Cambodia to build concrete wall at complicated border areas with Thailand

Mathaba

Posted: 2008/08/24
From: MNN

Cambodian government planned to build concrete walls at complicated border areas with Thailand, a Cambodian official said here on Sunday.

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Both sides should start to discuss to plant border markers from undisputed border areas to the complicated border areas and some complicated border areas will be built with border markers or concrete walls, Khieu Kanharith, Information Minister and government spokesman, told reporters at a press conference.

Cambodian government will allow private companies to invest at least two million U.S. dollars at the Preah Vihear Temple to set up cable cars for tourists, he said, adding that the government is also trying to build road accessing to the temple.

The Preah Vihear border gate to Thailand will be open when the situation there is stable, he said, adding that foreign tourists could visit the temple from the Cambodian side.

Cambodia and Thailand share a border of over 800 km with only 73 demarcation markers.

Previously, during the meeting on Aug. 18-19, Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers agreed to arrange a second-phase troop redeployment at the disputed border area near the Preah Vihear Temple in the eponymous province of Cambodia.

Both sides will convene a meeting between Head of the Cambodian Temporary Coordinating Task Force and Head of the Thai Regional Border Committee on Aug. 29 in Cambodia to discuss the second-phase of redeployment.

The two foreign ministers also agreed to recommend to their governments that the next meeting of legal experts and the Thai-Cambodian JBC be convened in early Oct. 2008 to discuss the issues related to the survey and demarcation of the relevant sectors under the term of reference and master plan of JBC.

On July 15, Thai troops went into the border area to fetch three trespassers who had intended to claim Thai sovereignty over the Preah Vihear Temple. However, the troops stationed there ever since, thus triggering the military standoff and propelling both sides' military personnel to grow over a thousand in the border areas.

During the time, Thai troops respectively entered the Keo SikhaKiri Svara Pagoda, which is constructed on the only way leading to the Preah Vihear Temple, as well as the Tamone Toch and Tamone Thom temples in neighboring Otdar Meanchey province of Cambodia.

On Aug. 16, most of the troops at the Keo Sikha Kiri Svara Pagoda and within the surrounding area of the Preah Vihear Temple were evacuated according to both sides' agreement.

The Preah Vihear Temple straddles the Cambodian-Thai border atop the Dangrek Mountain and was listed as a World Heritage Site on July 7 by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice decided that the 11-century temple and the land around belong to Cambodia, which rankled the Thais and has led to continuous disputes.