ASEAN secretary general hopes Cambodia-Thai border dispute to peacefully end

via Khmer NZ

(philstar.com) Updated August 16, 2010

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - After a brief meeting with Cambodia's foreign minister on Monday, Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said he hoped a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand will "end peacefully".

Surin Pitsuwan made nearly an hour-meeting on Monday with Hor Namhong, Cambodia's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation and soon after the meeting he told reporters that he hoped the border dispute will "end peacefully."

Surin is leading a 30-member delegation of Muslim people to Cambodia for strengthening relations and to attend an ASEAN forum on disaster management, while at the same time, he takes the opportunities to meet with Cambodian leaders, according to Koy Kuong, spokesman of Foreign Ministry.

Koy Kuong said Surin will later in the day meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen before he will leave the country on Tuesday.

Surin arrived in Cambodia on Sunday.

Hor Namhong told reporters after the meeting with Sorin that Cambodia is committed to solve the border problem peacefully, but reserves its right to protect its own territory once invades by a foreign country.

The border conflict came just one week after Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple was registered as World Heritage Site in July 2008.

Last Saturday, Hor Namhong sent a letter to Pham Gia Khiem, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, who is the current chair of ASEAN to mediate Cambodia's border dispute with Thailand.

In his letter, Hor said "until now, Cambodia has exercised utmost restrain and attempted to find a peaceful solution to the problem bilaterally, but to no avail."

"As the current stalemate has extinguished any hope on further bilateral negotiations and in order to avoid any large scale armed conflict..., I earnestly seek Your Excellency's assistance, as chair of ASEAN, to mediate on the matter under the ASEAN framework ... ," Hor said.

The Cambodia-Thai border has never been fully demarcated, and Thailand continues to stake territorial claims of the 4.6 square kilometer area in the vicinity of the Temple of Preah Vihear.

Cambodia insisted the Temple of Preah Vihear is situated in territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia, citing the adjudication of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on June 15, 1962.

ASEAN groups 10 countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.