MINISTER SAYS ICJ HAS NO AUTHORITY TO RULE
June 5, 2011
Source: Bangkok Post
SINGAPORE : Thailand is set to defy any order by the International Court of Justice to withdraw troops from the border area disputed with Cambodia.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said yesterday that the ICJ had "no authority" to issue such an order and Thailand would not comply should one be issued.
The minister's comments come as the ICJ deliberates Cambodia's requests for a reinterpretation of the court's 1962 ruling which favoured Cambodia, and to order Thailand to withdraw troops and cease all military activity near Preah Vihear temple, situated inside the 4.6 square kilometre disputed area.
The UN's highest court is expected to rule on troop withdrawal early next month.
"Thailand will respect the ICJ's decision, but the body has no authority to order Thai troops to retreat. Thai soldiers won't step back from our territory," Gen Prawit said on the sidelines of the three-day Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore.
The dialogue is an inter-governmental security forum held every year by London's International Institute for Strategic Studies and assisted by the Singaporean Defence Ministry. It is considered the most important security forum in the Asia-Pacific region.
Gen Prawit said Thailand would only withdraw forces from the disputed area if the ICJ orders Cambodia to do likewise.
The defence minister's stance was backed by acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn, who also attended the security forum.
"The ICJ has no authority to force Thailand to withdraw troops," Mr Panitan said.
If the court demands Thai troops leave the area and Thailand refuses to comply, Mr Panitan said he believes Cambodia would take the case to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The UNSC is responsible for enforcing ICJ orders when a subject country refuses to comply with them.
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said upon returning on Thursday from a two-day ICJ oral hearing in the Hague that the court has no enforcement power, but as a good UN member country, Thailand would comply with its decision.
Mr Kasit also said earlier that if the ICJ ordered Thailand to withdraw troops, it should order Cambodia to do the same.
The Thai-Cambodian border row has been raised at the high-profile Asian defence forum, attended by top security officials from almost 30 nations, including the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and China.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in his keynote address on Friday that the region had high hopes for an imminent resolution.
"With Thailand and Cambodia currently at the Hague, our region knows only too well how deadly such clashes can be," Mr Najib said.
"Of course, difficulties between neighbours will flare up from time to time but, in our region, significant progress has in fact been made in settling some of these disputes over the years."
Mr Najib said he hoped that all border disputes could be resolved in the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation.
Indonesian Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told the Bangkok Post that domestic political problems in Thailand and Cambodia were partly to blame for the slow progress in resolving the conflict.
Gen Prawit said the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting was the best mechanism to resolve the spat.
However, prospects of a GBC meeting, originally scheduled for this month, look rather dim as Thailand and Cambodia failed to agree on the deployment of an Indonesian observation team.
The two sides agreed at the Asean foreign ministers' meeting in Jakarta to accept Indonesian observers to monitor the ceasefire at the border on Feb 22, but the deployment was delayed because Thailand demanded Cambodian soldiers and residents be withdrawn from the disputed area first.
No comments:
Post a Comment