Cambodian court hears Thai border crossing case

Panich Vikitsreth (2nd left) on his way to court

Seven Thai civilians arrested in late December for illegally entering Cambodian land have appeared in the Phnom Penh Municipal court on Thursday 6th January.

One of the arrested, ruling party MP Panich Vikitsreth told the court that he entered the disputed border area unintentionally. Most of the group were members of the 'Yellow Shirts', a nationalist group who advocates Thailand taking a tougher stand on border issues with Cambodia.

Each of the seven was questioned individually, with Yellow Shirt activist Veera Somkwankid the last to be examined.

Lawyers defending the Thais were waiting for details of charges levied against each of them, and said they could not file bail requests requests until the court delivered its verdict.

Because 7th January is a holiday in Cambodia, it is expected that the lawyers will file requests for the release on bail of the group on Monday.

Panich's lawyer Ros Aun said that Mr Panich told the court he had “crossed into Cambodian territory unintentionally.”

Speaking to AFP, Ros said, "He said he came [to the border area] because Thai people claim it is their land. He said he was walking without knowing that he was entering Cambodian territory and was captured by the authorities."

Relatives of the defendants, reporters and Thai embassy officials were not allowed inside the courtroom.

The seven were charged late last month with illegally crossing the border and entering a military area with ill will. The issue had threatened to derail improved relations between the south-east Asian neighbours, and Thai calls for the groups' immediate release have been ignored.

The issue has proved tricky for Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is known to be close to his MP, and it has been suggested that it was he who told the group to travel to the border area.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said Bangkok might seek a royal pardon for the seven if the court sentences them. They face a maximum sentence of 18 months in jail if convicted on both accounts.

No trial date has been set.

For more information, see the original menas borders blog on this issue, of the menas borders website for more on the Thai-Cambodian border dispute.

South Korea rejects North Korea's 'unconditional' talks offer



US envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth is in China for talks



A North Korean offer on 5th January for "unconditional and early" talks in an effort to ease tensions has been quickly dismissed by South Korea.

The North Korean statement, carried by its KCNA news agency said it “courteously proposes having wide-ranging dialogue and negotiations”.

An official at the Unification Ministry in Seoul said, however, that it was not a serious proposal for dialogue, adding the offer was part of a propaganda campaign.

Reuters new agency quoted a ministry official as saying, “North Korea previously issued statements like this early in the year... they are normally done as part of [a] propaganda campaign toward the South."

"We do not consider this is as a serious proposal for dialogue. It is not even in the correct and appropriate format."

South Korean foreign ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said they wanted Pyongyang to first apologise for the North Korean artillery attack that killed four South Koreans in late November and for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, which Pyongyang denies.

China, North Korea's major ally, has welcomed Pyongyang's statement.

"We support and welcome relevant parties to have contact and dialogue, and make active interactions to jointly steer the situation to a desirable direction," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

"China always believes that dialogue and consultation are the only effective approach to solving peninsula-related issues. China will continue to play a constructive role to this end."

South Korea's major ally, the US, has been less welcoming. Stephen Bosworth, the top US official on North Korea, is currently in China, trying to establish a fresh round of diplomacy on the issue. The US has said however that the North must indicate that it is serious about ending its provocations before talks could resume.

Tensions have been high in the Korean peninsula since November when South Korean military exercises in disputed waters provoked a North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island.

Sources: Telegraph, Guardian, BBC News

For more information on the North Korea - South Korea dispute, please see the menas borders website, here.

Visitors to Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple increase sharply in 2010

Tourists visiting Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple increased by almost four fold in 2010 thanks to good security and better infrastructure in the area, director of Preah Vihear province's tourism department Kong Vibol said on Saturday 1st January.

80,356 people visited the temple in 2010, up from 17,174 people in 2009, he told Chinese media source Xinhua by telephone. Of the figures, the domestic visitors were up 3.7 times to 78,419 from 16,405 and the foreign tourists increased by 1.5 times to 1,937 from 769.

