Thai Team At The I C J Confident

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Thai team at the ICJ confident
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
The Hague



Land dispute hearing begins today with Cambodian arguments; legal counsel 'satisfied' with Thai case

THE HAGUE: -- Thailand's legal team is confident that it has a good case and strong evidence to present at the four-day hearing in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case involving the dispute with Cambodia over land near Preah Vihear Temple, which opens today.

After a preparatory meeting with the legal counsel, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said the team has confidence in the evidence and in the support provided by the Thai government for the court battle.

"We can handle and pinpoint all necessary issues and arguments to be raised by Cambodia in the court," Surapong told reporters after the meeting.

Surapong and Defence Minister Sukampol Suwannathat are among the 48-member Thai delegation that will attend the hearing. Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana, who is a legal expert, will also attend today's court hearing.


Click HERE for large image

Sukampol said Thailand's team of legal advisers was satisfied with information provided by the military and the Royal Thai Survey Department. The evidence was sufficient to support the Thai case, he said.

Professor Alain Pellet, one of Thailand's legal counsels in the case, expressed his appreciation for the support provided by the government and the Foreign Ministry, which he said gave the team solid ground on which to handle any challenges from Cambodia.

The Cambodian delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, who is agent for his country, will address the court today. They are expected to ask the court to clarify the status of the land in the vicinity of the ancient Hindu temple.

The ICJ ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear Temple is situated on territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia and ordered Thailand to withdraw troops from the temple and its vicinity. In complying with the judgement, Thailand in 1962 relinquished several square kilometres of land on which the temple is situated.

Phnom Penh submitted a request on April 28, 2011 that the 1962 judgement be interpreted, after border skirmishes erupted. It asked the court to define the status of land in Preah Vihear Temple's vicinity in accordance with the boundary line indicated on a French-made map of 1:200,000 scale.

The Thai Ambassador to The Hague, Virachai Plasai, is the agent for Thailand. He will lead the team in giving oral testimony to the court on Wednesday.

Cambodia's main argument is based on the boundary line as defined on the French map, which enabled the court in 1962 to find that sovereignty over the temple and its vicinity rested with Cambodia.

Thailand's main argument is that Thai troops withdrew from the area deemed to be under the sovereignty of Cambodia 50 years ago. The court has no authority to interpret the boundary line as it is not the subject of the operative clause of the judgement, according to Thailand.

Virachai said Cambodia is trying to have the court rule on the boundary line, which he said was beyond the scope of the original judgement. "The two countries had no disagreement about the 1962 judgement over the past 50 years until recently, when Cambodia changed its position [on the area adjacent to Preah Vihear]," Virachai told reporters.

Cambodia, indeed, asked the ICJ to rule on the boundary line 50 years ago but the court rejected the request, he said. The request for interpretation this time could be regarded as an appeal to the court on the issue, but the time for appeals in the case is long over, he said.


-- The Nation 2013-04-15

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Govt 'fully prepared' as world court opens Preah Vihear case
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will stay in Chiang Mai to closely monitor testimonies being presented before the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the ThaiCambodian border dispute. She has also urged Thais to follow the court session with calm.

Yingluck said yesterday that she would monitor the testimony from 3pm today, when the Cambodian representatives will deliver their oral argument before the ICJ. The Thai side is due to deliver its argument to the court on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in Chiang Mai's Doi Saket district, Yingluck said the government was fully prepared to defend Thai territory near Preah Vihear Temple.

Phnom Penh has asked the ICJ to interpret whether its 1962 ruling that Cambodia has sovereignty over the temple also covers the 4.5-square-kilometre plot of land around it. The Thai side insists the plot belongs to Thailand and was not covered by the earlier ruling.

A well-informed source said Yingluck would remain at her hotel in Chiang Mai to monitor the court session, although war rooms have been set up at Government House and the Foreign Ministry in Bangkok to monitor the testimonies.

The government had a team in place to monitor the testimony being presented in The Hague.

The prime minister said the Foreign Ministry had prepared interpreters to translate the testimony into Thai during a live broadcast via the Foreign Ministry's website.

She said the Thai side would do its best to defend the Thai territory, "So I would like to call on the people to monitor the testimonies with calmness."

She said the ICJ was expected to deliver a ruling late this year.

Meanwhile, Democrat and opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday he wanted the government to give every effort in fighting the case without passing the blame to anyone.

He said there was no reason for the ICJ to reinterpret the old ruling.


-- The Nation 2013-04-15

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Cambodia, Thailand take temple dispute to top UN court

by Charles ONIANS

THE HAGUE, April 15, 2013 (AFP) - Thailand and Cambodia are to face off at the UN's highest court Monday in a dispute over land surrounding a flashpoint temple that has seen deadly clashes along their joint border.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague is to hold a week of hearings after Phnom Penh asked two years ago for an interpretation of a 1962 ruling on the Preah Vihear temple.

Thailand does not dispute Cambodia's ownership of the temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site. But both sides claim an adjacent 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) patch of land.

A verdict is not expected before September.

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 reportedly 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 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, said in a recent press briefing.

He said arguments over the land bordering the temple stemmed 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 plans to broadcast the hearing live on its state-run television channel, with a translation in Thai.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong is leading a delegation to the hearing, with three foreign lawyers advising the country, according to ministry spokesman Koy Kuong.

"We have already prepared.... What we want is justice. We do not want anything from the other side and we do not want to lose what we own legally," he told AFP.

Tensions between the two nations have calmed since mid-2011 when Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, became Thai prime minister.

Her brother is a friend of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The powerful head of the Thai military, General Prayut Chan-O-Cha said in February that his country would not necessarily respect an ICJ ruling.

"The government will decide if it respects it," he told journalists.

If the government's response is negative, "we will have to take a decision on what to do next, but not by using aggression; we are civilised countries," he said.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-04-15

[Thai at Heart]

The powerful head of the Thai military, General Prayut Chan-O-Cha said in February that his country would not necessarily respect an ICJ ruling.

"The government will decide if it respects it," he told journalists.

If the government's response is negative, "we will have to take a decision on what to do next, but not by using aggression; we are civilised countries," he said.

Oh great.....

[Dap]

The powerful head of the Thai military, General Prayut Chan-O-Cha said in February that his country would not necessarily respect an ICJ ruling.

"The government will decide if it respects it," he told journalists.

If the government's response is negative, "we will have to take a decision on what to do next, but not by using aggression; we are civilised countries," he said.

Oh great.....

Oh yeah, past skirmishes were declared "civilized" by the families of the dead and relocated.

[Credo]

I really don't have a horse in this race and have no idea to whom the land should be awarded, but I am wondering why it has been argued that the IJC doesn't have jurisdiction over the matter. If they had jurisdiction over deciding the ownership of the temple, why wouldn't they have the power over the adjoining land.

The original judgment was based on a map. It was not a judgment based on some historical or other factors.

[pacharaphet]

Thailand is not an official member of ICJ, right? I think that's why they talk like "If we win, yay Hague, if we lose, forget the Hague!"

[whybother]

I really don't have a horse in this race and have no idea to whom the land should be awarded, but I am wondering why it has been argued that the IJC doesn't have jurisdiction over the matter. If they had jurisdiction over deciding the ownership of the temple, why wouldn't they have the power over the adjoining land.

The original judgment was based on a map. It was not a judgment based on some historical or other factors.

One reason why Thailand will win this case is that Cambodia didn't originally ask about the adjoining land, so the court can't actually rule on who owns it. That doesn't mean Thailand will get ownership of it, just that it will stay in dispute.

Sent from my Phone.