Diversionary Tactics at the Border

When Thai and Cambodian politicians have needed a wag-the-dog distraction in recent years, they’ve trotted out an old debate about who owns which parts of the border area that surrounds a 1000-year-old clifftop temple. Sadly, this past week the armies also got involved, trading fire and accusations about who shot first.

The dispute has many layers. Closest to the surface at the moment are the opportunities it offers for embarrassing the Thai prime minister at a time when he is weighing which month to call elections this year. He is accused by all parts of the domestic political spectrum of not being patriotic enough… “homeland security,” and all that nonsense.

Cambodia’s prime minister, meanwhile, has seized the chance to call for U.N. arbitration of the issue. He knows he’ll prevail if the Security Council gets involved. International rulings on this subject have consistently gone Cambodia’s way. In 1962 the International Court of Justice awarded the Angkor-era temple itself to the Khmers; a 2008 Unesco decision made the escarpment a World Heritage site.

All of this tempest in a teapot would be just so much politics as usual if it didn’t force, as it has since Friday, the evacuation of villagers living nearby the temple. Several people are dead as a result of shelling. Tourism revenue in the area has evaporated. There are even reports that one wing of the monument was damaged by gunfire. So needless!