Bangkok - The senior Thai official handling a border dispute with Cambodia over a prized Khmer Brahman temple has been replaced, news reports said Wednesday. The director-general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department, Virachai Plasai, has been shifted to an inactive post by Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama just hours before he was due to fly to Phnom Penh for talks on the disputed Preah Vihear temple, said the Bangkok Post.
"I try to put the right person in the right job. There was no other reason for the transfer," Noppadon said.
The Thai foreign minister hinted that negotiations might have been mishandled. He explained the move was designed to increase efficiency and coordination on the Thai side.
Thai objections to the current border arrangement prompted UNESCO to last year put off naming the 10th century Preah Vihear temple a World Heritage Site.
"Each horse has a lot of experience but I want the horse that can run on the right track," Noppadon was reported as saying.
The well-respected Krit Kraichitti, currently head of the International Economic Affairs Department, will replace Virachai. Noppadon said Krit, the former head of the treaties department, understood the dispute very well. Virachai's sacking was approved by the Thai cabinet Tuesday.
The temple - perched on a clifftop hedged in by Thai territory - has been a long-standing bone of contention between two neighbours with historically prickly relations.
In January a Thai general said in unofficial comments that Cambodian claims to the site were fake. His comments were quickly disowned by the Thai government but niggling differences remain.
The sacked Virachai had been scheduled to leave yesterday for Phnom Penh for talks with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
