Cambodia,Thailand loath to blink first over temple

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

PHNOM PENH, July 29 (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday he would not withdraw troops and artillery from a disputed 900-year-old temple on the Thai border until Bangkok started to pull back its forces.

"It is a matter of when the Thais remove their troops," Hun Sen, who won another five years in power with a landslide election victory at the weekend, told reporters at Phnom Penh's Foreign Ministry.

The two southeast Asian nations' foreign ministers agreed on Monday to resolve the spat peacefully and scale back a two-week military build-up around the Preah Vihear ruins, awarded to Cambodia in 1962 by the International Court of Justice, a ruling that has rankled in Thailand ever since.

However, Thailand's cabinet, which is reeling from court decisions against several ministers and a long-running street campaign to remove it from power, issued no directives to the military after a weekly meeting on Tuesday.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSBKK237324

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Just when I thought things were improving.

:-(

[0xDEADBEEF]

1. Clinging

Is a Buddhist temple really doing any good if people become so attached to it that they're willing to kill each other?

Whoever blinks first really wins.

[Coventina]

2. This isn't about Buddhism, it's about nationalism

The temple was originally Hindu, actually, built by the Khmer Empire 900 years ago. Although, Buddhist monks now use it for worship, just as they do most of the other Khmer Hindu temples.

Why Thailand wants to claim it, since it isn't connected to them culturally, I don't know.

But it is a big tourist attraction, so maybe Thailand is after the prestige. If Thailand was smart, it would realize that the Heritage designation is a win-win situation for them, because it will draw more tourists, who have to enter Thailand to get to the temple. But, since the temple is technically in Cambodia, Thailand doesn't have to worry about the upkeep and preservation.