Preah Vihear dispute

Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand)
Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand)
Court	International Court of Justice
Decided	15 June 1962
Case history
Subsequent action(s)	Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand) (Cambodia v. Thailand)
Case opinions
	The Temple is situated on Cambodian territory; Thailand is under an obligation to withdraw any military or police force stationed there and to restore to Cambodia any objects removed from the ruins since 1954.

The Preah Vihear dispute was a territorial dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over the Preah Vihear Temple located in disputed area between Preah Vihear Province of Cambodia and Sisaket Province of Thailand which Thai authority stationed troops there since 1954. Cambodia complained to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1959, and it judged in 1962 that the temple is situated in Cambodian territory.

History[]

The dispute arose from the different maps each party used in national delimitation. France, who was the protector of Cambodia at the time, agreed with Siam in Franco-Siamese boundary treaty of 1904. The Mixed Commission was set up in 1905, and it was to carry out delimitation between Siam and Cambodia. Cambodia used the map published by French geographers in 1907 (called "Annex I map") which showed the Temple in Cambodian territory. While Thailand used the provisions of the treaty of 1904 which reads:

"The frontier between Siam and Cambodia starts, on the left shore of the Great Lake, from the mouth of the river Stung Roluos, it follows the parallel from that point easterly direction until it meets the river Prek Kompong Tiam, then, turning northwards, it merges with the meridian from that meeting-point as far as the Pnom Dang Rek mountain chain. From there it follows the watershed between the basins of Nam Sen and the Mekong, on the one hand, and the Nam Moun, on the other hand, and joins the Pnom Padang chain the crest of which it follows eastwards as far as the Mekong. Upstream from that point, the Mekong remains the frontier of the Kingdom of Siam, in accordance with Article 1 of the Treaty of 3 October 1893."

This would deem the temple as being located within Thai territory.

ICJ's judgement[]

The ICJ judged on 15 June 1962 that Annex I map did not bind both parties because it was not the work of the Mixed Commission per the treaty. However, both parties adopted the map and the demarcation line in it, therefore had a binding character. The Siamese government did not disagree or object to the map, hence Thailand was bound by it, according to the legal principle "Qui tacet consentire videtur si loqui debuisset ac potuisset." ICJ ruled by nine to three that the Temple was located in Cambodian territory and Thailand was obliged to withdraw all stationed troops there, and by seven to five, that Thailand restore to Cambodia any objects removed from the ruins since 1954.

Upset, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat strongly declared that Thailand must, in the future, reclaim the Castle. The verdict itself however was obeyed, and Thai forces removed the flag from Preah Vehar accordingly. Nevertheless, the removal process involved keeping the flag atop the pole, and the pole itself uprooted upright and carried all the way down in that manner, citing "the pride of having ruled the land for only so long".

Reemergences of dispute[]

Even though the court settled the territorial issue, the political conflict continues. After Cambodia applied the temple to be recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, this led to a new round of armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, with the latter perceiving the event as Cambodia gaining the disputed land around the temple. Cambodia requested a reinterpretation of the 1962 ICJ judgement in 2011, regarding the definition of the "vicinity" in the previous judgement. The ICJ ruled on 11 November 2013 that the 1962 judgement awarded all of the Preah Vihear promontory to Cambodia, and ordering the withdrawal of Thai soldiers.

References[]

Missling, Sven. A Legal View of the Case of the Temple Preah Vihear In: World Heritage Angkor and Beyond: Circumstances and Implications of UNESCO Listings in Cambodia [online]. Göttingen: Göttingen University Press, 2011 (generated 23 May 2020). Available on the Internet: <http://books.openedition.org/gup/307>. ISBN 9782821875432.

External links[]

Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand), ICJ overview of the case.
Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand) (Cambodia v. Thailand), another ICJ case.