Tense but calm around Preah Vihear

-Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban on Friday insisted on going to Cambodia to meet Prime Minister Hun Sen, even though the Cam,bodian leader has refused to discuss the Preah Vihear temple row.

Mr Suthep said his visit to Cambodia on Saturday was aimed at strengthening ties. He said he would not engage in any talks that would lead to conflict.

Although the temple row would not be on the table, the deputy prime minister said relations between Thailand and Cambodia would improve after the visit.

Mr Suthep was originally assigned by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to clarify Thailand's position against the enscription of the temple by the World Heritage Committee, on the application of Cambodia, which was later formally approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).


But Mr Hun Sen has refused to discuss the ancient temple with Mr Suthep.

Both sides have sent reinforcements to the area.

Second Army commander Wibulsak Neepal admitted on Friday he was worried about the renewed potential for hosilities.

Lt Gen Wibulsak said troops were now confronting each other and this could boil over into a fight if the two governments do not find ways to calm the conflict.

However, the Thai-Cambodia border remained calm. Army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda said there had been no confrontation and the situation would not lead to violence.

He confirmed Thai troops have been reinforced following reports that extra Cambodian troops and artillery had been deployed to the area.

Gen Anupong said the two sides agree they do not want to fight.

Thai soldiers had been warned to be alert, but not to initiate a clash with Cambodian troops.

"We will not be the first to start fighting," Gen Anupong told reporters.

"The local commander told me the situation is still calm. Forces from both countries deployed at the temple are constantly in contact with each other and there is no indication that it could lead to confrontation," he said.

Tension along the border has risen since Thailand decided to petition against the listing of the ancient khmer temple by the World Heritage Committee, which approved the application by Phnom Penh. Thailand has repeatedly argued the old temple should be jointly registered as a world heritage site,m even though it is in Cambodian territory. Access to the temple is through Thailand.

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Why is Burma's junta afraid of Suu Kyi?

-The trial of Burma's renowned opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is being held in secret, behind the walls of the country's most notorious jail, the aptly named Insein Prison.

Anyone approaching the prison had to pass through two lines of barbed-wire barricades, manned by armed police. Very few did. Four EU diplomats were refused entry.

A small handful of sympathisers were allowed to stage a silent vigil between the two cordons. Her lawyers were instructed not to repeat any of the testimony given in court.

It sounds like the trial of a dangerous, terrorist suspect.


But the defendants are a waif-like 63-year-old woman and her two female companions, accused of nothing more than allowing an uninvited well-wisher, an American, who had swum across the lake to reach her home, to stay until he had recovered from his exhaustion.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent much of the past two decades under house arrest, the last six years in such severe isolation that she has had almost no opportunity to communicate with the outside world.

Her party, which resoundingly won the last election 19 years ago, has been weakened and divided by almost constant military harassment.

Meanwhile the army, her nemesis, has more than doubled in size, has extended its control into all areas of life and now consumes around 40% of the national budget.

Powerful figure

So Ms Suu Kyi does not appear to pose much of a threat. Yet even as she has been increasingly isolated, her potency as a symbol of the hunger so many Burmese clearly have for change and an end to military rule seems to have grown.

Insein prison
Aung San Suu Kyi is being held at the Insein prison in Rangoon

Qualities that have sometimes provoked quiet criticism of her leadership style when she was free, like her aloofness and her stubborn adherence to principle, have made her appear more heroic as a prisoner.

Her lonely stand has won her passionate admirers across the world, including, presumably, the hapless American John Yettaw whose misguided attempt to meet her has now got her into such trouble. There is simply no political figure in Burma who can match her crowd-pulling charisma.

And that worries the military as it prepares the ground for the country's first election in 20 years.

Widely dismissed outside Burma as a sham, because it guarantees to preserve the predominant role of the armed forces in politics and society, this election matters a great deal to Than Shwe, the ageing, secretive general who still calls most of the shots in Burma.

It will allow him to cast off the stain of illegitimacy which has haunted Burma's military rulers for the past two decades and give them a veneer of legitimacy.

Electoral legitimacy is something I have heard Burmese ministers go on and on about at length during my own visits there.