"It's a huge increase of the tourists to the temple in 2010 due to better security and stability as the border tension with Thailand has been eased, and the good condition roads--easy to travel,"said Kong Vibol, adding "so visitors feel safe and more confidence to visit the temple."

Thailand and Cambodia had both claimed the eleventh century Hindu temple historically until it was awarded to Cambodia by the ICJ in 1962, based on a 1907 colonial era map. Thailand had been hoping to have the temple jointly listed by UNESCO, but in July 2008, it was enlisted as a World Heritage Site under Cambodian jurisdiction. Soon after a border conflict broke out over claims to the 1.8 square miles at the base of the temple that were not ruled on in 1962. Periodic clashes have broken out since and the border area in the region is heavily militarised. Thailand threatened to withdraw from UNESCO in July 2010 over Cambodia's new land management plans, and UNESCO's decided to put off deciding on the plans until 2011.

Keen to avoid violence, both sides have dedicated themselves to finding a diplomatic solution and the prime ministers of each country have met four times since September.

Given the uncertainty that surrounded the temple throughout July and August, it is perhaps surprising that the temple's tourist numbers were so strong. Perhaps the renewed attention the temple recieved as a result of the conflict boosted domestic tourist numbers as part of a show of nationalism and loyalty.

Thai access to the temple was blocked off as of June 2010, therefore the number of Thai tourists this year was likely to be very limited. In December 2010 however, Cambodia announced that they would reopen the border in the new year, thereby paving the way for increased numbers of Thai tourists in 2011.

In 2010, Preah Vihear province as a whole received 135,657 tourists, up 119 percent from 61,903 in 2009, Kong Vibol said. Of the figure, foreign tourists were up 32 percent to 11,249 from 8,512 in 2009.

Preah Vihear province has three ancient temples for tourists. They are Preah Vihear temple, Koh Ker temple and Preah Khan Kampong Svay temple.

Source: Xinhua

For more information on Thailand and Cambodia's dispute over the Preah Vihear temple, please see the menas borders website, here.

Khartoum will respect South Sudan referendum outcome: al-Bashir

South Sudan has welcomed assurances made by Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir on 3rd January that he will respect the outcome of Sunday's independence referendum.

South Sudan's information minister Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin was quoted by the BBC on 5th January saying he was pleased by al-Bashir's comments. Benjamin said the vote will allow the people of South Sudan to decide their own future for the first time since 1898.

Al-Bashir made what is being seen to be his 'fairwell visit' visit to South Sudan, and in a speech to southern officials in Juba he said, “The preferred choice for us is unity, but in the end we will respect the choice of the southern citizens.”

Al-Bashir said he remains committed to lasting peace with the semi-autonomous region, and said that even if a new state was born, Khartoum would offer any technical or logistical support and training needed.

"The benefit we get from unity, we can also get it from two separate states."

Al-Bashir's talk was seen by analysts as a sign that the leader had finally accepted what the likely outcome of the referendum would be. He warned against people trying to disorganise the vote, and said they would face the full force of the country's laws, if implicated.

The South Sudan leader Salva Kiir announced, as a sign of reciprocation, that he would expel all Darfur rebels present in the south's territory. The issue of Darfur rebels has been a major sticking point between the north and the south, with Khartoum repeatedly accusing Juba of housing rebels that have been fighting against the central government since 2003.

“No opposition in the north shall take Juba as a base,” Kiir was quoted as saying in the Sudan Tribune.

There are still many issues pending between the two sides, such as border demarcation, oil revenue sharing, citizenship and the fate of the oil-rich Abyei region. At a press conference with Kiir, al-Bashir said both sides were agreed to continue dialogue on these issues and that they would be resolved before the end of the interim period.

If Southern Sudan votes for independence, which they are widely anticipated to do, Africa's newest country will come into being on 9th July 2011, exactly six years after the peace deal took effect.

