France offers old maps to help resolve Thai-Cambodia spat

via CAAI

Feb 9, 2011

PARIS - FRANCE offered on Wednesday to help resolve a festering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia by providing maps it made at the start of the last century when it ruled Indo-China.

French officials made the maps in preparation for the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907, which delimited the area over which the two countries are squabbling.

Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters that Paris was happy to provide the documents 'to any country that asks us to consult them or to make a copy of these documents'. At least eight people have been killed in four days of cross-border violence between Thailand and Cambodia around the ancient temple of Preah Vihear, which forced thousands of families to flee on both sides of the frontier. -- AFP