Indonesia proposes special group to facilitate temple dispute

Tony Hotland and Kornelius Purba , The Jakarta Post , Singapore | Tue, 07/22/2008 10:14 AM | World

Indonesia has proposed stepping in as a facilitator in the military standoff between Cambodia and Thailand over a 11th-century Hindu temple claimed by both nations.

ASEAN foreign ministers here for their annual meeting said late Monday that both nations, who have deployed military personnel to their shared border near the temple, have affirmed they would exercise restraint and resolve the issue amicably.

The ministers sought an explanation from their Thai and Cambodian counterparts, who were absent this year and represented by the deputy prime minister and a senior official.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said late Sunday urging for restraint was not sufficient in responding to the issue. He proposed a "contact group" comprising ASEAN members that are not directly related to the ongoing dispute.

"There was good reception to this idea when I conveyed it to the ministers, but Thailand said it was too early for such a mechanism. They said ASEAN should wait for the results from a meeting of Thai and Cambodian border committees Monday," he said.

Hassan provided no elaboration of how the proposed body would work, but nonetheless said ASEAN had a number of dispute settlement mechanisms in place to address such an issue.

He cited ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, the bloc's nonaggression agreement that discourages threats and movements that could raise tensions in Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, Hassan criticized Cambodia's move to file a report over the dispute to the UN, saying it had put the regional body -- often criticized as a talking shop -- in an uncomfortable position.

"With Vietnam currently the president of the UN Security Council and Indonesia a member of the Council, it would be odd that the UN was informed before ASEAN. It would be awkward for us. And if the Security Council picks up on the report, things could be worse," he said.

Cambodia said the filing was only a matter of informing the international body.

Cambodia and Thailand have claimed ownership of an 11th century Hindu temple, Preah Vihear, with both countries having deployed military personnel to guard a 4.6-square-kilometer plot of land adjoining the temple.

The temple was the cause of a border spat five decades ago that ended up at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1962. The court ruled the temple was Cambodian but did not rule anything regarding the borders.

The row was reignited by the World Heritage Committee's decision to list the temple as a Unesco site earlier this month despite Thai reservations.