Monday, September 21, 2009

Modern conflict near ancient ruins




A long-running border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia has just escalated, with soldiers exchanging gunfire. The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head looks at what caused tensions to erupt.

Both historic rivalries and recent frictions are driving this confrontation
At the end of a day when two Cambodian soldiers were killed, several wounded on both sides, and 10 Thai soldiers reportedly taken prisoner, the language cooled down.
Instead of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's threat of all-out war, to turn the area around the disputed Preah Vihear temple into a "zone of death", there was a statement from Foreign Minister Hor Namhong describing the shootout as "an incident between soldiers, not an invasion", a problem that could be solved.
And from the Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat: "Cambodia is a good neighbour. We will use peaceful means".
So perhaps a war over a tiny sliver of scrubby hillside can be avoided after all.
It would surely be in no-one's interests to let the conflict get out of hand.
Thailand and Cambodia share a common culture, an 800km (500 mile) border, trade and investment worth billions of dollars and membership of Asean, the Association of South East Asian Nations that prides itself on harmonious relations among its member states.
Cliff-top temple
But why have relations fallen this far?

Both Thailand and Cambodia claim territory that surrounds the temple
The spark was Cambodia's successful bid to have Preah Vihear listed as a World Heritage site in July.
The 900-year-old Hindu temple had been judged to be on the Cambodian side of the border in 1962 by the International Court of Justice, a decision that has always rankled with Thailand.
It sits at the top of a cliff, and is still only easily accessible from the Thai side.
But the decades of conflict in Cambodia delayed any practical decisions on the temple, which for years was a stronghold of Khmer Rouge guerrillas and littered with landmines.
As peace returned to Cambodia in the 1990s, the government in Phnom Penh started to focus on restoring the country's rich Hindu-Buddhist heritage, and its potential to attract tourists.
The magnificent temple complex of Angkor Wat won World Heritage status in 1992.

TEMPLE DISPUTE TIMELINE

1962: International court awards temple to Cambodia, but surrounding land remains undesignated
1970s-1990s: Khmer Rouge guerrillas occupy site
2001-2002: Thai troops block access over water row
July 2008: Unesco lists temple as a World Heritage Site
July 2008: Thai FM quits after court rules he violated constitution for backing Cambodia's Unesco bid
July 2008: Both sides move troops to temple area
Oct 2008: Troops exchange fire, leaving two Cambodian soldiers dead
But repeated attempts to get the same status for Preah Vihear were blocked, apparently by Thailand.
The Thais argued that while the ICJ had awarded the temple to Cambodia, it had not ruled on the surrounding land, which also contains a number of important archaeological sites connected to the temple.
Only a joint Thai-Cambodian World Heritage site made sense, it argued.
Thailand dropped its objection this year, a decision that enraged Thai nationalists.
They accused the government of changing its stance to accommodate the extensive Cambodian business interests of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose party dominated the cabinet.
The foreign minister who negotiated a joint agreement with Cambodia, Noppadol Pattama, had once been Mr Thaksin's lawyer. He was forced to resign in July.
But the damage had been done. A hard-line anti-government movement, the People's Alliance for Democracy, used the issue to mobilise mass demonstrations, contributing to the political upheavals that are still shaking Thailand today.
Khmer legacy
But what about Cambodia? Why is it so strident on the issue?
In part it is driven by historic rivalry between the two countries, in part by more recent friction.
The ancient Khmer civilisation that built Angkor Wat and Preah Vihear dominated this region for five centuries.

