If Hun Sen achieved nothing but a moment in the dim UN sun, the Security Council was also not kind to Thailand. The Cambodian leader and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong demanded UN intervention, absurdly requested UN peacekeepers - and got neither. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his man at the New York meeting, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, wanted the UN and all members to butt out of the problem with Cambodia. Instead, the Security Council told Mr Kasit and Mr Hor Namhong to thrash out the problems through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The UN issued a press release after its session. It "called on the two sides to display maximum restraint". It appealed for a permanent Thai-Cambodian ceasefire "and to resolve the situation peacefully". In diplomatic parlance, this is the equivalent of "blah-blah" and means the Security Council hasn't the interest (nor the will) to tackle the problem straight on.
Certainly, the top council of the world body is not about to send more peacekeepers to Cambodia. It should be remembered, however, that the last UN peacekeeping mission to Cambodia aided and boosted the rise to power of Prime Minister Hun Sen. This at least partly explains his expressed desire for more.
The UN body sent the Thai and Cambodian ministers away short of both victory and defeat - but not back home, not yet. Brazil's UN Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, the current Security Council president, told the two countries to take any and all disagreements to Asean. This was music to the ears of Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, the current Asean chairman. He trailed the foreign ministers to New York, spoke at the brief Security Council session, and lobbied for the chance to head an international effort to mediate a solution to the Thai-Cambodian problem.
The Thai government has reflexively fought against bringing "outsiders" to the table. It now needs to rethink that policy.
Logic, public opinion and history all point towards involving, indeed embracing, Asean partners in discussions about mending, then strengthening relations with Cambodia. It is Hun Sen who has criticised the personalities in government, claiming that he never can respect Thailand so long as Mr Abhisit is prime minister. And it is Thailand, under a Democrat Party government, which first fought for the right of Asean to get involved in disputes that threaten the stability of the region.
If not Asean, then what? More fighting, deaths, property damage and displaced persons? It seems apparent to most thinking Thais that the violence unleashed at the frontier is greater than the issues spurring it. It is vital that Thailand claim and defend its territory. It also is civilised and in everyone's interest that our borders be properly and civilly demarcated in a peaceful, legal manner.
It is certainly conceivable that Asean could help such negotiations. The bilateral solution has proved a recent disaster. Bringing the problem to the regional table would have to be an improvement.
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