No rush to talk with Thailand after ICJ's verdict: Cambodian spokesman

Xinhua | 2013-11-18  By Agencies

Cambodia has no hurry to start talks with Thailand over the implementation of the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case regarding the hotly-contested land around the 11th century Preah Vihear Temple, a government spokesman said Monday.

"Now, we are the winner. We slow down talks because we don't want Thai extremists and opposition politicians to use this issue to put pressure on the Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government," Information Minister and government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told reporters. "We do not rush on this issue because we won it already."

He said currently, Yingluck's government has two major challenges. One is a controversial amnesty bill, which has been strongly opposed by the nationalists and the opposition group and the other is a disputed border case near Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple.

"Therefore, we slow down the talks, we don't want her ( Yingluck) to have the same unfortunate fate as his brother (former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra)," he said.

Thaksin, a close friend of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, was deposed in bloodless coup in 2006 by a powerful group of Thai army. He has been living in Dubai to avoid a two-year jail term for violating a conflict-of-interest law.

The ICJ unanimously ruled last Monday that Cambodia has sovereignty over the whole territory of the promontory of Preah Vihear Temple, and in consequence, Thailand was under an obligation to withdraw from that territory the Thai military or police forces, or other guards, or keepers that were stationed there.

The Hague-based ICJ handed down the verdict in the bitter border row between the two countries over a 4.6 square-km disputed land near the temple after Cambodia filed a request in April 2011 for the interpretation of the court's ruling in 1962.

Soon after the announcement of the ICJ's verdict last Monday, Hun Sen expressed his satisfactions with the verdict and called on armed forces along the border to keep calm and exercise utmost restraint to avoid any activities that could lead to tension or clashes so that the governments of Cambodia and Thailand would be able to discuss the implementation of the verdict.

Preah Vihear, a Hindu temple, is located on the top of a 525- meter cliff in the Dangrek Mountains, about 500 km northwest of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

The ICJ awarded Cambodia the temple and its vicinity on June 15, 1962, but Thailand claimed the ownership of 4.6 square km of scrub next to the temple in 2008 when the UNESCO inscribed the temple on the World Heritage List. The temple had become a flashpoint of armed clashes between the two countries' troops since then.

Hun Sen said in June 2011 that the sporadic clashes left 24 Cambodian civilians and soldiers dead, forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes, and caused serious damages to the temple.

Tensions between the two nations have calmed since July 2011 when Yingluck took office.

Khieu Kanharith said the situation at the border near the temple is normal so far and the two countries' troops have cooperated with each other well.