SOUTHEAST ASIA
Thailand, Cambodia to discuss disputed site
PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Cambodia and Thailand will begin talks today on resolving a lingering dispute over territory near a World Heritage Site temple, where more than 4,000 troops from the two sides have been deployed.
Cambodia’s mission at the United Nations has submitted a letter to the chairman of the Security Council and the chairman of the General Assembly to “draw their attention to the current situation on the Cambodian- Thai border,” Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Sunday.
“Cambodia is not asking for U. N. intervention. We still stick to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s instructions to try to solve the problem peacefully between the two sides,” the minister said.
The conflict over territory surrounding the Hindu temple escalated earlier this month when UNESCO approved Cambodia’s application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site. Thai activists say the new status undermines Thailand’s claim to the compound of a nearby Buddhist pagoda.
In his letter Friday to the Security Council, Sea Kosal, Cambodia’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the action by Thai troops was aimed at creating “a de facto overlapping area that legally does not exist on Cambodian soil.”
Opposing commanders and their troops have tried to defuse tensions , sharing meals, snapping photographs and sleeping within easy sight of each other.
“Some of these soldiers [the Cambodians and the Thais] have known one another a long time and they have good relationships,” Col. Chayan Huaysoongnern, the Thai field commander, told reporters.
