Reneging an agreement signed by Thailand in 1907? ... Dream on

Preah Vihear and the old map we should never have agreed to

July 23, 2011
By Nophakhun Limsamarnphun
The Nation

The International Court of Justice issued an order last Monday for both Thailand and Cambodia to withdraw their military from a disputed border area covering a total of 17.3 square kilometres.

The demilitarised zone consists of 8.5 sq km of Thai territory and 8.8 sq km of Cambodian territory.

This includes a Thai portion of 4.6 sq km next to the Phra Viharn/Preah Vihear temple which was earlier listed unilaterally by Cambodia as a World Heritage Site.

Back in 1962, the court ruled that the ancient Hindu temple belonged to Cambodia, but it stopped short of making any ruling on border demarcation, which went beyond its authority.

Due to the legacy of colonial rule in Indochina, border demarcation has been a highly sensitive issue between Thailand and Cambodia ever since the 1962 ruling.

To date, there has been no mutually acceptable demarcation along the border between the two countries.

In 1994, Thailand and Cambodia attempted to start the process of proper demarcation and both countries entered into a memorandum of understanding in a bid to resolve the issue.

However, Dr Sompong Sujaritkul, a former Thai lawyer who was involved in the Thai-Cambodian border case nearly 50 years ago, recently cautioned that the 1994 MoU contains several dangerous points for Thailand.

First, the 1994 MoU uses a map with a scale of 1 to 200,000 originally and unilaterally created by France during its time as colonial power in Indochina in the 19th century.

This map was a distortion as it encroached on Thai territory in defiance of the 1907 treaty signed by France and Thailand.

Please click here to read more...