July 23, 2011
By Nophakhun Limsamarnphun
The Nation
The International Court of Justice issued an order last Monday for both Thailand and Cambodia to withdraw their military from a disputed border area covering a total of 17.3 square kilometres.
The demilitarised zone consists of 8.5 sq km of Thai territory and 8.8 sq km of Cambodian territory.
This includes a Thai portion of 4.6 sq km next to the Phra Viharn/Preah Vihear temple which was earlier listed unilaterally by Cambodia as a World Heritage Site.
Back in 1962, the court ruled that the ancient Hindu temple belonged to Cambodia, but it stopped short of making any ruling on border demarcation, which went beyond its authority.
Due to the legacy of colonial rule in Indochina, border demarcation has been a highly sensitive issue between Thailand and Cambodia ever since the 1962 ruling.
To date, there has been no mutually acceptable demarcation along the border between the two countries.
In 1994, Thailand and Cambodia attempted to start the process of proper demarcation and both countries entered into a memorandum of understanding in a bid to resolve the issue.
However, Dr Sompong Sujaritkul, a former Thai lawyer who was involved in the Thai-Cambodian border case nearly 50 years ago, recently cautioned that the 1994 MoU contains several dangerous points for Thailand.
First, the 1994 MoU uses a map with a scale of 1 to 200,000 originally and unilaterally created by France during its time as colonial power in Indochina in the 19th century.
This map was a distortion as it encroached on Thai territory in defiance of the 1907 treaty signed by France and Thailand.
Respecting the dictates of this map could result in a loss of 1.8 million rai of Thailand's territory, according to Dr Sompong.
Second, he cautioned that another danger was hidden in Thailand's failure to object to the use of this map in the decades prior to 1994.
This failure led to the lack of a crucial clause in the Thai-Cambodian MoU of 1994, which meant there was no protection against Thai territorial interests being violated by subsequent legal interpretations in the international arena.
Dr Sompong suggested that the 1994 MoU should have contained a protective clause stating that Thailand would not accept the dictates of anything beyond the 1907 treaty between then-Siam and France, which had colonised Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Instead, as the matter stands, the country is now at risk of losing more land territory to Cambodia if future legal interpretations are based on the unilaterally created map that uses the scale of 1 to 200,000.
In the final analysis, it is in Thailand's best interest to nullify the 1994 MoU with Cambodia.
In April this year, Cambodia asked the ICJ - the highest court of the United Nations - for an order for Thailand to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from what it described as parts of Cambodian territory situated in the area of Preah Vihear Temple.
Cambodia also asked the court to issue a ban on all military activity by Thailand, and that Thailand refrain from any act or action which could interfere with the rights of Cambodia or aggravate the dispute.
Thailand responded by asking the court to eliminate the Cambodian case.
19 comments:
Its Ok for all arm forces get out of the dispute area but make sure all our khmer people move into the 4.6km immediately to be part of the gate keepers.
If not enough people moving into the area, well try to evacute all people who are living in the waterboat etc. Try to make a law like illegal to live in the waterboats, as we have enough land to share around for everybody. By doing so is to make sure that our country looking clean and tidy as possible.
On the other hand all water chanells should belong to everybody to enjoy, as it is all clear,by then the river will also be much more clean and better for the whole environment. as well. So, think, think and think big Ok, once our country is well set up, we will have lots of tourists flowing into our country and we will be very rich with prosperity and happiness in no time.
Aust
I don't know the guy in The Nation took head to think or what??
if what siem thugs saying is true, then cambodia must demand the return of all of our old khmer provinces siem stole from us back to cambodia, the rightful owner, ok! no ifs or buts about it, ok, siem thugs! what you thugs people say makes a lot of sense so we decided to request the return of all of our old khmer provinces back to cambodia, ok! remember, khmer was an empire before! and siem was the indentured slave or indentured servant of khmer, so now we must request the return to cambodia all our old khmer provinces, make sense? start now, ok!
could of, would of, should of, ifs, buts, etc are all outside the framework of the recent icj ruling, so it is irrevelant. stick to the icj court ruling, ok, siem thugs! stop dreaming about a fairy tale, ok!
whatever, siem thugs! the law is on khmer side always! no violation or illegal activity is allowed, ok!
