Thai-Khmer Ties
March 14, 2012Panya Tiewsangwal
The Nation
Thailand is planning to propose that the International Court of Justice-determined "demilitarised zone" near the controversial Preah Vihear Temple be adjusted, Supreme Commander Thanasak Patimapakorn said yesterday.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday approved the setting up of a working group to comply with the court order, he said, noting that the panel would discuss the idea with its Cambodian counterpart.
"The world court has marked the demilitarised zone, but now that both countries have good relations, we think we can discuss the matter first," he said.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) marked the 17.3 square kilometres adjacent to the Hindu temple as a demilitarised zone to prevent further clashes between the two nations while it works on interpreting the 1962 ruling on the temple as requested by Cambodia.
Phnom Penh is seeking a clarification on who owns the area upon which the temple complex is situated.
In 1962, the court ruled that the temple was situated in a territory that came under the sovereignty of Cambodia, but Bangkok argues that Thailand owns the land in the temple's vicinity.
"We don't know who has set up the zone or who determines where the ABCD points are located. So if we can talk with Cambodia, we can live together peacefully. The world court also wants us to live together peacefully," Thanasak explained.
When asked if a team of observers from Indonesia was still necessary to monitor the situation, the commander said that in a recent meeting his Indonesian counterpart had said he wanted the two countries to reach an agreement on the matter first.
"If the two countries think observers are needed, Indonesia will send them in," he said, noting that the working group would discuss the matter with Cambodia.
"If the working groups can reach an agreement, it will be taken to the General Border Committee and the Thai Cabinet to be processed under the Constitution's Article 190," he said. "Everything will follow the procedure step by step. Nobody can make any decisions alone."
5 comments:
what's up with siem, haven't given up their illegal stealing and robbing of khmer temples and surrounding areas? siem really want to steal from cambodia, the international community can see that clearly! shame on siem thugs!
Thailand continue to change its drag its feet by amending the issue with unending excuses. The World Court must take this into consideration. We need to reward good behavior and real ownership. Politics must not play when it solves problems.
i think siem think they got nothing to lose by going all the way, since preah vihear was settled in 1962 already, but siem is playing politics game now to see if they can get something from nothing. of course, we have to keep in mind preah vihear temple is a khmer temple that belongs to cambodia, so siem is making all kind of lame excuses to see if the they can get something from nothing. cambodia refuses to let siem play their politics game with at the expense of cambodia and khmer people. shame on sien robbers of khmer temple and other artefacts; they are looters of ancient khmer arts, etc!
Thai and Vietnam have the same
goal to get Cambodia under their
knees.
Why? Because of Khmer leaders and
also of Khmer people.
If Khmer people are united,they
are strong.Thai and Vietnam can't
put Khmer down.
To above I agree with you in most points. We need more than Khmer united. We need a well train professional military which not under any individual but for national defense. These military need to be well equipped for defense posture. We can't match our two enemies by share numbers but we can make them pay for violating our land. Cambodia can have this type of military if we stop corruption. China can provide us with a lot of soft loan to buy these weapons.
We already made these Siam thieves pay at area PV temple, Ta Krabey, Ta Moan. Imagine if we had a professional military with well equipped. Khmer soldiers will always have more courage and experiences than them but they need to be well lead and give them better weapons. We Khmers are all had Khmer Angkor blood in us.
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