Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Sunday that he agrees with his Thai counterpart Samak Sundaravej that both countries should make utmost effort to prevent the border situation from deteriorating in order to preserve long-lasting friendship and good cooperation between the two peoples.
"We will closely collaborate to find interim measures to defuse the current tension," he said in the letter to Samak which was made available to reporters later Sunday.
Cambodian Buddhist monks walk past a soldier standing guard at the Cekakiri Svarak pagoda in the compound of the Preah Vihear temple, 245km (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, July 20, 2008. Hun Sen first wrote a letter to Samak on July 18 to ask him to withdraw hundreds of Thai troops, which stationed near the Preah Vihear Temple in Cambodia's eponymous province in a serious military standoff with Cambodian troops, also hundreds in total number.
Samak wrote back on July 19 and Hun Sen wrote him again on Sunday (July 20). Both sides agreed to hold top-level meeting in Thailand on July 21 to find a solution for the military stalemate arising from their dispute about the true possession of the border area near the temple.
"In this context, I have instructed Tea Banh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense, to lead a Cambodian delegation to a special session of the Cambodian-Thai General Border Committee (GBC), which will be held on Monday, July 21, 2008, in Sa Kaeo province of Thailand, to find an appropriate solution for the present problem," said Hun Sen.
"I have also instructed Var Kim Hong, chairman of the Cambodian-Thailand Joint Border Commission (JBC), to work with his Thai counterpart to convene a JBC meeting as soon as possible, in order to expedite completion of the demarcation work of the entire Thai-Cambodian border," he said.
In the letter, Hun Sen also outlined international documents that tells about the exact land and building ownership within the dispute area.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the 11-century classic Khmer-style Preah Vihear Temple, together with the land it occupies, to Cambodia. The decision has rankled the Thais ever since.
Earlier Tuesday, three Thai protesters trespassed the border to reclaim the temple, but were immediately arrested. Thai troops then came in to fetch them, thus triggering the face off with Cambodian soldiers there. Bilateral military build-up occurred day by day.
The temple straddles the Thai-Cambodian border atop the Dangrek Mountain and was listed as a World Heritage Site on July 7 by the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.
Source:Xinhua
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