Monday, 5 July 2010

PM Abhisit: Moving Thai-Cambodian provisional demarcation won’t affect Thai territory


via Khmer NZ News Media

BANGKOK, July 4 - In an attempt to dispel worries among the public that Thailand might lose some areas along the disputed border with neighbouring Cambodia, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Sunday that the ongoing moving of the provisional demarcation markers would not affect Thailand’s boundary area.

Mr Abhisit confirmed that border demarcation must be made after supervision based on negotiations and the Thai government must submit results of the negotiations for debate in Parliament. So far, Parliament has not approved discussions between the two countries and until now only verifications of the global positioning system (GPS) have been conducted, Mr Abhisit said, noting that none would involve losing Thai territory

Army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda will conduct additional investigation, he added. It is impossible that the [Thai] military would give away certain territory to another party, he said, noting that a survey must be made to eliminate the dispute.

Clashes between the military of the two countries occurred sporadically along the poorly-defined boundary including the area near the ancient Preah Vihear temple in July 2008. UNESCO endorsed the nearly one thousand year old Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site in August 2008 as proposed by the Khmer government.The International Court of Justice awarded it to Cambodia in 1962. (MCOT online news)

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