A Change of Guard

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Friday 20 May 2011

His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk proposed two solutions to Thailand


Unknown Author
Sent to Khmerization by an anonymous reader

At that time, in a gesture to keep the friendship between the two countries, His majesty the king Norodom Sihanouk (pictured) proposed two solutions to Thailand: a) the joint administration of the Khmer sanctuary; and b) that the matter be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

As Thailand did not reply to the proposal his majesty the king Norodom Sihanouk decided to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice for adjudication.

Commenting on Cambodia’s decision to take the case to the ICJ, the leading Bangkok newspaper Siam Rath editorialized as follows: “If Cambodia has taken this matter to the ICJ, we cannot prevent her from doing so. It is her right to do it. She is in her right because the ICJ is an organ of the United Nations having the mission of peacefully settling differences between its members.… As for the Thai government, faced with this correct attitude on the part of the Cambodian government, it should accept it in a friendly spirit and with the honesty worthy of a member of the United Nations.”

On June 15th 1962, the judgment of the ICJ was announced. By nine votes in favor and three against, it held that Preah Vihear was under the sovereignty of Cambodia. The ICJ urged Thailand to immediately withdraw any military, police and any other guards or keepers from the site.

Thailand was disappointed by the ICJ’s judgment. It withdrew its Ambassador from France and its delegations from the SEATO Council and the Geneva Conference on Laos, in protest to what it felt was the “uncooperative behavior of some of its SEATO allies”, members also of the ICJ, and which had voted for Cambodia.

The Thai Foreign Minister at the time, Mr Thanat Khoman, rejected the ICJ ruling on behalf of the Thai government and wrote to U Thant, the UN Secretary General, expressing his government’s reservations but providing no new legal argument which would back up the Thai government’s reservations.

(thanks L.C)

reference

Official Biographer of HM the King Father
Samdech Preah Upayuvareach Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia;
Research Fellow, Monash University’s Asia Institute

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thai Lost convincingly In 1962
[The key evidences that dismantle Thailand in 1962]

ICJ Report 1962, 22. (emphasis added).

The Court found that this was exactly what Thailand (and Cambodia) had done; for instance, as the Court pointed out, the following facts supported that Thailand adopted the Maps: ;

- Siam's official wide circulation of the Map,
- Siam asked France for more copies of the map,(50 copies )
- The silence of the Siamese members of the Mixed Commission, who saw the map
- The silence of the then governor Khukhan province (now Si Saket), who saw the Map.

The Parties thus accepted the map and the line on it. The Court held ";the acceptance of the Annex I map by the parties caused the map to enter the treaty settlement [1904] and to become an integral part of it [the 1904 Treaty]" .

(thanks L.C)
reference
( ICJ Reports 1962)