Posted on 05/05/2006 8:45:41 PM PDT by killjoy
I disagree. Without knowing more details, it is hard to say, but here is my take. Whoever is in charge on the Thai side is not sure of the legal situation. If he approves something that could come back to haunt him, he is in major trouble. He is not going to risk his career, or chance of promotion, by doing something that will piss off the UK.
The other possible answer is whoever is in charge on the Thai side is making it difficult because he is looking for a bribe. He is throwing up artificial obstacles in order to get it. This is very common in Thailand and I have run into it quite often here.
"I disagree. Without knowing more details, it is hard to say, but here is my take. Whoever is in charge on the Thai side is not sure of the legal situation. If he approves something that could come back to haunt him, he is in major trouble. He is not going to risk his career, or chance of promotion, by doing something that will piss off the UK."
Applying my imperfect knowledge of international law, anything within Thailand's three-mile limit is property of Thailand, unless there is some extenuating circumstance (for example, if there reason to believe that war dead were aboard one of these things). Thailand would be well within it's rights under salvage law to recover the things or leave them alone.
Salvage of anything from underwater is an expensive proposition, particularly if the wreck is a grave or has historical signifigance (both situations have their own sections of Salvage Law attached to them). If the story above is correct, there are no war dead, and the hsitorical signifigance is next-to-nil: the subs never carried out their mission and it was a very minor footnote to a very minor operation, in an otherwise major war.
We're not talking about locating the sunken Bismark in the open sea, or leaving Japanese mini-subs sunk off Hawaii in place as war graves. If I had to guess, these mini-subs are representing either a hazard to navigation or, more likely, a future hazard to future development.
"The other possible answer is whoever is in charge on the Thai side is making it difficult because he is looking for a bribe. He is throwing up artificial obstacles in order to get it. This is very common in Thailand and I have run into it quite often here."
In which case, the British government WILL be paying for the removal of those mini-subs, in one way or another, assuming they agree to it. Otherwise, the Thais, if it suited their interests over the last 60 years, would have done it themselves or taken steps to solve this matter already.
Cool, I've dove all over Phuket, but not sure where Dok Mai island is.
According to the story I found online, it looks like the subs successfully attacked their targets and were scuttled after the crew got back to safety. If so, they could be outside of Thai territorial waters.
My gut feeling is the team wants to bring them up for historical reasons. Unfortunately, I doubt the Thais could bring them up themselves. The Thai military has massive budgets problems and getting something like this approved would be incredibly difficult unless someone in a very high position took a personal interest in it.
In Thailand, WWII history is almost forgotten. Keep in mind that Thailand was loosely allied with the Axis powers. Yes, the Free Thai movement worked with the OSS and fought against the Japanese but it is now just a footnote in a history book.
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