Hun Sen ups stakes in border stand-off

"Cambodia has reached the limits of its patience.": HUNSEN

ANALYSIS: Cambodia's complaint to world court will prolong dispute

11/02/2010
Thanida Tansubhapol and Apinya Wipatayotin
Bangkok Post

Cambodia has approached the International Court of Justice over the disputed territory near the Preah Vihear temple in a move that has stoked blazing tensions over the issue.

Thailand wants the dispute over the 4.6 sq km area settled by the two countries through the Joint Boundary Commission.

A Foreign Ministry source said the chances of a bilateral solution would diminish if the international court in the Hague became involved.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday his country would complain to the court that Thailand was occupying its land, Associated Press reported.

"Cambodia has reached the limits of its patience," Hun Sen said during a visit to the disputed border territory.

"Cambodia wants to solve this territorial dispute by filing a complaint to the international court at the Hague." He said he would also ask the United Nations to help solve the border issue.

What Cambodia plans to do is not new. In 2008, Phnom Penh tried to take the disputed area issue to the United Nations Security Council.

Thailand, under then prime minister Samak Sundaravej, successfully convinced members of the council in Thailand and New York, and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, that the issue should not be resolved by outsiders.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday the issue should be beyond the authority of the world court. He earlier insisted on using negotiations to fight for Thai sovereignty over the area around the temple as it is part of Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket.

The world court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia but it did not touch on the disputed area.

Nationalist passions have run high along the border since 2008, when Thailand first backed, then opposed, Cambodia's bid to have the temple declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organisation.

Cambodian-Thai relations worsened late last year when Cambodia named former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra an adviser on economic affairs.

The Cambodian government refused to extradite him to Thailand despite the government's request.

The two countries are now poised for a conflict over a management plan for the temple, submitted to Unesco by Cambodia. The UN agency requires Cambodia to safeguard the temple as a historical World Heritage site.

Thailand suspects that Cambodia has included part of the disputed area in its plan. The plan will be tabled for discussion by the World Heritage Committee at its next meeting in July in Brazil.

"It is clear that Cambodia will include N3, or the overlapping area of 4.6 kilometres, in the plan," said Vasu Poshyanandana, secretary-general of Thailand's International Council on Monuments and Sites.

"We will object to the plan before it is included in the conference's agenda," he said.

"Cambodia has carried out the plan without Thailand's consent. That makes the plan unacceptable."

Thailand will soon map out its position to counter the Cambodian proposal.

The landscape management plan will be circulated to members of the World Heritage Committee about six weeks before the meeting.

But Mr Vasu said: "We have no need to wait until that time."