March 1, 2011
By Michael Vatikiotis
MacArthur Foundation
A landmark agreement among ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Jakarta on 22nd February to send a small team of up to forty Indonesian civilian and military observers to a disputed area along the Thai Cambodian border has not only helped prevent continued fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces, but also potentially given a boost to ASEAN’s long term capacity to manage internal conflict.
Limited as the observer mission’s terms of reference will be, few observers imagined such an outcome possible just a few weeks earlier when military forces clashed over a 4 square kilometer piece of land surrounding a Hindu temple that straddles the border. Cambodia called for UN intervention and took the issue to the United Nations Security Council, whilst Thailand insisted that the dispute could be settled bilaterally and rejected ASEAN’s overtures of help.
Indonesia as ASEAN Chair took the lead in pressing the case for ASEAN assistance to help resolve the dispute. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa mobilized swiftly, travelling to Phnom Penh and Bangkok as fighting continued along the border in early February. He also accompanied the foreign ministers of both countries at a UN Security Council Meeting convened on the dispute in mid-February.
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