By South East Asia correspondent Karen Percy
ABC Radio Australia
Thailand and Cambodia will hold high level talks in the northern Cambodian city of Siem Reap today in the hopes of defusing a dispute over an ancient Hindu temple on their shared border.
Now that Cambodia's national election is out of the way, the sides can focus on finding common ground on the Preah Vihear temple, which sits on a dramatic clifftop in a disputed border area.
The temple has been a source of tension for decades, but relations have reached hostile levels this month after UNESCO backed Cambodia's listing of the temple as a world heritage site.
The move was initially backed by Thailand but was withdrawn after a public outcry from critics who say it gave away sovereignty. The foreign minister was forced to resign.
Thailand finally appointed new Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag at the weekend. Thousands of Thai and Cambodian soldiers are on alert in the area.
Now that Cambodia's national election is out of the way, the sides can focus on finding common ground on the Preah Vihear temple, which sits on a dramatic clifftop in a disputed border area.
The temple has been a source of tension for decades, but relations have reached hostile levels this month after UNESCO backed Cambodia's listing of the temple as a world heritage site.
The move was initially backed by Thailand but was withdrawn after a public outcry from critics who say it gave away sovereignty. The foreign minister was forced to resign.
Thailand finally appointed new Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag at the weekend. Thousands of Thai and Cambodian soldiers are on alert in the area.
3 comments:
Siamland is pushing with their tricky 2000 memorandum. Cambodia should not accept this.
The more talks we have with them more trick like the memorandum of 2000 they will come up with.
After Monday talks Hun Sen should reiterate the intervention of the UN.
There is no use to talk with the Siam their want to buy up time to elaborate tricks. They want to play their game for months.
It's our territory that they are invading if the UN does not understand this. Than just to bad.
If the UN decline to assist us than we have to push back the Siam to their beloved country.
Now that the CPP won a landslide victory, the ruling party will give in to Thailand. There's no sense of losing friends and families' business interests over the disputed land. The high-level talks will resovlved as planned.
This is purely political charade in which choregraphed and orchestrated by the incumbent party.
the 2000 memorandum is in itself in violation the the icj verdict and the treaty of 1907 as cambodia is to lose this territory. therefore, it is illegal. remember, any newer map or memorandum or whatever that is not based on the map of the treaty of 1907 and the icj verdict is nulled as it is so in violation of the international law. otherwise, money can buy everything; cambodian citizens will not accept that. as soon as it violate the icj verdict and the treaty of 1907, it is automatically illegal by cambodia and the UN standard because it has to do with cambodia losing territory to thailand. that is why cambodia can only go by the treaty of 1907 and the icj verdict, period.
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