Thai detainees in Cambodia seek bail

Prem concerned about fate of seven 'trespassers' as they head to court and Kasit insists no preferential treatment for Democrat MP Panich


Seven detained Thai nationals, including a lawmaker from the ruling Democrat Party, will today submit bail requests as they face trial in Cambodia over trespassing charges.

Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda has expressed concern over their fate, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

Abhisit said he had briefed Prem on the situation and the related boundary issue, which is a matter of dispute with Cambodia.

The seven Thais will testify in court one by one and a bail request will be submitted for each of them, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi.

The seven, including Democrat Party MP Panich Vikitsreth and yellow-shirt activist Veera Somkwamkid, were arrested last week while inspecting a disputed border area near Ban Nong Chan in Sa Kaew province.

A Cambodian court charged them with illegal entry and unlawfully entering a military area, which could lead to a combined sentence of 18 months in prison for each of them.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya yesterday said the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh would stand bail for the accused.

Any assistance to the Thai nationals will be conducted step by step and without intervention in the Cambodian justice system, he said.

The minister dismissed an earlier report that he had recommended a Cabinet review of relations with Cambodia unless Phnom Penh were to speed up the trial process and ensure leniency. The government plans no measures to retaliate against Cambodia over the case, he added.

"The Foreign Ministry has an obligation to maintain good relations, not to make trouble and spoil the relationship," he told reporters, adding: "I beg all parties not to create any misunderstanding between the two countries."

The ministry will provide equal assistance to all the detained Thai nationals, he said, rejecting a report that only Panich would be regarded as a priority case for obtaining bail, while the others, notably Veera, would be left to their own devices as they had provoked the arrests.

Veera and his group were briefly held in the same area last August, but Border Police managed to release them shortly after their capture.

The group believed the area where they were walking last week belongs to Thailand, but has been occupied by a Cambodian community since the late 1970s when many Cambodians fled civil war to settle there. They later refused to move out after the end of the war.

However, many Thai agencies, including the Foreign Ministry and the Royal Thai Survey Department, have indicated that the group walked at least 55 metres farther than that area - into territory under Cambodian sovereignty.

A leaked video clip showed Panich was apparently aware of the fact that he was walking into Cambodian territory, as he was speaking on the phone with an unknown person and requested that a message to that effect be conveyed to Abhisit.

The clip and the information provided by agencies has dismayed many yellow-shirt activists, as they insisted that the seven Thai nationals had been arrested on Thai territory.

Yellow-shirt activist and senator Kamnoon Sithisaman said areas near the disputed boundary belonged to Thai people, as the Thai authorities had issued land titles to them long ago. The area was indeed used as a shelter for Cambodian refugees in 1975, but has not been returned to the rightful Thai owners since, he said.

"I don't know why Foreign Minister Kasit said the seven Thai people had invaded Cambodian territory," he added.

Kamnoon and his group of 40 senators yesterday inspected the area near Ban Nong Chan and met some of the people who had lost their land to the Cambodians.

He urged the prime minister to listen to local residents and help them solve the problem.

Separately, another group of yellow-shirt activists yesterday rallied from Sa Kaew's Aranyaprathet district to see the disputed area in which their comrades had been arrested.

Local authorities provided tight security, fearing they would clash with residents in Non Mak Moon subdistrict, who disagreed with their presence out of concern that it could cause tension with Cambodia and make life difficult for them.