Read this subject in Khmer.
Cambodia threatened on Monday to ban imports from Thai fruits and vegetables within 24 hours while a border dispute deepened after the bilateral talks on weekends were not infiltrated on the neighbors of Southeast Asia.
Sunday, Cambodia officially asked the International Court of Justice, or the CIJ, to resolve complaints in four areas of the disputed border of 800 kilometers (500 miles). Thailand reiterated on Monday that it rejects the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court.
Developments have underlined prolonged tensions on a territorial ship that arouses nationalist passions on both sides. The Thai forces shot a Cambodian soldier on May 28 after declaring that the Cambodian forces dug a trench on the Thai side of the border.
The two governments had talks in Phnom Penh on Saturday and Sunday under the aegis of a joint border committee. Another series of discussions has been scheduled for September.
The Thai Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it “expressed a deep disappointment concerning Cambodia’s continuous refusal to fight bilateral disputes” in the four border areas on which Cambodia wishes the ICJ to decide.
Thailand, which welcomes hundreds of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers, has annoyed Cambodia by imposing restrictions at opening hours on border passages since the border confrontation last month. Cambodia responded by closing a crossing point, cutting Thai Internet services and stopping Thai film and television shows.
In Parliament on Monday, former Prime Minister Hun Sen increased the bet, saying that the Thai army had 24 hours to reopen the border from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. or that Cambodia would close all the crossing points through Tuesday to prevent Thailand from exporting vegetables and fruits.
Hun Sen, who is president of the Senate, said that the current border conflict would not be easily resolved. He called on Cambodian students and workers to return from Thailand.
Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered Cambodian authorities to facilitate the return of workers to Cambodia and transport them to their native cities.
The border dispute has historical roots and the two parts differ on the maps to be used in the delimiting territory. The last time, there was a serious and bloody push in tensions, it was between 2008 and 2011, on a disputed temple of the 11th century in Preah Vihear. The CIJ has granted sovereignty over the temple in Cambodia.
Cambodia now calls the tribunal based in The Hague to reign over the border demarcation in four other places: three former Khmer temples – Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch and Ta Krabei – and in an area near the place where the shooting of May 28 occurred where the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet.
Thailand reiterated on Monday that it does not want the court to intervene.
“Thailand is of the opinion that the use of a third party may not always be conducive to the preservation of friendly relations between states, in particular in sensitive matters involving complex historical, territorial or political dimensions,” he said in response to the CIJ of Cambodia.
Edited by Mat Pennington.