CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION FOR THAILAND

Your job in this mediation is to come away with an agreement that allows Thailand to save face and gives the Thai government something to placate the opposition. Thus, any amount of territory you can claim for Thailand, and any agreement that ensures safe access to the temple for the Thai people, can be claimed as a victory.

You recognize that Thailand’s claim to the temple itself is over, but you want assurances that Thais visiting the temple site and living in villages near it will be safe. Will Cambodia allow some kind of Thai security at the temple site? Maybe a joint security force of some kind? For now, you need to look strong, so a military presence would be most useful, but eventually, assuming that peace prevails, temple security could be unarmed or even civilian rather than military. If such a security plan is agreed upon for the future, those protecting the temple and its visitors should have the ability to call upon reinforcements if necessary in case of violence or threat of violence.

In a perfect world, you would be able to claim half the disputed 4.6 kilometers for Thailand. It makes sense to claim the part north of the temple, since that part is on the Thai border. Get as much as you can.

Is Cambodia willing to discuss a joint arrangement for managing the World Heritage Site? Perhaps a committee or board of some kind that would monitor and ensure the preservation of the site? Ideally such a committee would be composed equally of Thais and Cambodians, but you are willing to agree to some form of Cambodian supremacy for the committee—the Chair could always be a Cambodian, for example.

You are free to agree to anything that adequately protects Thai interests, and gives the government the ability to begin to neutralize the protests of the opposition. The clearer and more specific the agreement is, the more it is likely to accomplish those goals.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 997