Thailand to give final verbal statements on Preah Vihear-related case

THE HAGUE, April 19 (TNA) - Thailand’s legal team will deliver the second and final round of verbal statements on a contentious area surrounding the Preah Vihear Temple along the common border with neighbouring Cambodia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Friday evening (Thailand's time) and the World Court is expected to issue its final verdict on the case over the next six months. Veerachai Palasai, chief of the Thai legal team and also Thai Ambassador to the Netherlands, told journalists that his team is not worried over charges given to the court by Cambodia’s legal team on Thursday because they were made within earlier expectations. Veerachai said that Thailand's legal experts have already allocated works which will be presented before the ICJ during Friday’s session. Veerachai acknowledged that the Thai side remains unclear what Cambodia's legal experts said in French before the World Court on Thursday's session concerning the number of maps, whether there was only one or more than one maps. According to the top Thai envoy in The Hague, what Cambodia has asked the ICJ to reinterpret its 1962 ruling which awarded the Preah Vihear Temple to Cambodia should become a “legal norm” due to the complexity and several related issues of the case, which have never happened before. The ICJ ruled in 1962 that the ancient Preah Vihear Temple belongs to Cambodia, but its surrounding land has remained in dispute. Cambodia then asked the ICJ in 2011 to reinterpret its 1962 verdict, whether the 4.6-square kilometre-scrub belongs to Cambodia or Thailand. The top Thai envoy in The Hague noted that the ongoing interpretation of the ICJ verdict concerning the Preah Vihear Temple is not about the boundary line, but rather on the sovereignty above the ancient Hindu temple; so, what Cambodia is trying to say that the sovereignty and the boundary line are inseparable is “not true”. Meanwhile, the general situation in Si Sa Ket province in the Thai Northeast bordering Cambodia remained calm Friday morning, when local villagers continued their normal life, but they have kept monitoring developments at the World Court closely. (TNA)