France offers old maps to help resolve Thai-Cambodia spat

Feb 9, 2011
AFP

PARIS - FRANCE offered on Wednesday to help resolve a festering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia by providing maps it made at the start of the last century when it ruled Indo-China.

French officials made the maps in preparation for the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907, which delimited the area over which the two countries are squabbling.

Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters that Paris was happy to provide the documents 'to any country that asks us to consult them or to make a copy of these documents'. At least eight people have been killed in four days of cross-border violence between Thailand and Cambodia around the ancient temple of Preah Vihear, which forced thousands of families to flee on both sides of the frontier.

PAD calls on PM to revoke 1907 map, push Cambodian soldiers off Thai soil

November 9, 2009
The Nation

The People's Alliance for Democracy Monday called on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to revoke the 1:200,000-scale map that demarcates the Thai-Cambodian border as per the 1907 treaty between Siam and France, and push Cambodian soldiers off Thai territory.

Pipop Thongchai, a PAD leader, said his group had submitted 11 documents detailing agreements signed between Thailand and Cambodia since the reign of King Rama V.

The group has also proposed that the government review eight issues that put the country at a disadvantage due to certain pacts signed by previous governments.

Cambodia and Thailand must use the 1904-1907 maps

Dear readers,

I just received a letter to the Phnom Penh Post from Mr. Chan Veasna concerning about the use of maps for border settlements between Cambodia and Thailand. I think it is worth reading, so I decided to published it in this blog.

Khmerization
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Letter to the editor
Phnom Penh Post
6th December, 2008
newsroom@phnompenhpost.com

Dear Sir,

Nobert Klein’s letter (Cambodia must use its own maps too, 25 Nov.) has totally missed the points of my previous letter (Thailand must use Cambodian maps, 14 Nov.). While Mr. Klein might be correct in his views, his letter certainly has confused your readers of the points I was trying to make in my letter.

While I was talking about the maps of the 1904-1907 Khmer-Thai Border Treaty, Mr Klein was talking about the maps of the 2008 Joint Communique or the agreement to list the Preah Vihear temple. There is no comparison between these two agreements because one is a border treaty and the other is an agreement to list the temple on the world heritage list.

While Mr. Klein was correct to spell out the details of the 2008 Joint Communique, he is incorrect in drawing its connections to the issue of the border demarcations between Thailand and Cambodia. The distinction between these two agreements must be made:

1) The maps of the 2008 Joint Communique are for the purpose of inscribing the Preah Vihear temple on the world heritage list, not for the purpose of border demarcations as has been the point of my letter.

2) The maps attached to the 2008 Joint Communique will only supersede other maps concerning the zonage/zoning of the Preah Vihear temple boundary, not superseding the maps concerning the demarcations of territorial borders between Thailand and Cambodia.

The 2008 Joint Communique, of which Mr. Klein was talking about, spelled out that the border demarcations will only be carried out pending the results of the Joint Commission for Land Boundary which in turn, according to previous agreements, will use the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2000 which both Thailand and Cambodia recognised to use the 1904-1907 Treaty as a base for their border resolution.

The 2008 Joint Communique stated that “the inscription of the Preah Vihear temple on the World Heritage List shall be without prejudice to the rights of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Thailand on the demarcations work of the Joint Commission of Land Boundary of the two countries.”

With the provisions in the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding, signed between Cambodia and Thailand, recognising the 1904-1907 Treaty, there is no doubt that the maps of the 1904-1907 treaty must be used by the Joint Commission of Land Boundary for the border settlements, not the Preah Vihear zoning maps that Mr Klein was talking about.

Yours sincerely,

signed

Chan Veasna
Cabramatta, NSW, Australia

Cambodia must use its own maps too

Written by Norbert Klein

Tuesday, 25 November 2008 Phnom Penh Post Read the full joint communique here.

Dear Editor, The most recent map of the Preah Vihear temple area, from the Joint Communique of June 18, 2008, which is publicly available at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/pdf/jointcommunique.pdf In a Letter to the Editor, printed in The Phnom Penh Post on Friday, November 14, 2008, Chan Veasna, of Cabramatta, NSW, Australia, requested that "Thailand must use Cambodian maps". But the letter references only maps of 1904 and 1907, and denounces that maps used by the Thai side "have no legal basis under international laws". Surprisingly, there is no reference at all to the newest map, produced under the signature of Var Kim Hong, senior minister in charge of border affairs of the Cambodian Council of Ministers and attached to the Joint Communique of June 18, 2008, which was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and countersigned by Francoise Riviere, assistant director general for culture of Unesco and the then-Thai minister of foreign affairs. During the meeting both sides agreed as follows: "The Kingdom of Thailand supports the inscription ... of the Temple of Preah Vihear on the World Heritage List proposed by the Kingdom of Cambodia, the perimeter of which is identified as N. 1 in the map prepared by the Cambodian authorities and herewith attached... "...the Kingdom of Cambodia accepts that the Temple of Preah Vihear be nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List without at this stage a buffer zone on the northern and western areas of the temple. "The map mentioned in paragraph 1 above shall supersede the [other] maps." The Cambodian nomination file referenced the 1904 and 1907 maps, so the Cambodian side clearly has agreed that these have been superseded and replaced by the map of June 18, 2008. If Thais should use "Cambodian maps", so should Cambodians - that is: the newest, official map of June 18, 2008, submitted to Unesco under the signature of the Cambodian deputy prime minister. Norbert Klein Phnom Penh