Their main complaint is the legitimacy Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has always claimed from its 1990 election victory, an election the military later annulled.

This seems to infuriate them, and these ministers go to extraordinary lengths to try to discredit these claims. Legitimacy, it seems, is a big issue for the generals, as is security.

'Than Shwe's succession'

"Next year's election is all about Than Shwe's succession," says Aung Naing Oo, a former student activist now living in exile in Thailand.


Aung San Suu Kyi

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi

"He is obsessed with assuring his security once he steps down after the election. So he is being very careful about who is put in key positions. He has to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Than Shwe has not forgotten the last time he released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, in 2002, in the mistaken belief that Western sanctions would be eased in return.

They were not and she was greeted as a national saviour, mobbed by huge crowds as she travelled around the country. A year later, dozens of her supporters had been killed or jailed by military-backed thugs, and she was back under house arrest.

That is why there is a clause in the military-drafted constitution barring anyone "who enjoys the rights and privileges of a foreign citizen" from running for office - Ms Suu Kyi, through her marriage to the late British academic Michael Aris, falls into that category.

There was never much realistic hope that she would be released before the election. A criminal conviction now would disqualify her from contesting the election even as a candidate. The chances are she will still be in custody when it takes place.

So what about afterwards?

Once the generals have, in their own view, consigned the 1990 election to the history books by holding an election they are more or less guaranteed to win, perhaps then they will have the confidence to release Aung San Suu Kyi.

And perhaps, once Than Shwe, who is 76 and often in poor health, has left the scene, Burma may see a gradual softening of its repressive political climate. But no-one is counting on it.

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UN envoy visits Burma for talks

-UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari has arrived in Burma ahead of a possible visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Mr Gambari is to meet officials from Burma's military government but it is not clear if he will meet jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

She is on trial accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest by letting an uninvited US man stay in her home.


Mr Ban has said he hopes to press the Burmese authorities to release Ms Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Mr Gambari was to fly to Burma's capital, Naypyidaw, after arriving in Rangoon on Friday.

'Exile links'

After his two-day trip, he will brief Mr Ban before the UN chief decides whether to visit Burma.

It is the special envoy's eighth visit to Burma to try to promote political reconciliation between the military government and the pro-democracy movement led by Ms Suu Kyi.

Before Mr Gambari arrived in Burma, the country's police chief said Ms Suu Kyi's visitor, John Yettaw, had links to Burmese exile groups in Thailand.

Mr Yettaw is also on trial over his visit to Ms Suu Kyi's lakeside home in Rangoon.
Aung San Suu Kyi meets Thai, Singapore and Russian diplomats, 20 May
Ms Suu Kyi has been allowed few visitors since being detained

Her trial over the incident was again postponed on Friday until 3 July - the latest in a series of delays over allowing more defence witnesses.

Observers say the charges against Ms Suu Kyi - which carry a maximum punishment of five years in jail - are designed to keep her imprisoned until after next year's election.

She has already spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest, banned from seeing all but a small group of people.

Burma's military rulers have refused to recognise the results of general elections in 1990, won by Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

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History of Ankor Wat

-The beginning of the Khmer or Angkor civilization takes place during the period from 802 to 1431 A.D.. Il stretched, then its apogee, up to the Thailand-Burma border in the West and Wat Phou of Laos in the North.

It appeared owing to the ancient Khmer rulers who strengthened unity between peoples with a good political doctrine and the development of an intelligent irrigation system who allowed to control water of the Mekong River for agricultures and so to work out its prosperity. Then it were slowly deteriorated during five century. Of this Khmer Civilization, it left some fabulous and exceptionals monuments (like Angkor Wat and Bayon Khmers temples), some numerous sculptures.


The word " Angkor " is derived Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language), of " Nagara " which means " City ". Angkor Wat literally means " City of Temple " and Angkor Thom " The Magnificent City ".

The ancient Khmers were great masters of stone carving and we can see the evidences of various Angkor temples who extended on the large plain of Siem Reap up to outside of Cambodian border to the Preah Vihear at Dangrek mountain, Phnomrung and Phimai in Thailand and Wat Phu in Laos. These temples were make up patiently during centuries by Khmer artisans. This expect a main energy to realize such efforts as a long time, in contradiction with the normal and easy life of the Khmer people and villagers of their time.

