Thai and Cambodia JBC has progress on border disputes [... but no agreements were made]

April 8, 2009
The Nation

The Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC) made a significant progress in the latest meeting on boundary settlement after border skirmish last week.

The meeting between April 6-7 in Phnom Penh was jointly chaired by Vasin Teeravechyan, advisor to the Foreign Ministry and his Cambodian counterpart Var Kim Hong.

An official said the meeting was able to settle the difference on the title of security unit in the disputed area which was adjacent to Preah Vihear temple.

They agreed to name it as "Temporary Military Monitoring Groups", an official said.

However, it remained no solution on the appellation of the Hindu temple on the cliff at the border of the two countries whether to call it Preah Vihear or Phra Viharn.

Despite of that, the JBC managed to sign three agreed minutes pending since the first special meeting in November in Siem Reap.

The agreed minutes of the JBC meeting in November, February and the latest meeting in April are important diplomatic documents required by internal legal procedure before the boundary demarcation to get started.

The Thai parliament needed to approve the documents before allocating budget for the demarcation and provisional arrangement at the area.

Border dispute at the area near Preah Vihear temple since last year sparked two clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops in October and last week which killed combined eight soldiers and injured nearly two dozens others.

The border conflict has barred tourists from visiting the site which was listed as a world heritage since July last year.