Thai FM satisfied with lawyer team's performance at ICJ

June 3, 2011
Source: Xinhua

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Thursday that he was very satisfied with Thai lawyer team and agent presenting before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding Cambodia's request for interpretation of 1962 ruling and provisional measure.

"We have been preparing ourselves for almost two years in a very thorough manner and every move, every argument has been argued over among the Thai side and we were able, I think in short, to explain, to rebuttal all the points raised by the Cambodian side with substance rational and with evidences.

"In that sense, I am satisfied, yes, definitely I am very satisfied," said the foreign minister who just returned from Hague.

He also reaffirmed that he was confident in the judges as well as the Court that the agency would hand down an impartial verdict.

"Their reputation has to do much with their intelligence, knowledge and rationality," Kasit noted.

Thai and Cambodian delegates had spent two days from May 30 to 31 in Hague, Netherlands to elaborate at the World Court as Phnom Penh submitted a petition for interpretation of the judgment rendered by the Court on June 15, 1962 in the case concerning the ancient temple of Preah Vihear on April 28, 2011.

The petition was accompanied by an urgent request for the indication of provisional measures in which Cambodia demanded Thailand to immediately and unconditionally withdraw troops from area surrounding the ruins.

According to the foreign minister, the Court's decision on provisional measure which includes immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Thai troops from the disputed area is likely to be delivered by the end of June or early July.

He said a judge from Brazil asked additional information on affected people along the border and so both countries were supposed to submit original reports by June 7 in order that each country could make comments on those reports and return them to the Court by June 14.

Although the Court decided in 1962 to award the Hindu temple to Cambodia, both countries have laid claims over the 4.6 square- kilometer plot of land surrounding.

Border tension flared up as Phnom Penh inscribed the ancient temple on the World Heritage List in 2008, triggering military build-up and sporadic clashes. In the latest border-fighting during April 22 to May 3, some score of soldiers were killed and about 100,000 residents on both sides of border were forced to evacuate.