayo [far from it],” Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning secretary Ramon A. Carandang.

ASEAN integration message lost on Thai-Cambodia border

Cambodian people examine the remains of a house destroyed by a Thai bomb in a village near the Cambodia-Thai border in Oddar Meanchey province. (AFP PHOTO/TANG CHHIN SOTHY)

Channel News Asia
Posted: 08 May 2011

JAKARTA (AFP): Southeast Asian leaders met Sunday for the final day of an annual summit that has been hijacked by a bitter feud between Thailand and Cambodia over a tiny patch of disputed borderland.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed frustration that the dispute had not been resolved and the 10-nation group’s strategic message of regional economic integration was being lost.

In an effort to bring the warring neighbours together, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hosted an unscheduled meeting with the Thai and Cambodian leaders on Sunday morning.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen sat down with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva a day after the former had set the tone of the summit by launching a surprise verbal attack on Abhisit during the opening session.

Top UN official leaves Cambodia amid rights concerns

Christophe Peschoux, head of the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia, works from his office in Phnom Penh.(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

8 May 2011

PHNOM PENH (AFP): Sad and relieved. That is how the director of the United Nations human rights office in Cambodia said he felt about leaving the country after effectively being forced out of his post by the government.

Christophe Peschoux, who headed the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for four years, left Phnom Penh on Saturday after admitting it had become “impossible” to work in the country following numerous run-ins with the leadership.

The 52-year-old Frenchman angered officials by speaking out on controversial issues, prompting Prime Minister Hun Sen to demand the UN remove him and the foreign ministry to issue a letter ordering officials to freeze him out.

“Human rights are tolerated to the extent that they do not challenge the political, economic and financial interests of the ruling elite,” Peschoux said.

“That’s where the red line runs. If you cross that line, trouble starts,” he told AFP days before heading to Geneva to take on a senior UN role.

Aquino plays go-between for Thai-Cambodian border tiff

By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 8th May, 2011

President Aquino (L) met Mr. Hun Sen on Saturday at the sideline of the Asean Summit.

JAKARTA,Indonesia—PresidentAquino offered the country’s top tourist destinations as a venue for talks between quarrelingThailand and Cambodia in a bid to resolve the border dispute between the two other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

In jest, Mr. Aquino said he even offered to make coffee for the talks just so there’d be calm between the two sides. He cited the importance for the Asean as a bloc in the global community for Thailand and Cambodia to resolve their conflict.

ASEAN summit fails to resolve Thai-Cambodia conflict

By Olivia Rondonuwu
JAKARTA | Sun May 8, 2011

Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya (L) walks followed by Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong for a photo session during the opening of the Foreign Ministers Meeting in Jakarta May 6, 2011. Foreign ministers from Southeast Asia met in Jakarta as part of the 18th ASEAN Summit.
REUTERS/Supri (INDONESIA – Tags: POLITICS)

(Reuters) – Southeast Asian leaders failed to achieve any breakthrough on Sunday to end deadly border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia that overshadowed a regional summit in Jakarta that had been supposed to showcase progress toward economic integration.

The clashes around crumbling Hindu temples in disputed areas have starkly illustrated the tensions between countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) that could derail plans to create a single economic community by 2015, and the apparent inability of the bloc to deal with disagreements.