Aerial view of Preah Vihear temple.August 19, 2010
The Nation & Agence France Presse
Thailand insisted yesterday it could solve the conflict with Cambodia over the Preah Vihear Temple bilaterally without the involvement of any third party.
The Foreign Ministry would send a letter to the Asean chair, Vietnam, soon to explain that bilateral mechanisms it has with Cambodia are sufficient to settle the border dispute peacefully, said deputy spokesman Thani Thongpakdi.
The letter to the Asean chair would be in the line with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's notes to the United Nations recently which insisted the two countries would not use force to solve the border conflict, he said.
Vietnam, as the current chair of the regional grouping, said on Tuesday Asean members are holding talks on a request from Cambodia to help resolve a potentially deadly border dispute with Thailand.
"As Asean chair, Vietnam is actively consulting with other Asean countries about the proposal that the association mediate in the Preah Vihear dispute," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said.
Cambodia's foreign minister Hor Namhong on Saturday appealed to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for help, "in order to avoid any large scale armed conflict".
He said a stalemate with Thailand had extinguished any hope of further bilateral negotiations.
The neighbouring nations have been locked in a troop standoff on their border since July 2008, when the ancient Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status.
Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said on Monday he would await a decision by the bloc's foreign ministers before responding to Cambodia's request for regional help.
The World Court ruled in 1962 the temple belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand.
The exact boundary through the surrounding grounds remains in dispute, and occasional gunfights between troops of the two nations have claimed lives.
Nga called for peaceful settlement of the dispute, and urged Cambodia and Thailand to refrain "from armed conflict and from acts that could affect Asean solidarity."
The Thai-Cambodia border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.
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