SINGAPORE, July 22 (Xinhua) — Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will help member states Thailand and Cambodia end the tense border dispute over an ancient temple, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said on Tuesday.

    Surin said that foreign ministers will look into the real situation in the border area. ASEAN has urged Thailand and Cambodia to exercise utmost restraint and resolve peacefully their border dispute.

    "We urged both sides to exercise utmost restraint and resolve this issue amicably, in the spirit of ASEAN solidarity and good neighborliness," Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo said in a statement issued after the grouping’s ministerial meeting informal working dinner on Sunday night.

    Meanwhile, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has requested ASEAN Chair Singapore to form a regional inter-ministerial group to help end the border dispute.

    The ASEAN foreign ministers are holding their annual meeting in Singapore this week.

    Thailand and Cambodia are locked in a military stand-off over the 11th century Preah Vihear temple. The dispute over territory near Preah Vihear temple escalated earlier this month when UNESCO approved Cambodia’s application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site.

    "What we need is for Cambodia and Thailand to really exercise their utmost restraint … to prevent any outbreak of open conflict," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters.

    ASEAN’s members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

    PHNOM PENH, July 21 (Xinhua) — The Cambodian side Monday turned down the Thai side’s request to review the border lines, during the meeting of the General Border Committee (GBC) between both countries held in Thai province of Sa Kaew, said a senior Cambodian official.

    "We had good negotiation with the Thai side. We agreed with each other on one point and another, but the Cambodian side didn’t agree the Thai side’s request to review the border lines with us. We already had border lines with the Thai side according to the treaties signed by France and Thailand in 1904 and 1907. It was international border," said Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Tea Banh at a press conference held at the Poit Pet town of Cambodia near the border upon his arrival at homeland.

    "This was the hottest issue (during the meeting), but we just couldn’t accept it," said Tea Banh, who led the Cambodian delegation to Thailand for the eight-hour top-level meeting originally meant to solve the seven-day bilateral military standoff at the border area.

    Meanwhile, Var Kim Hong, chairman of the Cambodian Border Committee and member of the Cambodian delegation to Thailand, said that the Thai side insisted on saying that both sides didn’t have border lines on land and only had border lines in air.

    "We couldn’t accept it because France and Thailand signed border treaties in 1904 and 1907. Actually, we already had border lines and they were stipulated in these international treaties," he added.

    France was protectorate of Cambodia from 1863 to 1953.

    In addition, Tea Banh told reporters at the press conference that the meeting didn’t reach any resolution to withdraw the Thai troops stationed near the Preah Vihear Temple, but the major achievement was the promise made by both sides not to allow any violence and confrontation at the border area near the temple.

    "Both troops won’t mobilize and have to keep calm," he was quoted by national radio VOA as saying.

    The two countries will have more meetings, but the date is not clear yet, the radio added.

    Right after the meeting was over in Thailand, the Cambodian delegation held a joint press conference with the Thai side, saying that they could understand each other and the talks were held in friendly atmosphere, but nothing resulted.

    It included complicated legal matters, so the delegations could not make any decision, they said.

    Anyway, there will be no any violence and confrontation at the border area in order to guarantee a peaceful environment, especially for the ongoing Cambodian general election, whose polling date falls on July 27, they added.

    Before the negotiation, both prime minister had exchanged letters, saying that the two countries should make utmost effort to prevent the border situation from deteriorating, so as to preserve long-lasting friendship and good cooperation between the two peoples.

    Last 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 face-off with Cambodian soldiers there. Bilateral military build-up occurred day by day. Currently, the troops there are widely estimated at thousands.

    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.

    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.

    by Xinhua Writer Ling Shuo

    Khao Preah Vihear, Sri Sa Ket Province, Thailand, July 24 (Xinhua) — The Thai-Cambodian border dispute on the controversial area around the Preah Vihear Temple, an 11th-century-built Hindu temple which was historically claimed sovereignty by both countries, is now puzzling the outside, though it is never a new issue between the two countries.

