On Monday, the first day of the hearing, Cambodia told the court that
it has never accepted the unilateral delimitation of Preah Vihear's
vicinity made by the Thai cabinet in 1962 following the International
Court of Justice (ICJ)'s judgement.
Cambodia has on many occasions over the past 50 years expressed its disagreement with the Thai action. Phnom Penh suggested to the court that the 1962 judgement, which found that Preah Vihear was situated in territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia, is the consequence of the existing international boundary line. That boundary line is defined only by the Frenchmade 1:200,000 scale map.
The ICJ ruled in 1962 that the Hindu temple is under Cambodian sovereignty and ordered Thailand to withdraw troops from the temple and its vicinity.
To comply with the court judgement, the Thai cabinet in 1962 relinquished a quarter of a square kilometre for the land on which the temple sits and its immediate vicinity. Cambodia argues that this action went against the court's judgement. The temple vicinity from where Thailand must withdraw its troops should be in accordance with the boundary line shown on the map, Cambodia's counsel team told the court.
On Wednesday, Thailand will tell the 17 membercourt that Cambodia has defacto acknowledged the vicinity determined by Thailand since 1962. The noises of disagreement from Cambodian leaders over the past years were neither official nor serious, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Phongtep Thekanjana, who is also a legal expert.
"Cambodia said they have never accepted it but we will tell the court that they have already accepted it," he said, "They believe their reason is convincing; we also believe in ours," he said.
Foreign Ministry Deputy Permanent Secretary Nattavudh Photisaro said the Thai legal team held several rounds of meetings to analyse the Cambodian testimony and found it matched the Thai preparations for counter arguments.
The map would be a major topic and legal counsels and experts would explain its inaccuracy to the court, he said. Several copies of the map were produced and the map itself was inaccurate when translated to real terrain, he said.
Thailand's main argument is that the map was not the crucial part in the 1962 judgement. It was not mentioned in the operative clause of the judgement.
Cambodia argued earlier that the map, which was referred in the court as Annex I, was inseparable from the main judgement. The court should take the map into account when interpreting the 1962 judgement.
Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia gave weight to the map in its presentation to the court as it was fundamental to the 1962 judgement.
Cambodia has on many occasions over the past 50 years expressed its disagreement with the Thai action. Phnom Penh suggested to the court that the 1962 judgement, which found that Preah Vihear was situated in territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia, is the consequence of the existing international boundary line. That boundary line is defined only by the Frenchmade 1:200,000 scale map.
The ICJ ruled in 1962 that the Hindu temple is under Cambodian sovereignty and ordered Thailand to withdraw troops from the temple and its vicinity.
To comply with the court judgement, the Thai cabinet in 1962 relinquished a quarter of a square kilometre for the land on which the temple sits and its immediate vicinity. Cambodia argues that this action went against the court's judgement. The temple vicinity from where Thailand must withdraw its troops should be in accordance with the boundary line shown on the map, Cambodia's counsel team told the court.
On Wednesday, Thailand will tell the 17 membercourt that Cambodia has defacto acknowledged the vicinity determined by Thailand since 1962. The noises of disagreement from Cambodian leaders over the past years were neither official nor serious, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Phongtep Thekanjana, who is also a legal expert.
"Cambodia said they have never accepted it but we will tell the court that they have already accepted it," he said, "They believe their reason is convincing; we also believe in ours," he said.
Foreign Ministry Deputy Permanent Secretary Nattavudh Photisaro said the Thai legal team held several rounds of meetings to analyse the Cambodian testimony and found it matched the Thai preparations for counter arguments.
The map would be a major topic and legal counsels and experts would explain its inaccuracy to the court, he said. Several copies of the map were produced and the map itself was inaccurate when translated to real terrain, he said.
Thailand's main argument is that the map was not the crucial part in the 1962 judgement. It was not mentioned in the operative clause of the judgement.
Cambodia argued earlier that the map, which was referred in the court as Annex I, was inseparable from the main judgement. The court should take the map into account when interpreting the 1962 judgement.
Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia gave weight to the map in its presentation to the court as it was fundamental to the 1962 judgement.
1 comment:
This article should serve as a wake up call for the Hun Sen government who loves to bully and harass no foreigners except the Cambodian patriots. If you read up any history books, the authors also draw the distinctions between "nominal power" and "real power". During the dark ages of the dismemberments of the Cambodian territory, the predatory neighbors always used the same reasoning as follows: "Cambodians, the land used to be yours, now you can't defend it, so you only have the nominal power anyway." For example, while considering the Lan Xang Kingdom as a vassal state, the Angkor King did not enforced that kingdom's submission. As a result, that kingdom carved up some Khmer territory. Similarly, while the Mekong Delta Region was of the Khmer power, the Vietnamese only considered the Khmer power nominal and so they carved it up for themselves. The Siamese also did the same thing to other parts of the Khmer territory. Thus this means that as the owners of the remaining Khmer ancestral territory, we must be vocal in protesting and objecting anything illegal done to our legal territory. Hun Sen loves to be quiet when it comes to dealing with Vietnamese illegal signing of various documents ceding Khmer territory or islands to the Vietnamese. When any Cambodian patriots speak up against it, Hun Sen arrested them or killed them off. Hun Sen loves to say that he silence the critics of his policy because he thinks of the entire forest while his critics think only 1 single tree. Bullshit! Look at this article. The Thais claim that so what if they claim the 4.6 KM of the temple ground from Cambodia. The Thais say they can do so because Cambodians never protest anything against them anyway. Luckily for us, King Father Norodom Sihanouk did protest against the Thai actions numerous times in the UN, press conferences and radio addresses to the public. The Cambodians do not call the King as the Father of Independence for nothing. Looking back at Hun Sen, this dude has complained nothing to the bully neighbors. In fact, Hun Sen goes around saying that Cambodia has white zone border areas with all the neighbors. He even signed away Khmer ancestral islands to the Viets. The French did not even gave those to the Viets. He also signed away an island to Thailand. The Lao also build their highway inside Cambodian territory. Hun Sen must wake up now and be vocal against these predatory neighbors. Hun Sen needs to stop being noisy at the Khmer patriots for once.
Post a Comment