AFP
JAKARTA: Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Friday rejected a Thai demand to withdraw troops from an 11th-century Khmer temple at the disputed border, saying Bangkok was not sincere about peace.
"We never can withdraw our troops from our own territory. That should be very clear," Hor Namhong told reporters after a meeting in Jakarta with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.
The Indonesians are trying to broker a ceasefire and the deployment of neutral military observers to the flashpoint area on the Thai-Cambodia border where some 18 people have died in fighting in recent months.
The issue is likely to be discussed at a summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders in Jakarta starting on Saturday.
Both countries have accused each other of sparking the violence, which centres on territory surrounding the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, the most celebrated example of ancient Khmer architecture outside Cambodia's Angkor.
The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6 square kilometre (1.8 square mile) surrounding area.
The temple was granted UN World Heritage status in 2008.
Cambodia has previously denied it has troops stationed at Preah Vihear itself, although it has soldiers in the contested area.
The neighbours agreed in late February to allow Indonesian observers near Preah Vihear, but Thailand has been dragging its heals on their deployment as fighting continues.
"The problem is the willingness of Thailand to accept the observers or not, that is the real problem," Hor Namhong said.
Indonesia holds the current chair of ASEAN and has been trying to use its position to broker an end to the hostilities, which are undermining ASEAN's ambitions to create a closely integrated community by 2015.
Natalegawa said Cambodia had agreed to the terms of the observer mission but Thailand was insisting on the withdrawal of Cambodia's troops from the temple.
"We're ready (to send observers) but Thailand is saying that before the deployment of observers can be made, they require the redeployment of Cambodian troops out of the temple," he said.
"This issue is not governed in the terms of reference. It's outside the terms of reference proper. This is where we are now."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a ceasefire and said the neighbours should launch "serious dialogue" to resolve the dispute, which temporarily displaced about 85,000 people.
4 comments:
Whatever happens just remember this, before 1975 Khmers helped Viets to win the war from the White colonial and in 1979 Viets helped Khmers from being extinction due to ethnic cleansing.
From 1979-1983 Thai helped to kill both Viets and Khmers by dumping us onto the mine-field including robbed and raped us.
During war in Viet, Thai allowed the white to use their country as a base to attack both Viets and Khmers. So, all of our Asian nations need to recognise that Thai is the worst enemy of the South East Asia nations.
This is a time to reflect back on what went wrong and why did most Asian nations had to suffer so much. All because of the Thai traitor.
All Asian nations need to acknowledge this and also in making sure they will not get away from what they have done to us from the past, present and the future. Justice must be done! So, we have to make sure that Thai have to pay for this.
Wisdom
Thailand has won the STUPID NO BRAIN awards for the 21st century!
Thailand, land of sneakiness. Don't forget that plenty of ally POW lost their lives in Thailand labour camps during WW2.
Since Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge commander of the Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime, now a Khmer Rouge leader of the Cambodian Peoples Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime and had many of his political opponents and journalists assassinated, I wonder if he have any plan to assassinate the Thai Prime Minister (Ahbullshit Vejjajiva)?
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