Temple dispute thaw could see observers’ role changed [-Thailand tries to renege the border agreement?]

Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Tehran, Iran August 30, 2012

The terms of reference (TOR) for an Indonesian observer team to be sent to the disputed area adjacent to the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear might need to be modified to fit the situation, said Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul yesterday.

Surapong discussed the matter with his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa in Tehran on the sideline of the Non-Aligned Movement summit.

He told Marty of recent developments in the situation at the border near the temple where both Thailand and Cambodia redeployed their troops on July 18, a year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s injunction.

“The redeployment, as agreed by Thailand and Cambodia, was a process of the troop withdrawal in accordance with the ICJ’s order,” Surapong told reporters.

The joint working group of Thailand and Cambodia agreed also to clear landmines in the disputed area near the temple before the troop withdrawal, he said.

Thailand and Cambodia have long been at loggerheads over the Preah Vihear. The latest dispute erupted as Thailand blocked Cambodia’s move to list the temple as a World Heritage site in 2008, resulting in a series of military skirmishes there last year.

Cambodia asked the ICJ to interpret the scope and meaning of the 1962 ruling to create a clear understanding of territory boundaries near the temple.

It also asked the court to grant provisional measures to demilitarise the area while waiting for the judgment.

The court ordered on July 18 last year that both sides pull their troops out of the court-determined demilitarised zone of 17.3 square kilometers near the temple, to refrain from any military activities and to continue cooperation with Asean to have an Indonesian observer team monitor the troop withdrawal.

Jakarta submitted the TOR outlining the proposed role of its observer team last year. Cambodia has already agreed to the TOR but the Thai military was reluctant to accept it and has sat on any decision since then.

Surapong told Marty that some words in the TOR might need to be adjusted or modified to make it more relevant to the current situation.

“The court ordered a troop withdrawal and presence of observers when we were in military tension with Cambodia — but now such tension is over and the two governments, as well as the military of both sides, are on good terms,” he said.

“As the joint working group of Thailand and Cambodia agreed to clear the landmines first, we might need to put this response into the TOR for the observers,” he said.

Surapong said Marty understood the situation and the Indonesian minister told him that as the observer, Indonesia was glad to see the dispute between Asean members could be contained within the family.

Asked if the TOR would be submitted to Parliament for reading in accordance with the constitution, Surapong said the military would make a decision on the matter.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has already given her instruction to the military to seek proper ways of complying with the ICJ’s injunction, he said.