By Mike Corder, The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Cambodia has asked the United Nations' highest court to order Thailand to withdraw troops and halt military activity around a temple at the centre of a decades-old border dispute that has flared into deadly military clashes.
Fighting in recent weeks along the disputed border region in northeastern Thailand that surrounds the Preah Vihear temple has left 16 soldiers and one Thai civilian dead.
In a request filed April 28 and made available Tuesday on the court's website, Cambodia asked International Court of Justice judges to urgently deal with its request "because of the gravity of the situation."
Cambodia claims that according to a 1962 ruling by the court the temple is on its territory and warns that if the intervention request is rejected and clashes continue, "the damage to the Temple of Preah Vihear, as well as irremediable losses of life and human suffering ... would become worse."
The border dispute has stirred nationalist sentiment on both sides. But analysts say domestic politics may also be fueling the conflict, especially in Thailand, where the military that staged a coup in 2006 could be flexing its muscles ahead of elections due in June or July.
The conflict involves small swaths of land along the border that have been disputed for more than half a century. Including the latest fighting, clashes have broken out six times since 2008, when Cambodia's 11th-century Preah Vihear temple was given U.N. World Heritage status over Thailand's objections.
Analysts say the fighting is primarily being driven by domestic tensions within each country rather than tensions between them. Neither side appears to be trying to capture territory, and few believe the conflict will evolve into full-scale war.
The fighting forced tens of thousands of villagers on both sides of the border to flee their homes. Many of them returned this week from makeshift refugee camps as the latest skirmishes eased from artillery barrages to small arms exchanges.
Rulings by the court are supposed to be final and binding on parties.
Cambodia has formally applied for an "interpretation" — a written explanation — by the court of its 1962 judgment, and argued in its written application that the court's opinion "could then serve as a basis for a final resolution of this dispute through negotiation or any other peaceful means."
10 comments:
I am glad to see Cambodia takes Thailand to court to solve problem. That shows Cambodia has creditability to fight in court, not continues killing of innocent people with their governments.
Thailand wants to prolong war and will escalate when it gets closer to election, so I think it is the right approach for Cambodia to go to the world highest court to settle their difference. Let's the world court tells them what to do...
I'm Thai. IMO There's no point to declare wars to each others. Wars is not the solution. but the JCB is.
As far as I know from Thai news. Hun Sen try to use nationalism to make cambodia people support him.
But who know the truth???
i applaud cambodia for finally making the right move, that is, good move! let the UN highest court, the international court of justice(icj) tell evil siem thugs to respect the verdict and international law, treaty of 1907, etc, etc, etc... and see if siem thugs still rankling and vilate the court's warning again! i can see the court will experience the frustration cambodia have been through dealing with evil siem thugs's violation of international law, etc, etc, really!
the icj will settle this once and for this with their interpretation and clarification of the ruling of 1962.
the icj will also tell siem about the statute of limitations of this 1962 ruling! once the court has ruled, it is permanent forever, cambodia don't need to worry about redoing the case, etc... we are asking icj to "interpret and clarify" their ruling, that's all!
we all will wait and see how the evil siem thugs say about this now! shame on ah evil siem thugs for violating and stealing and disrespecting the international law, the icj ruling, cambodia's sovereignty, etc, etc!
when it comes to cambodia's preah vihear temple issue with siem, there is more to cambodia than just some opposition political attack on hun sen's current administration, etc, you now! i think often time, people failed to understand or see changes that changes are not always bad and are inevitable, especially in politics, cambodia, etc, etc... change is not an abstract idea, thus is will occur sooner or later, it comes and goes, you know! wake up and get educated already, ok!
Eliminate the cppvietcongs the temple will no longer be an issue.
This Hindu Temple conflict created by Hanoi. Vietnam expansionism in SEA:
-Created Pol Pot vs. Lon Nol
-Created Hun Sen vs. Pol Pot, then killed Pol Pot,
-Put Hun Sen in power and controls Cambodia.
-Created Hindu temple conflict to divide Khmers and Thais, then send its army into Cambodia permanently claiming helping Khmers to fight Thais.
More to come ... by Hanoi.
THAILAND MUST HELP CAMBODIA FROM VIETS IF THEY WANT TO SURVIVE.
My dear 1:13AM,
Since you are the one that is educated, could you please tell us, the uneducted ones, what are you trying to say? What changes that we do not see? I can see that most changes in Cambodia are not for the interest of this poor country mass. More corruption, more Vietnameses, more dictatorship... need I say more?
2:34 AM
Now you said, you want help Cambodia.
Remembered of the time 1975-78, Khmer People really needed help from Thai, but Thai did nothing to help our people. They not only killed us, but also sent us back to Cambodia or handed us back to the Pol Pot regime.
Nowadays not many Khmer trusted you Thai. But first you can do something for the Khmer Surin, help Khmer Surin, by giving them the right to learn read and write Khmer language as 1rst or 2nd language at school.
3:11 AM
You can say that, but the facts, Vietnam's expansionism goes that way. To Thais, Vietnamese spies are among Cambodians, and are among Hmong-Laos, that's what happened. Kings of Siam helped Cambodia and fought against Vietnamese army and defeated the Vietnamese in 1700's because back then there were not many Viets in Cambodia. Though Viet archive was ashamed to admit they were defeated, but they did. The lesson for the Viet-Hue is they did all possibilities to divide Thais from Cambodians, and they now succeeded, and even you yourself believe so.
By the way I am not Thai or Viet or Cambodian, just someone who cares for Cambodia and her people.
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