Thai analysis: Body studying ICJ ruling faces tough task defining area by temple

[webfact]

NATION ANALYSIS
Body studying ICJ ruling faces tough task defining area by temple
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A working group set up to study the International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s ruling on disputed territory near Preah Vihear Temple faces an uphill battle to define the area, as the country has many experts claiming their maps show the area correctly.

This has meant the working group, chaired by the Foreign Ministry permanent secretary Sihasak Phuangketkeow, has yet to define the Preah Vihear Temple promontory so that officials and map experts can reach a consensus.

There are more than 20 map versions circulating in the media and among politicians, activists, academics and social networks, which claim to be in accordance with the ICJ judgement.

Some of these versions suggest that the area it covers is between 0.3 to 2 square kilometres.

One version also claims that the size of the area varies depending on how the government decides to relinquish its territory to Cambodia.

A villager in Si Sa Ket's Ban Phum Srol, located next to Preah Vihear, said he was happy with the court's judgement as Thailand would not lose a crucial part of its territory at Phnom Trap in the disputed 4.6 square kilometres.

However, a street vendor in Bang Bua Thong some 600 kilometres from Preah Vihear, said she believed, as the media has suggested, that Thailand has already lost more than 1,000 rai (160 hectares) of the hill surrounding Preah Vihear to Cambodia.

Unlike Cambodians, Thais are obsessed with losing territory as the elite claimed the Kingdom had lost large tracts of land to its neighbours over recent centuries.

The discourse of "Sia Din Daen" (territory lost) has haunted the nationalist elite for as long as anyone can remember, and will probably continue to do so for some time to come.

Preah Vihear, in particular, is a masterpiece of the Sai Din Daen discourse as Thailand fought with Cambodia over sovereignty of the temple during World War Two.

The majority of Thai people know that Thailand took Preah Vihear, together with other territories from Cambodia, during the war when it was part of French Indochina. It was supposed to be returned to Cambodia - along with Battambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon - after the Siam-France Treaty was signed in 1946, but this did not happen until the ICJ ruling in 1962.

However, since that time, Thailand's elite have continued to tell the public that the court ruled only on the ruins of the temple, and not the land on which the temple sits, saying nearby land still belonged to Thailand.

On November 11, the court ruled again Cambodia having sovereignty over "the whole territory of the promontory of Preah Vihear" and offered a definition of the promontory in accordance with Annex I map. However, as the court noted, it is difficult to transpose the Annex I map to a precise location on the ground.

The Annex I map is a modification of 1908 French map of 1:200,000 scale, which Cambodia presented in its application to the court more than 50 years ago. Cambodia used a simple technique to modify the 1:200,000 to a 1:50,000 scale, to ensure the location of Preah Vihear was clearly shown. The Annex I map did not offer coordinates to show the exact position of the area on the ground.

Therefore, the coordinates of those map versions - as shown by media outlets, academics and politicians in Thailand - do not represent real coordinates of those positions on the ground. Thai Ambassador to The Hague, Virachai Plasai, said this had created difficulties for the Thai legal team in their negotiations with Cambodia.


-- The Nation 2013-11-18

[Thai at Heart]

How about they use the exact map that the court told them to use?

[JoeThePoster]

as the country has many experts

A hub of experts, actually.

[casindonet]

And all the experts are ignorant to ICJ ruling...

[casindonet]

Only 1 map was used by ICJ & that is the Annex 1 map.....but the so call Thai experts manage to produced more than 20 different maps that suit them. How can the Cambodians take them seriously I wonder?

[bigbamboo]

How about they use the exact map that the court told them to use?

Might be easier if the UN just built a wall along the border with flashing karaoke bar lights on the top. All Thais recognize them.