The voter registration process went relatively smoothly, and nearly four million southerners – as only southerners are eligible to vote – registered. Tens of thousands of southerners living in the north have returned to the south to cast their vote, although their return has caused numerous problems in terms of housing and other resources.

The voting process will start on 9th January and will last for a week. At least sixty per cent of registered voters must take part for the referendum to be valid. This is seen by some sources as the most potentially tricky part of the referendum, as low literacy levels, little history of voting, and poor infrastructure means getting everyone to the polls may be more difficult that achieving the simple majority needed for a verdict either way.

Both sides have agreed to let all Sudanese, but particularly the many southerners living in Khartoum, choose which nationality to take. But al-Bashir's recent announcement that he will enforce a stricter version of Sharia law in the north if the south secedes may prompt even more southerners to leave the north. The returnees will provide an even greater challenge for the new Southern Sudan government.

Sources: BBC News, Sudan Tribune

For more information on Sudan, please see the menas borders website, here.

Noble Energy's new find draws attention to eastern Mediterranean borders

Israel's gas boom got further support last week when Noble Energy announced that it had made a significant natural gas discovery in the Leviathan field on Wednesday 29th December.

The newest discovery was in the Rachel licence, and results from the well confirm earlier reports that the supergiant gas field holds an estimated 450 billion cubic metres (16 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.

The Leviathan field is located about 80 miles offshore of Haifa, and 29 miles southwest of the Tamar discovery, which Nobel also holds the licence for. The new estimates announced by the US firm means that Leviathan dwarfs Tamar, which was previously Israel's biggest offshore field. The Tamar field has an estimated capacity of 178.4 billion cubic metres (6.3 trillion cubic feet), but it is not yet operational.

"Leviathan is the latest major discovery for Noble Energy and is easily the largest exploration discovery in our history," the firm's chairman Charles Davidson said in a statement.

"This discovery has the potential to position Israel as a natural gas exporting nation," added company president David Stover.

Even before Leviathan, a series of finds had put the so-called Levant Basin on the international energy map. In March 2010, the US Geological Survey released its first assessment of the area, estimating that it contained 1.7 billion barrels of oil and 122 trillion cubic feet of gas. That is equivalent to half of the proven gas reserves of the US.

The finds in Israel have prompted its neighbours to start their own exploration programmes. In August, lawmakers in Beirut rushed through the country's first oil-exploration law and in October, Lebanon's oil minister Gebran Bassil, an ally of Shi'a militant group Hezbollah, said the country hoped to start auctioning exploration rights by 2012.

The finds have also prompted countries in the region to get their maritime boundaries in order. Cyprus, for example, has in recent years made agreements with Lebanon, Egypt, and in December 2010, Israel.

Remaining border issues are, however, stalling development for Israel. Lebanon claims that the Tamar field is partially within Lebanese territory, and in November 2010, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Qazanfar Roknabada, claimed that three-quarters of the Leviathan field actually belonged to Lebanon.

Disputes over Noble's licenses in the eastern Mediterranean are nothing new. Their Mari-B field, production from which began in 2004, is on the border of the Gaza marine area, and the field may stagger the border. If this is the case, Israel is required under international law to share the proceeds from the field, and while critics of Israel have pointed this out repeatedly, Gaza's lack of legal infrastructure and weak government has meant that its potential claim has been largely overlooked.

It seems, however, that affairs in the north of Israel's waters will not be so easy to control.

Lebanon and Israel are still officially in a state of war, and both sides have threatened each other over offshore resources. Clearly, until peace is found and borders established, disputes over offshore resources will remain ever present.

Sources: Rigzone, Wall Street Journal

For more information on disputes in the eastern Mediterranean, 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

Top 10 Border Stories of 2010

2010 was a busy year in the border world: historic agreements were reached, conflict threatened, and as the year ended, all eyes were on Sudan.

