Thailand, Cambodia still at odds after UN appeal
BANGKOK — Thailand and Cambodia both claimed vindication Tuesday after the UN appealed for a permanent ceasefire in their deadly border dispute, showing no sign of bridging differences over how to end the rift.
Thailand urged its neighbour to return to the table for bilateral talks to settle the row centred on a 900-year-old temple, which erupted into four days of clashes earlier this month, leaving at least 10 people dead.
"When the international community thinks the problem should be solved through negotiation, Cambodia has no reason to refuse. They should return to the talks," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
But Phnom Penh rejected the call, insisting on the need for third-party mediation.
"Bilateral negotiations do not work," said Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong, who described a UN Security Council meeting on the matter as "a success" for his country.
"Cambodia's stance is to resolve the dispute peacefully," he said, but "all negotiations must always have the participation of a third party."
He added: "What Cambodia wants is a permanent ceasefire. This is the most important issue."
The two sides are at odds over a border area surrounding the Preah Vihear temple, an 11th century clifftop ruin that belongs to Cambodia but whose designation as a World Heritage site touched off the ire of Thai nationalists.
The two Southeast Asian neighbours blame each other for the crisis.
In New York, UN Security Council members called for "maximum restraint" in the standoff, council president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil said after a closed-door meeting attended by the foreign ministers of the two countries as well as Indonesia, which has tried to mediate in the dispute.
"Members of the Security Council urge the parties to establish a permanent ceasefire and to implement it fully," she said.
Viotti said the council supported the Indonesian mediation efforts.
"The idea is to work in synergy with the regional efforts -- and right now regional efforts are in full force -- and resolve the situation peacefully and through effective dialogue," she said.
While Cambodia won support for its calls for outside mediation to help end the standoff, the council did not endorse its request to deploy UN peacekeepers into the contested area.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong accused Thailand of using internationally outlawed bombs and munitions in the conflict.
"We deny all of that and we did not shoot first. It was a response," his Thai counterpart Kasit Piromya said.
The Thai minister said there was no need for UN peacekeepers and the option had not been discussed in the Security Council session.
Kasit said he had not met his Cambodian counterpart one-on-one in New York, but there would be an opportunity to do so during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta on February 22.
"Obviously, this is a matter that will have to be resolved in final analysis bilaterally between the two sides but it does not mean there is not a space and a role for regional countries to play," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.
Kasit told Thai television that he had also proposed a meeting on February 27 of a joint commission set up previously with Cambodia to try to resolve the border dispute.
"We are ready to talk any day. It depends on Cambodia's decision," he said.
Thailand has laid the blame for the crisis on UNESCO's decision to declare the temple ruins a World Heritage site even though the land around it is disputed.
The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 1.8-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometre) surrounding area.
Spectacularly situated on top of a 1,722-foot (525-metre) cliff, the temple is considered the finest example of ancient Khmer architecture outside of Cambodia's Angkor Wat.
Cambodia said a week ago that a wing of the temple had collapsed due to Thai artillery shelling.
But an AFP photographer who visited the site following four days of cross-border shelling in the area said last week that no major structural damage was visible.
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