Thailand and Cambodia took their dispute over land around a flashpoint temple to the UN’s highest court today, in a case Phnom Penh warned could end friendly relations between the countries.
The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun a week of hearings after Cambodia asked two years ago for an interpretation of the 1962 ruling on the ancient Preah Vihear temple.
Thailand does not dispute Cambodia’s ownership of the temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has seen deadly clashes along their joint border. But both sides claim an adjacent 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) patch of land.
Without an interpretation of a 1962 ICJ ruling, “relations with Thailand cannot be friendly and cooperative in the future,” Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Hor Namhong told the court.
Ahead of Cambodia’s opening statement today, Hor Namhong told reporters his country “felt threatened” by troop incursions from Thailand. “We expect the court to interpret the 1962 ruling which said that the temple of Preah Vihear is on Cambodian soil,” he said, speaking in French.
“According to the ruling the surrounding area also belongs to Cambodia,” Hor Namhong said. A verdict from the ICJ, which judges disputes between states, is not expected for several months. 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 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 the 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 ahead of the hearings.
Thailand says that arguments over the land bordering the temple stem 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 is broadcasting the hearing live on its state-run television channel, with a translation in Thai.