Thai activist group to install flag on disputed land

BANGKOK, April 17 (TNA) - A group of Thai activists will attempt to mount a Thai national flag at the disputed 4.6 square kilometre borderland near Preah Vihear temple as Thailand’s legal team at the world court begin giving its first oral statements on Wednesday. At the Kantharalak border district in Si Sa Ket province on the Thai side, activists have arrived in small numbers, while being monitored by Thai security forces. Since the beginning of this month, the Thai side set up barbed wire fences and other road obstacles on roads leading to Preah Vihear temple, an ancient Hindu site which was awarded to Cambodia in a world court ruling in 1962. Cambodian legal experts said on Monday an interpretation of the 1962 ruling would end conflict and bloodshed in the disputed borderland, but Thailand had insisted the World Court was not permitted to do so. (TNA)