By Xinhua,
Phnom Penh : Cambodia has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council to break a military standoff with neighboring Thailand over disputed frontier territory around the Preah Vihear Temple, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said here on Tuesday.
“We have asked the UN Security Council to have an urgent meeting to find a peaceful resolution for our border tension through our permanent ambassador to the UN,” Hor Namhong said at a briefing meeting with foreign diplomatic corps, ASEAN and EU representatives, about border tension between Cambodia and Thailand.
The UN could possibly have a meeting next Monday, he added.
Thai ambassador to Cambodia did not attend the meeting.
“We have asked the Thai side to withdraw their troops from Cambodian territory,” Hor Namhong told the meeting.
Thailand keeps in mind to take Cambodian land along the border according to their own map which they drew unilaterally, he said.
“We requested the Thai side to return to the status quo prior to July 15, 2008,” he added.
Earlier Monday, Hor Namhong asked Singapore, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to rally the foreign ministers of Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos, to find a way to help ease the tension at the Cambodian-Thai border.
Also Monday in Thailand, bilateral top-level talks failed to produce any consensus in regard with the military standoff near their border.
Last Tuesday, three Thai protesters trespassed the border to reclaim the temple, but were immediately arrested. Thai troops then came in to fetch them, thus triggering face-off with Cambodian soldiers there. Bilateral military build-up occurred dayby day. Currently, the troops there are widely estimated at thousands.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the 11-century classic Khmer-style Preah Vihear Temple, together with the land it occupies, to Cambodia. The decision has rankled the Thais ever since.
The temple straddles the Thai-Cambodian border atop the Dangrek Mountain and was listed as a World Heritage Site on July 7 by the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.