POLITICS
ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT & PRADIT RUANGDIT
Senators have called on Thai members of the World Heritage Committee to seek deferment of Cambodia's application for World Heritage listing of the Preah Vihear temple at a nine-day Unesco meeting in Canada which begins today. At a seminar yesterday, a group of senators insisted the Thai delegates attending the meeting in Quebec must explain to the World Heritage Committee the urgency of deferring the proposed listing by Cambodia.
The delegation, led by Pongpol Adireksarn, must convince the meeting the issue needs to be put on hold until Thailand and Cambodia come to an agreement to jointly nominate and manage the site, the senators said.
The senators also advised the meeting to disseminate vital information about the nomination so that people would understand the issue better.
They supported locals in Si Sa Ket, which borders the ancient temple's site, in their protest against efforts by Cambodia to unilaterally list the temple.
Local communities' right to have a say in resolution on disputes which directly affect them must be recognised, according to the seminar organised by the Senate committee.
The senators welcomed the Administrative Court's injunction suspending the Thai-Cambodian joint communique on the listing. Critics slammed the joint communique as being tantamount to Thailand's support of Cambodia's listing attempt. If the World Heritage Committee went ahead and endorsed the listing, Thailand should withdraw from Unesco, the senators said.
M.R. Priyanandana Rangsit, vice chair of the committee on religion, ethics, and arts and culture, said it was a pity territorial integrity took priority over preservation of the ancient site.
She hoped the World Heritage Committee would not endorse the proposed listing until the problem was resolved.
''There remains a contesting theory that if the stairway (on the Thai side) is part of the temple, Thailand deserves to get listing of the surrounding sculptures and sites within the Thai boundary as part of the Preah Vihear cultural landscape as well,'' said M.R. Priyanandana.
Five law lecturers from Thammasat University yesterday said deliberation of the petition about the Preah Vihear joint communique was outside the jurisdiction of the Administrative Court.
Assoc Prof Worajate Pakhirat, Assoc Prof Prasit Piwawatanapanit, Thapanant Nipitthakul, Theera Sutheewarangkun and Piyabut Saengkanokkul released their statement in response to the Administrative Court's injunction suspending the joint communique.
They said the communique amounted to an agreement concerning international relations and the petition on the issue should be directed to the Constitution Court instead.
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