Partial victory at the ICJ
The International Court of Justice yesterday unanimously declared that its 1962 judgment awarding the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia also gave the Kingdom sovereignty over the promontory that the temple sits on.
But while the announcement was initially greeted as a resounding victory by some in Cambodia, the world court took pains to specify that the 1962 decision dealt with only a “small area” surrounding the temple.
The decision leaves unanswered the question of sovereignty over the remainder of the 4.6-square-kilometre area forming the heart of the long-running dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. …
Speaking live on CTN after the judgment, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said the judgment, while not perfect, was adequate. …
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra addressed that point following the verdict.
“Thailand will enter negotiations with Cambodia to put an end to the issue,” she said in a nationally televised press conference, the Bangkok Post reported.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, meanwhile, called on the armed forces and citizens alike to avoid creating tension with Thailand in a televised address last night. …
Yesterday’s verdict coincided with mass anti-government protests in Bangkok against a political amnesty bill that critics say will allow former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return to the country from self-exile and escape a jail term.
Many feared that an ICJ decision going firmly against Thailand – a hot-button issue for a myriad of powerful nationalist groups – could add momentum to a popular movement that could bring down the government, and risk further fighting with Cambodia.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said yesterday that the verdict had taken some fuel out of the anti-government protests, as well as defusing tensions at the border. …
The court concluded yesterday that in 1962, the ICJ did not mean to define “the vicinity” of the temple as extending beyond the promontory of Preah Vihear nor seek to address the sovereignty of any area “beyond the limits of the promontory”.
This promontory, according to the court, extends to the west and northwest of the temple, towards the Thai border, where it drops into a slope and then into a valley that separates it from the neighbouring hill of Phnom Trap.
In the north, the limit of the promontory is the Annex I map line, the court said. …
Many now hope that the ICJ verdict will allow Cambodia and Thailand to end the longstanding dispute, and allow those living on the border to feel safe again. …
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/partial-victory-icj