1. Norway and Russia maritime agreement - April
2010 saw increased focus on the arctic region as the continued receding of ice makes oil and gas exploration increasingly tempting and shipping routes more plausible, and in April Norway and Russia came to an agreement over the Barents Sea. The agreement saw the extension of their maritime boundaries through 175,000sq km of previously disputed territory. The resulting 'Barents Sea Pact ' was signed by leaders of each country in September, and now require ratification by parliaments.

2. Slovenia's arbitration referendum - June
The lack of a firm maritime boundary agreement in the Piran Bay has been the main thorn in the sides of the former Yugoslav neighbours, and Slovenia had been threatening to block Croatia's EU entrance until the situation was resolved. In June, Slovenia voted in a national referendum to send the case to international arbitration, thereby creating a path for resolution.

3. Eritrea and Djibouti negotiation - June

The two year standoff between Eritrea and Djibouti over Ras Doumeira inched towards resolution when, in June, it was announced that both sides had agreed to a Qatar-mediated resolution process. The UN welcomed the move, but Eritrea's former master and regional enemy Ethiopia said Eritrea's actions should be viewed with caution.

4. Burkino Faso and Niger refer to ICJ - July

The African Union Border Programme encouraged all African nations to resolve their border disputes by 2012. Likely motivated by this, Burkina Faso and Niger decided to send their dispute over the central section of their border to the ICJ , and they jointly submitted their request in July. ICJ cases have a tendency to last for many years, and in an effort to avoid Nigeria-Cameroon style difficulties, Burkina Faso and Niger have established their own, very strict timeline, and have asked for a panel of experts to be appointed.

5. Thailand and Cambodia temple standoff - July-August
Cambodia's ownership over the eleventh century Preah Vihear temple was accepted by UNESCO in 2008, and tensions rose over the 2010 summer when Cambodia submitted new management plans for the temple and the surrounding area to the organisation. Thailand threatened to drop out of UNESCO, and both sides stepped up their military presence around the temple area. Diplomacy prevailed, and several rounds of talks have been held since.

6. China and India war of words - August
While both countries have tried to emphasise their good relations this year, problems remain between China and India over their disputed Himalayan border. In August, Beijing reportedly denied a visa to an Indian general on an official visit because he oversaw army actions in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India is said to have responded by freezing military exchanges, although exactly what was effected was not clear. Indian concerns over China's actions in neighbouring Burma and Pakistan continued throughout the year, and no progress was made in resolving the decade-long dispute over their shared border.

7. China and Japan island dispute - September
After a Chinese fishing trawler was intercepted and arrested in disputed waters near the Diaoyu (or Senkaku) Islands, relations between China and Japan reached a low. Anti-Japanese protests broke out across China, which continued, even after the captain and crew were released back to China a few weeks later.

8. Nicaragua and Costa Rica San Juan dispute - October

Nicaraguan dredging of the San Juan River, the border between the two countries, but which Nicaragua controls, caused Costa Rican concern, and they accused the Nicaraguan army of occupying some of their land. Reports that Nicaragua were acting based on Google Maps grabbed headlines, and Nicaraguan refusal to leave the land has resulted in the case being taken to the ICJ.

9. North and South Koreas' military clash - November-December
South Korean military execises in disputed waters around Yeonpyeong Island in late November provoked an artillery response from the North, which resulted in four South Korean deaths. South Korea continued to carry out the exercises, supported by US, and while Pyongyang promised further retaliation, they never carried it out.

10. Sudan's run up to the referendum - year long

Preparations for the 9th January 2011 Southern Sudan independence referendum progressed relatively smoothly, despite the South accusing Khartoum of delaying tactics, and Khartoum's displeasure at the presence of UN troops on the North-South border. Talks over Abyei brokedown, however, and it is extremely unlikely that the mooted separate referendum for residents of the oil-rich border region will go ahead. The start of 2011 is likely to see the creation of the first new African nation since 1993, but whether peace can be maintained is yet to be seen.

For more information on any of these stories, see the menas borders website, here.