    On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council, at the request of Cambodia, will discuss the dispute between Thailand and Cambodia in its emergency session. However, the Thai government also has sent a letter to the UN, expressing the wish to discuss and solve the problem in a bilateral way.

    With the soldiers of both countries now engaged in a stand-off at the border around the Preah Vihear mountain, is the situation dangerous to the extent of an "imminent state of war" as claimed by Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong?

    "I don’t think a war could happen, since we believe both the countries could solve the problem in a peaceful way," Apichart Bunsak, a Thai army captain based in the disputed area, told Xinhua outside a camp.

    Now, fearing possible military confrontation, the Cambodia authority has closed the temple, which the International Court of Justice in 1962 ruled to belong to Cambodia. While the Thai military men has sealed off the area below the temple, which is the only practical access to the temple since the Cambodian side of the temple is a cliff.

    Reports said there are an estimated 2,000 troops, from each side, stationed at the border around the temple, about 500 kilometers north-east of Bangkok. But according to some Thai local media reports, rumors now circulating among Cambodians by cellphone short SMS messages said that up to 10,000 Thai soldiers have gathered, patrolling and beefing up security along the Thai-Cambodian border. Local newspaper also showed some pictures of heavy weapons which have been dispatched to border by the Thai army.

    A Thai military official who asking not to be named dismissed the rumors about the number of Thai soldiers along the border. He said Thai army only sent several hundreds of soldiers there, while the Cambodia has a total of several thousands soldiers along the border.

    However, a Cambodia military officer told Xinhua that the Thai soldiers’ number now based in the disputed area is more than that of Cambodia.

    Anyway, in the disputed area, no signal of intensity was found on Thursday, though armed force of both sides were stationed there and heavy weapons such as rocket launchers were also seen from both side. They sometimes smiled or chat with each other despite different languages.

    Gen. Jiradaj Kotcharat, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, who is during a visit to the disputed area on Thursday, said the number of soldiers is not a main issue since both sides have already promised not to use force to solve the border dispute during Monday’s special meeting of the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC), though the meeting failed to reach any breakthrough except for the oral no-force promises. Therefore, both the countries have to maintain the force along the border, waiting for future assignments.

    The dispute over Preah Vihear flared up again earlier this month after Cambodia applied the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for listing the temple compound, without the disputed 4.6 square kilometers around it, as a World Heritage Site. The application was approved on July 7, despite Thai opposition.

    Thailand has suggested Cambodia apply for listing the temple and some surrounding establishments as a World Heritage Site under the names of both countries, but Cambodia was awarded the honor on its own as the UNESCO based its judgment on the ruling of the International Court.

    Shortly after that, three Thais, including a Buddhist monk, were briefly detained by Cambodian soldiers after surreptitiously crossing into the disputed border area on July 15. The trio were released the same day but refused to leave the disputed area adjoining the temple complex.

    During Monday’s border meeting, both countries cited legislation and legal technicalities as main obstacles in reaching any agreement on the issue. But local analysts said they need more time as both the governments are now at a sensitive time as Cambodia is having a general election on Sunday, and Thailand’s coalition government is preparing a reshuffle if not an step-down under pressure.

    After the newly-fixed governments of both sides are born, more talks are expected to be held between them. Then, the military stand-off could be eased.

    But another possibility is that the Cambodia government could pass the issue to the International Court again as it did 46 years ago. As to it, Thailand’s Supreme Commander Boonsang Niampradit on Wednesday called on Thai leaders to consider that scenario carefully.

    He said the Thai leaders should be extra careful about this as there were lessons learned in the past. But he hinted that Thailand has the right to decide whether to go to the court.

    Moreover, Thai ambassador to the UN Don Pramudwinai said earlier that the government would wait and make its new plan to solve the issue after the decision of the 15-member-meeting of Security Council on Thursday.