View PhotoAFP/Khem Sovannara -Cambodian
police officials are seen standing outside the Preah Vihear temple, on
July 18, 2012. Thailand and Cambodia are to face off at the UN's highest
court on Monday in a dispute
Thailand and Cambodia are to face off at the UN's
highest court Monday in a dispute over land surrounding a flashpoint
temple that has seen deadly clashes along their joint border.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is to hold a
week of hearings after Phnom Penh asked two years ago for an
interpretation of a 1962 ruling on the Preah Vihear temple.
Thailand does not dispute Cambodia's ownership of the temple, a
UNESCO World Heritage site. But both sides claim an adjacent
4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) patch of land.
A verdict is not expected before September.
In February 2011, 10 people were killed in fighting at the Preah
Vihear temple site and fresh clashes broke out farther west in April
2011, leaving 18 dead.
The ICJ subsequently ruled that both countries should withdraw forces
around the 900-year-old Khmer temple, which is perched on a clifftop in
Cambodia but with access much easier from the Thai side.
Access from the Cambodian side was so difficult in the 1970s that it
was reportedly the last place to fall to the Khmer Rouge regime, and
also the Communists' last holdout in the 1990s.
Cambodia and
Thailand finally pulled hundreds of soldiers out of the disputed border
area in July 2012, replacing them with police and security guards. The
situation remains calm.
"When all the statements are released, people can consider the
issues. We will fight the case transparently and with our best effort,"
Thailand's ambassador to The Hague, Virachai Plasai, said in a recent
press briefing.
He said arguments over the land bordering the temple stemmed from
Cambodian efforts to define rights over it as part of its application
for World Heritage status for the temple.
The roots of the dispute are however much earlier, dating to maps
drawn during French colonial disengagement in the early 20th century.
Thailand plans to broadcast the hearing live on its state-run television channel, with a translation in Thai.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong is leading a delegation to the
hearing, with three foreign lawyers advising the country, according to
ministry spokesman Koy Kuong.
"We have already prepared.... What we want is justice. We do not want
anything from the other side and we do not want to lose what we own
legally," he told AFP.
Tensions between the two nations have calmed since mid-2011 when
Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of exiled former premier Thaksin
Shinawatra, became Thai prime minister.
Her brother is a friend of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The powerful head of the Thai military, General Prayut Chan-O-Cha
said in February that his country would not necessarily respect an ICJ
ruling.
"The government will decide if it respects it," he told journalists.
If the government's response is negative, "we will have to take a
decision on what to do next, but not by using aggression; we are
civilised countries," he said.
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