Thailand reinventing the ICJ's1962 verdict

By Kouprey

'The 1962 court decision refrained from demarcating 4.6 square kilometers of disputed land around the temple, which has fueled the recent fighting.'[Source of quote].

This assertion is inaccurate. It is the present (and previous) Thai government's refusal to abide by the 1907 demarcation treaty between France and Siam, and not the ICJ, that has been the sole cause behind the dispute. All the Court did in 1962 was to invoke the existing Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 by ruling in Cambodia's favour and thereby forcing Thailand to end its armed occupation of the Temple. Yet, some ultra-Thai nationalists have been unable to come to terms with this verdict of the Court, and it is they who have reactivated this case since 2008 relating to the temple's surrounding by making contrived reference to the ICJ's perceived failure to legally define or sanctify the 1907 boundary.

As if this childish behaviour is not bad enough, Bangkok had the temerity to request that Cambodia's case be removed from the General List, arguing that both Thailand and Cambodia agree on the scope and meaning of the 1962 ruling! Well, if this is the case, why has Bangkok opposed the listing of the Temple as a World Heritage site? Why has it stationed troops within the Temple's vicinity that the Court ruled in 1962 as being under Cambodian sovereignty? And why would Cambodia feel the need to take Thailand to the ICJ again almost 50 years after the matter had been settled in 1962?