Monday, September 06, 2010

Court's temple ruling not helping anyone

September 6, 2010
Letter to The Nation

Regarding Guy Baker's letter on September 2 about Preah Vihear, I think the 1962 International Court of Justice decision is neither as ambiguous as Songdej Praditsmanont would have it, nor as cut and dried as Mr Baker suggests. Rather, it is limited in scope and, as such, not fully satisfactory to either side.

To start with, the court found in May 1961 that it had jurisdiction concerning the "Temple of Preah Vihear". The following year in June it found, by 9 votes to 3, that the temple was "situated in territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia" and that Thailand was under an obligation to withdraw any forces stationed "at the Temple or in its vicinity on Cambodian territory". The court apparently did not see fit to define exactly what it meant by "vicinity" or, in relation to artefacts removed by the Thai authorities since 1954, "the Temple area".

Although not required to rule on the border, the court could hardly decide one thing without considering the other. It "therefore felt bound to pronounce in favour of the frontier indicated on the Annex 1 map" - the 1907 French map that ignored the watershed line - on the basis that Thailand, or Siam, had for many years "acquiesced" in that map's use.

However, it made no explicit order in this respect.

In short, it is the inconclusive nature of the ruling that has kept the issue alive up to the present. As it is, both parties to the dispute face an uphill struggle to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.

Chris Jeffery
Bangkok

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on Chris Jeffery, the court ruling is pretty clear for over 50 years until july of 2008. Quit your ignorance you self-imposed analysis.

Anonymous said...

Chris Jeffery , if you were not satisfy with the Court's decision , you got 10 years to do something , why didnt you do anything about it ? The dicision was fair or not the judge gave you a chance to do something but you didn't do it , now you say the court's ruling was not helping anyone. You must have been drinking with the PAD.
Khmer Ga

Anonymous said...

Chris, the thais must have been sucking your balls long time! that is why you can not see clearly. Take a hike, punk.

Anonymous said...

chris jeffery- what's wrong with you?did you enjoy too many siamese ladyboys during your stays in fucking thailand?

Anonymous said...

Chris jeffery must to have his brian stick up someone ass. you must be brian dead to say the world court verdict is not helping anyone.

Anonymous said...

Hello Ki Media News Teams,
Most of your news have posted a lot of Preah Vihear temple. It is the best way for people to understand more and more about Preah Vihear temple that it belong to Cambodia, but a lot of Khmer people still worried about Hun Sen to divide or Share Preah Vihear temple with Thailand as such Memot and Ponhea Krek border with Vietnam in Kampong Cham province that you have posted today. They do not care about border. They care only one moneys ( A big corruption at the present time in Cambodia). It is not good for Khmer people in his reign. We should take him off from power and take Sam Raingsy is better.
Khmer Leu

Anonymous said...

fuck you chris feffery, don't thai took enoeught combodia land already? if you dump blind brain do not understand the court verdict on 1962 verdict just fuck off from this issue.

Anonymous said...

chris Jeffery do not take your dick or penis as you head. or don't be dickheaded

Anonymous said...

Chris Jeffery was paid by Siem leaders to defend something that he is not fully understand about! ahahah

If I were Chris Jeffery I would do the same and I just take the money and write bullshit to support something I don't fully understand about! ahahahh

Anonymous said...

the problem with siem and their sympathizer like chris feffery is that these people don't respect the international law. law is law whether you like it or not, you still have to live by the law, you know! and it took them 45 years to now starting to voice their opinions? hey your 10 statute of limitation expired; without the statute of limitation in the law, imagine people like siem and chris jeffery go on rankling with the court decision forever. live with it, it's the law, ok! imagine if cambodia think like them, we'll be demanding back our lost khmer provinces from siem and other neighboring countries for taking advantage of cambodia's dark ages to steal from cambodia! imagine that!

Anonymous said...

Your behavior is not different from other bad world experts about Khmer people and Cambodia. Before you wrote some thing stupid and idiot like this., please go back to school and learn better of the the Khmer and Thai history.

Anonymous said...

If you still insisted the 4.6 km land around the Preah Vihea Temple belongs to Thailand, while Thailand hesitates to meet with U.N council to discuss and clarify the matter? Then I would insisted some of the khmers' provinces in Thailand belongs to khmers as well as Kampuchea Krom. Come on and stop wasting everyone' s times Mr. Abullshit.

Anonymous said...

the icj verdict helped cambodia and prevented siem from steal cambodia's preah vihear!

Anonymous said...

I wonder had Thailand return any of the artifacts since the World Court ruling? and what should the government be doing if not?

Anonymous said...

Chris,

Your analysis is as blur as you derive from the court ruling. The fact of the ruling is there. And there is no need to blur things up again so two countries can once again head on each other. It is no fun to see two people fight. And if you dare to do more study and try to understand the bigger picture of the area. You know for sure that this sacred temple is rightfully Cambodia's once and for all without any more bickering.