Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on April 18 voiced pleasure at the good
relations between Cambodian and Thai governments, armies and people,
amid the ongoing oral arguments at the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) over the disputed land around the Preah Vihear temple.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony for a new office building in Kampot
province, the PM valued the fact that people living along the two
countries’ border conduct their daily activities and welcome the
traditional New Year in peace, while regular official exchanges are
still maintained across the border.
Cambodia and
Thailand need to peacefully solve the current dispute by legal method
at the ICJ, and not to turn small problems into the border-wide
disputes, he said.
Earlier on April 15, The Hague-based
ICJ began a week of hearings, after Cambodia asked two years ago for
an interpretation of the 1962 ruling awarding the 900-year-old Khmer
temple to Cambodia.
Thailand does not dispute
Cambodia’s ownership of the temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site. But
both sides claim an enveloping 4.6-square-kilometre patch of land,
saying it was not covered by the ruling.-VNA