Thailand, Cambodia agree to Indonesian observers at

22 Feb, 2011
By Olivia Rondonuwu
(Reuters)

JAKARTA - Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Tuesday to allow civilian and unarmed military observers from Indonesia to be posted along their border, where bloody clashes over territory surrounding a centuries-old temple erupted anew earlier this month, killing at least 11 people.

The agreement, brokered by a meeting of Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, is a breakthrough for the 10-member group long derided as a talking shop.

The move will likely go a long way towards stopping the fighting as, without independent verification, each side has blamed the other for starting the sporadic but frequently bloody clashes.

"This is just a fix but ASEAN will paint this as a success, and it is a success," said Michael Montesano, a research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

"In achieving this, they have taken a step towards a very different ASEAN. The outside world will beparticularly pleased that ASEAN has the ability to keep its house in order."

Although full details were not immediately available, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said each team would consist of up to 20 military and civilian members charged with observing a cease-fire agreed by both sides.

He said the teams would depart in a matter of weeks, if not days.

"It's quite a unique regiment in the sense that Indonesian observers will be on both sides of the boundaries, on the Thai side as well as on the Cambodian side," Natalegawa told reporters after meeting ASEAN counterparts.

An international court awarded the temple to Cambodia 49 years ago but both countries lay claim to a 4.6 sq km (1.8 sq mile) patch of land near it.

They have been locked in a standoff since July 2008, when Preah Vihear was granted UNESCO World Heritage status, which Thailand opposed on grounds that the land around the temple had never been demarcated.

The crisis is an important test for ASEAN, which is aiming to build an EU-style community by 2015 but is riven by a host of territorial and other disputes.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Cambodia initially asked the U.N. Security Council to deploy peacekeepers at the border and it has also asked for ASEAN observers. Thailand has called for a bilateral solution but said it welcomed ASEAN's "support.

The Preah Vihear temple, known as Khao Phra Viharn in Thailand, sits on a wedge of land on an escarpment that forms a natural border overlooking northern Cambodia.

The International Court of Justice in 1962 awarded the temple to Cambodia, which uses a century-old French map as the basis for its territorial claims, but the ruling failed to determine ownership of the scrub next to it.

(Writing by David Fox; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)