Five Thais arrested for illegally entering Cambodia released

Panich Vikitsreth is released from jail on Friday 21st January

The ordeal undergone by five of the seven Thai citizens arrested in late December for intruding upon Cambodian territory has ended, as of Friday 21st January. The two others remain in custody, facing additional espionage charges.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced five citizens, including Panich Vikitsreth, a member of the Thai Parliament and ally of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, to eight months in prison for illegally crossing the border. Their sentences were suspended, however, and all five were immediately released, having already spent a month in prison.

They were also fined 1 million Cambodian riel (approximately US$330) each.

Two others remain in Cambodia. People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Veera Somkwamkid remains in custody in Phnom Penh on further espionage charges. There have been conflicting reports on his secretary Ratree Pipatanapaiboon; some say she has been granted bail and told to remain in the country, while other reports say she remains in custody.

Panich told the court on Friday that they did not realise they were in a restricted area because all of the signs were in Cambodian. In a press conference on 24th January, after returning to Thailand, Panich reiterated his insistance that his trip to the disputed border region was done out of a 'sincere effort' to help local people overcome their troubles. He said he was in the region to investigate complaints from villages that they could not make use of the land they had long occupied and for which they had land rights documents.

Abhisit made a televised address on the evening of the 23rd to explain the border issue and to insist that the government will not bow to pressure from the PAD, along with their allies in the Thai Patriots Network and the Santi Asoke sect ahead of their planned joint rally this week.

The groups want the government to revoke the memorandum of understanding signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000 governing the two countries' border disputes as they feel it puts Thailand at a disadvantage. They also want the government to force Cambodians from every disputed area and to cancel Thailand's membership with UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.

Sources: Bangkok Post, UPI

For more information on the Thailand-Cambodia border dispute, see the Menas Borders website, here.

Yellow Shirts in border area causes Thai-Cambodian friction

Panich Vikitsreth with Cambodian police in Phnom Penh

Seven Thai citizens, including a Democrat Party MP remain in prison in Cambodia after being found in Cambodian territory.

MP Panich Vikitsreth was detained on Wednesday 29th December, along with a group of journalists and members of the 'Yellow Shirt' movement, a group which advocates a tough stance on border disputes with Cambodia.

Panich told reporters by telephone that the group was only inspecting the contested border region of Thailand's Sa Kaew province and Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province. Video footage released 4th January, however, shows Panich making a phone call to his secretary, asking that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva be informed, through his secretary Somkiat Krongwatanasuk, that the group was in Cambodia.

"Please tell Somkiat to inform the prime minister that we are already inside Cambodia. I planned to call the prime minister myself but it is okay now," Mr Panich says on the phone to his secretary.

"Call him [Somkiat] so in case there are problems, we can coordinate because we are already in a Cambodian area. And make sure that he does not tell anybody because only the prime minister must know this."

The video footage is seen as contradicting claims that Abhisit did not know about the trip, as well as claims that the group did not cross the border into Cambodia. Abhisit has admitted on 4th January that he sent Panich to the border region, but that he did not know exactly where the group would go.

The Thai foreign affairs ministry has said that the team was sent to investigate complaints from local residents that they could not make a living on the land, and that they sincerely believed they were on Thai soil, despite video evidence to the contrary.

Thailand sent its foreign minister, Kasit Piromya, to Phnom Penh to try to seek the release of the group. They have already appeared in a Phnom Penh court, on 30th December, charged with illegal entry and illegally entering a military base along the border. They could be sentenced to up to 18 months in prison.

Abhisit has called for their immediate release and said any cases concerning disputed border areas should be settled out of court. "If Cambodia wants to maintain good and smooth ties, we should stick to our commitment to talk and work together," he told reporters in Bangkok.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has hit back, however, saying, "They were measuring Thai territory inside Cambodian territory. So Cambodia has the right to arrest them,"

Hun said he hoped the incident would not affect relations between the neighbours.

"I hope Prime Minister Abhisit will understand the Cambodian judicial system," he said, adding that the arrests were "not revenge" against Thailand.

Most of the arrested men are members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), better known as the 'Yellow Shirts'. In November, the Yellow Shirts held a rally outside the parliament in Bangkok, calling on the Thai government to take a tougher stance against Cambodia over the border issue.

This issue has received much attention in both Cambodia and Thailand, and on 1st January, representatives from the Thailand Patriot Network submitted a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, asking for justice, humanity and respect for the civil rights of the seven Thais. There are rumours that the Yellow Shirts are planning a rally on 4th January in the border region where the group was picked up.

It seems that neither side has increased border security in response to the situation.

Sources: Bangkok Post, AFP, World Bulletin