For historians and archaeologists, it is not easy to do the detailed study of Khmer civilization. Most of the writing, found after the excavation of Angkor, were carved in the stones, who became the best support against time wear. They are important evidences to understand the basic constituency of Khmer society and its chronology. They relate principally religious rituals, king's praise and literatue of Indian epics of " Ramayana " and " Mahabharata ". There is not much things on the subject of the ordinary life of the local people.

It is owing to a Chinese Ambassador, Zhou Daguan in the middle of 13th century during the Chinese dinasty Yuan, who traveled to Angkor, lived with peoples and explored the empire during one year, that we learn more things about Khmer civilization. He writed very clearly and vividly how people were live in the khmer society in this period.

Angkor Wat represent center of Khmer civilization. It is situated on the plain of Siem Reap province north of the Great Lake of Tonle Sap.

All along Khmer history, the throne were often desire, which involved some violent bloodshed. Differents successive kings build each one a different capital, alls in the Angkor Wat and Ruolos sector, with some names like Hariharata, Yasodharapura, Jayendanagari, Angkor Thom and a lot of others unknown names.

Much temples like Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom represent incontestably the relics of the past Khmer Civilization.

In the Khmer society, hierarchy include above the God-King, surrounded by brahmins tutors and the members of his royal family. The priests who live in the temples were also powerful and contoled their own lands and paddy fields.

The names of donors were written in the stone, on the temples and we learn that they were allowed noblemen or high dignitary responsible for the administrative and judiciary tasks, how that may be, all this wasn't very precise for historians, it is so difficult to drow up a complete list of the Angkor Empire hierarchy.

The Khmer Civilization economy was based principally on agriculture, the majority of people was farmers or peasants and some of the less wealthy of them was fastened to large landowners or of the temples.

The lowest hierarchy of the Khmer Civilization was reserved to slaves who beloyed at temples, which we found the majority of the names inscribed on the stone. Their names was keeped in a holy place, what who let think they could not have been the low class slaves as its word " slave " implied. For historians they were only temples servants and priests were " Gods slaves " and not to any human being. In fact, slaves were mostly captured in the neighboring countries, but Khmer people themselves could fall in the lowest status and being a " slave " if they failed to pay their rents or loans to the upper ruling class.

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-The earliest written language to have been found in the region is in Sanskrit, an Indian sacred language. The writings were carved in stones which could be dated back to 5th and 6th century, which show a strong influence of the Indian culture over the indigenous people.

Sometimes later, the Khmer Language seems to appear with many of its characters and words derived from Sanskrit. An oldest stone inscription written in Khmer language were found to be carved in 612 A.D. as its text said.


The contents of these stone inscriptions which were housed in the temples were mostly concern with religions, its ritual and philosophy, Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, Kings' salutations and some poetic verses. Some of these stone inscriptions also list the assets which were owned by the temples and by the dignitaries as well as the different objects needed for ritual ceremonies. Although these assets and objects had long been disappeared, these listings served as another jigsaw in our quest for knowledge of the Angkor. Little things had been said about the ordinary life of the local people, however, these stone inscriptions had helped us to retrace the history of Khmer and to understand its political and cultural structure.

Around 1,200 stone inscriptions written in Sanskrit and Khmer had been discovered.

The inscriptions were careful engraved on the stone with a great work of real arts in order to show high respects to the gods of the temples. This could lead us to imagine that the Khmers were devout to their gods in whom they revered as their protector, and god's blessing would bring them prosperity.

Many Angkor temples had been found to contain the stone inscriptions in both languages - Sanskrit and Khmer, however, their contents could be differentiated into two distinct characteristics although both of them served for a religious purpose. Those inscriptions written in Sanskrit addressed more or less directly to the gods in term of religious prayers and rituals. Sanskrit is the sacred language of India and was maintained in the original form by the Khmers so that its value to their gods would not be deviated by any form of translation.

Generally, the Khmer inscription had its own distinction and the content was mostly a listing of assets, covering from paddy fields, cattle, objects and furniture, as well as the names of slaves which were owned by the temples. In many instances, some of the stone inscriptions were placed in the shrine by donors who could be the dignitaries or the elites of Khmer ruling class. These inscriptions could be varied, ranging from the listing of assets to some poetic verses.

