PREAH VIHEAR: GAG ORDER?

UNCLAS PHNOM PENH 000631 SENSITIVE SIPDIS PARIS PLEASE ALSO PASS TO US MISSION TO UNESCO, NSC FOR PHU, DEPT FOR D, EAP, AND L E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV UNESCO SCUL MOPS PBTS TH CB SUBJECT: PREAH VIHEAR: GAG ORDER? REF: BANGKOK 2294 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Cambodian government circulated the same summary of Monday's Siem Reap meeting as provided by the RTG to Embassy Bangkok (Ref A.) Throughout this busy, post-election week, Cambodian officials have been notably silent on the subject of Preah Vihear. Prime Minister Hun Sen told the press that Cambodia is prepared to draw back troops from the disputed area at the same time that Thailand does, but avoided any lengthy discussion of when such withdrawals might begin. A senior contact explained this reticence as giving the Thai government room to maneuver vis-a-vis their domestic critics, but expressed hope that a follow-on bilateral meeting will be confirmed for August 7. The situation on the ground remains a stalemate. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Long Visalo, who has participated in both rounds of bilateral negotiations, told the DCM July 30 that his government has imposed "an instruction of silence" about ongoing bilateral negotiations on Preah Vihear. Visalo noted that the Council of Ministers has distributed to diplomatic missions the press points jointly communicated by both governments following the July 28 bilateral meeting. Visalo said the RTG had asked the RGC not to talk too much about the issue while the new Thai FM seeks support within his government and more broadly for the way ahead mapped out in Siem Reap. Visalo said other, more difficult issues had been discussed in the Siem Reap session -- such as the disposition of the squatter's village. However, he said the RGC did not want to spoil the positive spirit or endanger the Thai ability to move ahead by previewing too much too quickly. ¶3. (SBU) While the usually voluble Visalo was notably reticient at the start of the conversation, he concluded with two "small worries." First, he said Cambodian officials were actively engaged with Thailand to set a date for the next bilateral meeting. They had proposed August 1, but that had not worked for the Thai delegation. They were still waiting for information on whether August 7 would work. Visalo expressed concern that the Thais were trying to quietly and slowly change the facts on the ground, and speculated it might be many months before the bilateral meetings resolved the "still-very real issue" of soldiers cheek-to-jowl in the disputed area. He also expressed concern about what he described as Thai "comparability" -- citing as an example Thai insistence that if Cambodian monks remained in the pagoda, negotiated language must state that Thai monks would remain as well (despite the fact that there are no Thai monks there presently.) The Cambodians continue to argue that the 1962 ICJ decision -- and the Court's instruction's to Thailand to withdraw its troops -- resolves questions of the border placement in the Preah Vihear area. But, they worry that as international attention to the standoff diminishes, the situation on the ground will become a prolonged and problematic stalemate. MUSSOMELI