Cambodia, Thailand take temple dispute to top UN court

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.