According to Zhou Daguan in the Chinese annals, the ancient Khmers knew how to write on the latina leaves as well as by chalks on the animal's skin. Unfortunately, these materials seem to have been decayed over the past centuries due to damp weathers and insects.

It is hard to believe that such a high civilization of Khmer with a well-developed writing system would barely have any literature. Only three Khmer literatures are known since they were preserved in the stone inscription. Many literatures and other Khmer manuscripts, being written on unendurable materials other than on stone, are believed to have been lost with time, and some may have been survived until present day as local folklores.

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India's West Bengal State Agrees to Ban Maoists

-In India, the West Bengal state government has banned the Maoist rebels, whose movement has been declared a terrorist organization. The West Bengal government came under pressure to ban the Maoists after security forces had to be deployed to evict the rebels from a rural district.

The Chief Minister of West Bengal state, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee says his government will implement a ban ordered a day earlier by the federal government on the Maoist faction of the Communist Party of India.



Since last week, hundreds of paramilitary troops and police have mounted an operation in the state to reclaim a district where the rebels are entrenched.

Rebel influence widening

The operation has focused attention on the widening influence of the rebels in the state and prompted the federal government to urge the West Bengal government to ban the Maoists.

Chief Minister Bhattacharjee says the strength of police forces in the state will be increased and their training updated to help enforce the ban.

"How far we will go, whom to arrest, how to arrest that is our business, that we will decide," he said. "But this act [law] is applicable in the whole country, it should be very clear."

The West Bengal government banned the Maoists despite strong opposition from senior leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which governs the state. They say the ban will serve no purpose and the widening influence of the rebels should be countered with political measures.

Chief Minister Bhattacharjee says the West Bengal state government is also looking at development measures that can help to weaken the hold of the rebels in areas where they are active.

"And we have taken some crash programs to improve the quality of life of those people living in that area," he said. "These combined together will take a holistic attitude, socio-economic development, political activities, political campaign, and finally strong administrative measures, we should include all this to face this situation."

West Bengal is one of the five eastern states where the Maoist rebels - numbering about 20,000 - have entrenched themselves in outlying, jungle areas. They claim to be fighting for the rights of landless poor, saying the peasants are exploited by government and police officials.

The rebels are being blamed for sporadic attacks in states where they have called a two-day protest. Police say they attacked a court and blew up a cultural center in Bihar, and torched the offices of the Communist Party in a district in West Bengal.

India's federal government has been repeatedly urging state governments to do more to stamp out the Maoist insurgency, calling it the biggest internal security threat to the country. But several security experts blame state governments for not taking that warning seriously.

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China and US hold military talks

-Defence officials from the United States and China are meeting in Beijing for two days of high-level talks.

They are expected to discuss several recent naval confrontations between the two countries in the South China Sea.

North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests - and how to react to them - will also be on the agenda.

Military relations between China and the US have been strained since last year because of the US sale of arms to Taiwan.


Sovereignty claim

Michele Flournoy, the US under secretary of defence for policy, is leading the US delegation for the talks, set up in 1997.

She will meet Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian from the People's Liberation Army, China's armed forces.

One of the top concerns for the US team is the confrontations between ships from the two countries in the South China Sea.

Already this year, there have been a handful of incidents off China's southern coast.

Just a few weeks ago, a Chinese submarine collided with sonar equipment being towed by the USS John S. McCain off Subic Bay in the Philippines.

China says that was an accident, but the US says it is worried about the increasing number of such incidents.

There is already a mechanism to deal with this kind of conflict.

"We would hope to reinvigorate those discussions so that we can make sure that we're both operating in a safe and prudent manner," said a US defence department spokesman before the US delegation arrived in Beijing.

China says the South China Sea, and its island chains, are part of its sovereign territory and it has previously complained about US naval activity in the region.

The Defence Consultative Talks between China and the US are usually held every year, although not last year.

Beijing suspended military ties between the two nations last October in protest at the US decision to sell $6.5bn-worth of arms to Taiwan, an island China considers its own.

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