Thais protest against UNESCO temple listing

Jul 27, 2010, 7:39 GMT

Bangkok - Protestors in Bangkok Tuesday defied emergency law to campaign against the listing of the Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia as a World Heritage site.

Chamlong Srimuang, a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), also known as yellow shirts, led some 700 followers to the UNESCO building to protest Cambodia's efforts to secure management control over temple despite an ongoing territorial dispute over land adjacent to the Hindu site.

The Preah Vihear demonstration brought traffic to a standstill on Sukhumvit Road, the main commuter artery between Bangkok's eastern suburbs and the inner city.

The protest was held in defiance of the government's emergency decree. It bans political gatherings of more than five people and allows authorities to make arrests without filing charges. The decree has been in place since anti-government protests in April.

More than 400 members of the red-shirt anti-government protestors, a movement opposed to the yellow shirts, who held protests in Bangkok between March and May, are currently in jail under the decree.

Police were not ordered to arrest Chamlong or his followers in front of the UNESCO building for violating the decree.

'We all know there are double standards in Thailand,' said Police Senior Sergeant Kawiwong Yoryingyos, one of 300 officers sent to control the protest. In November 2008, the PAD led yellow-shirted followers to seize Bangkok's Don Muaeng and Suvarnabhumi airports.

Chamlong and other yellow-shirt leaders have yet to be fined or jailed for the incident, which sullied Thailand's reputation as a tourist destination and lost the country billions of dollars in income.

At the annual UNESCO meeting on heritage sites this week in Brazil, Cambodia is expected to win management control over the Preah Vehear temple and adjacent areas, a proposal Thailand is to oppose.

In July 2008, UNESCO named Preah Vehear a World Heritage Site, although Thailand first agreed to and then disputed the listing.

Then-foreign minister Noppodon Pattama, was forced to resign after he endorsed the listing in the face of widespread Thai opposition.

The 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, perched on a mountain range on the Thai-Cambodian border, has been the source of a sovereignty dispute between the two countries for decades.

The International Court of Justice in 1962 ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but failed to pass judgement on land adjacent to the complex, giving rise to ongoing disputes between the two countries that led to border clashes in late 2008.