PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia said on Thursday it would press Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire at a regional gathering next week as both countries remained at odds over how to settle a deadly border row.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia would urge its neighbour to agree a peace deal during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta on Tuesday.
But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected the idea of ASEAN involvement in resolving the dispute, which erupted into armed clashes between the countries earlier this month.
Four days of heavy fighting near a 900-year-old border temple left at least 10 people dead and displaced thousands of families on both sides of the frontier.
"During the upcoming ASEAN meeting, Cambodia will request that a ceasefire agreement be signed between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers under the witness of ASEAN or the ASEAN chair," Hun Sen said at a press conference in the Cambodian capital.
He also confirmed that his country will call for ASEAN observers to come to the border area to help ensure a ceasefire holds.
The two sides are at odds over an area near the Preah Vihear temple, an 11th-century clifftop ruin that belongs to Cambodia but whose designation as a World Heritage site sparked the ire of Thai nationalists.
Both countries blame each other for the crisis.
Thailand has repeatedly said it wants to resolve the row bilaterally, rejecting Cambodian requests for third-party mediation.
"I do not think we have to talk about this during the ASEAN meeting because we are not the ones that started the fight," Abhisit said on Thursday when asked about a ceasefire deal.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday urged the two nations to establish a "permanent ceasefire" but did not endorse a Cambodian request to deploy UN peacekeepers in the contested area.
It did, however, express support for mediation efforts by Indonesia, the current chair of the 10-nation ASEAN group.
The World Court ruled in 1962 that the Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 1.8-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometre) surrounding area.
Hun Sen told reporters legal officials were currently preparing documents to bring the case back to the World Court to ask for a clarification concerning the disputed plot of land.
"We will return to the Court to have it resolved," Hun Sen said.