When Thai talk about losing territory, they always talking about what they claimed as Thai territory or what they beleived or what they were told.
They never point out to the document to support their claim.
It is the rule of the country that you can't disagree or critisize the king. So if the king said that territory belong to Thailand, then that is it !!! you have to take his word for it and that is the big problem in Thailand !!!!!!!
When the crown prince said the air plan is mine, the FM went to Germany to get it back and he came back empty hand it. It is a joke !!
good point, thailand is a land of paperless law, only their dictator king is the law there, you know! whatever their king say, the ignorant siem thugs jump blinding into it, sad, but true in siem society and country, you know! thank god the world now operates on the rule of law and the law is always on khmer side! god bless cambodia.
i told you, we all now can see the real or true color of siem thugs society and country way of following their dictator king! before, the world didn't know this, now is different, we know it! law is on khmer side always!
what happen then when bumibol passes over to the other side as he is now in wheelchair! it's going to be chaos in siem country and society, maybe the end of this type of king dictator, too, who knows! stay tune!
and their chulolonghorn signed treaty with france in exchange to keep siem independence from europe power, than they must live with their king's decision! law is law, nothing they can do to change that because the statute of limitation is way expired. remember they stole khmer lands, so what are they whining about now! they traded for their independence, so they they have to live with it for the rest of their lives, really!
actually, it goes to show thailand is a land of ignorant people, people who follow their dictator king, not law! whatever the dictator king says, the ignorant people follow it, if that's not stupid, blinded and ignorant, then tell me what it is! that explains the way siem is thinking now, you know!
maybe that explains as well why some siem people preferred to live abroad in another country like america, etc, simply they want law and freedom from their dictator king! what you think of that?
siem thugs think they are immuned to the rule of law, etc, you know! i say as long as their country is a member of the UN, and their country do trades with the world and have embassies in the world, etc, siem thugs have no choice but to respect and do as the law say, you know! forget what their dictator king say, it's the law that counts, not that dictator king in wheelchair, really! that guy is not my king and not my rule of law, so it is irrelevant to me here, you know!
Aust,
Once again you have no clue of real situation on the ground in Cambodia and try to provide an unsollicited advice from far away.
You can't just move people into the area the way you have suggested. You live in Australia; have you ever heard of the word "infrastructure"?
Access to the area you are talking about is very difficult from the Cambodian side as it is next to the cliff of the mountain. Where is your hospital, school, land to farm, etc. to support the living community? What do the people moved there do for a living? The 4.6 square Km is part of the heritage site and you want people to live there and dump their shit in the open everyday and you expect more tourists?
Have you been to Preah Vihear? I guess not!
do whatever, but do not leave this area of cambodia isolated again, ok! isolation and ignorance is the enemy of cambodia along with siem thugs, you know! cambodia must develop preah vihear and its vicinity whether catering to tourists, construction jobs, chisel out the dangrak mountain, whatever, it has to be done because we cannot isolate cambodia any longer, ok! build more homes on the mountains like they do i switerlands, in japan, etc, etc..., ok! make it modern with water supplies, electricity, etc, etc, ok! cambodia can do it, just don't do nothing about it, though, ok!
build a khmer city there! don't let siem thugs interfere with cambodia's development, really!
read the icj ruling careful, it says no siem thugs can interfere with cambodia's right to access our preah vihear temple and to supply our non-military personnel and population, etc in the vicinity of preah vihear temple, and surrounding lands, etc... and that 1907 map is used to determined national boundary. no siem unilateral or illegal map is allowed, period! and cambodia must not neglect again our borderlines from now on! icj has the power to make judgment based on existing law, doesn't matter how old that law is including 1907 treaty, 1907 map, etc, etc all within the framework of existing law, you know! yes, law is on khmer side always! get used to it, ok, siem thugs!
that's right, would of, could of, should of, etc makes no different to icj ruling based on existing law, you know! so stop dreaming, siem thugs, ok!
i like the analogy of the stop light in a city, i.e. red means stop, green means go, yellow mean slow down, ok! it's universal stop light, ok! without stop light(the use of rule of law), there will be chaos, ok! so respect the rule of law, ok! no buts or ifs about it, ok!
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