Thais used the issue in anti-government protests
It profoundly influenced Thai culture - there are many famous Khmer-style temples in Thailand. And it is a source of immense pride to modern-day Cambodia, which is recovering from decades of national trauma.
Nationalism is an easily inflamed emotion, in a country which has little to be proud of in its recent history.
Thais are often surprisingly ignorant of the role they have played in wounding Cambodia's national pride.
In the Cambodian view, successive Thai invasions helped destroy the once mighty Khmer empires, and rendered the country defenceless against French colonial conquest in the 19th Century.
Thailand then took advantage of the chaos during World War II to occupy large chunks of western Cambodia, including the ruins of Angkor Wat - it was forced to hand them back when the war ended.
The Thai military often treated Cambodian refugees who fled the civil wars of the 1970s and 80s very harshly - and Thailand backed the remnants of the Khmer Rouge in their struggle against the Vietnamese occupation, so helping prolong the civil war.
Storm of condemnation
There is of course a very different Thai perspective on these events. But they have left a deep pool of resentment in its smaller and much poorer neighbour that is easily exploited by its leaders.
And Hun Sen has proved very ready to do just that. Five years ago anti-Thai riots broke out in Phnom Penh after a Thai actress was misquoted as saying Angkor Wat should rightly belong to Thailand.
Hun Sen was widely blamed for stirring up nationalist sentiments then. He seems to be doing the same now.
On the Thai side, whatever the current government's real inclinations, it cannot afford to be seen to back down.
Somchai Wongsawat is already battling a storm of condemnation over the way the police dealt with anti-government protests earlier this month.
As Thaksin Shinawatra's brother-in-law, any concessions he makes to Cambodia will arouse suspicions that he is serving the interests of his family before those of the country.
It is hard to see this conflict being settled quickly.

Obituary: Noordin Mohamed Top


Indonesia's most-wanted militant Noordin Mohamed Top, who was linked by investigators to the 2005 Bali bombings, has been killed, say police.

Noordin narrowly escaped capture several times
Officials believe the Malaysian-born former accountant orchestrated a series of attacks across Indonesia.
Noordin was thought to be a key recruiter and financier for the regional Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, but analysts say he formed his own more hard-line splinter group.
The Indonesian government has managed to stifle militant strikes since September 2005 - the second major attack on Bali, which left 23 dead.

Noordin is not thought to have been involved in the Bali bombings of 2002, according to analysts.
The man thought to have been Noordin's closest ally, Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin, was killed in 2005.
Two self-proclaimed JI leaders were then jailed in April 2008 and three Bali bombers were executed in November that year.
However, the suicide attacks on two hotels in Jakarta in July 2009, which killed nine people including two suspected bombers, raised concerns that Noordin's militant activities had resumed.
The country's anti-terror chief said there were "strong indications" Noordin's group was to blame.
Assumed name
Noordin had fled to Indonesia with Azahari Husin after the Malaysian government cracked down on Islamists following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Former academic Azahari was an expert bomb-maker
Once in Indonesia, he married using an assumed name, Abdurrachman Aufi.
His wife, Munfiatun, was jailed in June 2005 for concealing information about his whereabouts.
The two men are thought to have acted together to plan attacks, with Noordin as the financier and Azahari as the bomb-maker. Newspapers dubbed them the "Money Man" and the "Demolition Man".
In addition to the two Bali bombings, both men were named as suspects in two other major attacks - one in 2003 on Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel which killed 12 people, and one on the Australian embassy in 2004 which killed 11 people.
Indonesian troops finally cornered Azahari, a trained engineer and former university lecturer who in 1990 gained a doctorate from the UK's University of Reading, at a house in East Java in November 2005.
The father of two was killed, either by a police bullet or by a bomb triggered by an accomplice.
But Noordin continued to evade capture.
In January 2006, police said he was claiming to lead a previously unknown group called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, which translates as Organisation for the Base of Jihad.

Analysts speculated that he had drifted away from the main Jemaah Islamiah structure due to a disagreement about attacks on "soft targets", which often kill civilians.
In April 2006 police raided a house in the village of Binangun in central Java after reports that he had been staying there.
Two alleged Jemaah Islamiah militants were killed and another two arrested in an early-morning gun fight. Explosives were later found near the site. But Noordin was not.
In August 2009, security forces thought they had killed Noordin in a raid at a remote farmhouse in central Java, but DNA tests later confirmed it was not him.
The security forces say they finally got their man a month later during a raid at a house on the outskirts of Solo city in central Java. Noordin was identified from fingerprints, said police.
Three suspected militants were also killed during the siege at the rented property, where explosives and grenades were found.