Thais held in Cambodia return home

Thais held in Cambodia return home Five Thai nationals arrested last month for illegally entering Cambodia returned to Thailand yesterday after being set free by a Phnom Penh court.The five, including member of parliament Panich Vikitsreth of the ruling Democrat Party, arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Bangkok Airways flight PG 934.
They refused to speak to journalists at the airport before being rushed away in a van.
On Friday, Phnom Penh Municipal Court freed the five Thais on suspended sentences and fined them 1mn riel ($250) each for illegally entering Cambodia on December 29.
“(The verdict) is a good sign for the Asean community and shows the Cambodian court has mercy,” Panich said after his release in Phnom Penh on Friday.
Thailand and Cambodia are both members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), a grouping which is supposed to demonstrate regional solidarity.
Thailand and Cambodia ties have been poor since mid-2008, when a spat broke out between the two neighbouring countries over the sovereignty of land adjacent to the Pheah Vihear Temple, an 11th century Hindu temple.
The temple sits on the Dongrak mountain range that defines the Thai-Cambodian border, and has been the source of sovereignty dispute for more than five decades.
Although the World Court ruled the temple belonged to Cambodia in 1962, the Thais still claim a 4.2sq km plot of land adjacent to the temple.
The dispute escalated after UNESCO declared the temple a World Heritage Site in July, 2008.
Although Cambodia on Friday released five of the Thais who trespassed on their territory on December 29, allegedly investigating another border dispute, it has kept another two under detention.
 The two include Veera Somkwamkid and his assistant Ratree Pipatanapaiboon, members of an ultra nationalist Thai group, who face more serious charges of spying.
Thai authorities yesterday confirmed plans to deport two photojournalists arrested after re-entering the country from neighbouring Myanmar, despite criticism from a media rights group.
Belgian Pascal Schatteman will be flown to his home country and John Sanlin, a Myanmar passport holder, is to be expelled at one of Thailand’s land borders with the military-ruled nation, according to an immigration official.
“Both of them will be deported tomorrow,” said Colonel Suriya Prapysatok, acting Immigration commander in Tak province, where the men were arrested.
The pair were detained Thursday in the border town of Mae Sot after returning to Thailand from eastern Myanmar, where they reported on clashes between troops and rebels, said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Sanlin now faces being returned to a country known for handing down lengthy prison sentences to journalists working for unofficial media.
CPJ said Thailand should “take into consideration the prospect that Sanlin will suffer severe reprisals if he is forcibly returned” to his country, also known as Burma.
“Thailand has long been a safe haven for exiled journalists to report freely on Burma. CPJ encourages the Thai government to maintain that important press freedom role for the region,” said Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative.
Thai authorities confiscated video footage taken by the pair in Myanmar, including “images of internally displaced people suffering from severe deprivation,” according to CPJ. 
Sanlin, who CPJ said has previously provided video footage to Al Jazeera and France 24, told the group he fears reprisals if he is deported to Myanmar. He said he holds a student visa for Thailand.
CPJ lists Myanmar as the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 13 in prison.