Thailand to defend contentious area around Preah Vihear Temple

BANGKOK, May 12 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra vowed Saturday that her government will fight for defending national sovereignty over a contentious area around the ancient Preah Vihear Temple with Cambodia. Yingluck told journalists, while helping a candidate running under the banner of her ruling Pheu Thai Party in an upcoming by-election in constituency 3 in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province, her hometown, that her administration earlier invited foreign legal experts, appointed by the previous government, to explain on latest developments over the unsettled area along the Thai-Cambodian border. Yingluck said, most importantly, the Thai government must follow what the legal experts advise, and that her government will do and fight under the laws in order to retain Thailand’s maximum benefit. Yingluck declined to disclose details how her administration will work to defend the unsettled area around the ancient Pheu Vihear Temple, insisting, however, that her government will work closely with the legal experts and recruit more legal experts in fighting off the border issue. Earlier this week, Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapa revealed that Thailand will submit a further written statement explaining on the contentious area along the Thai-Cambodian border to the Hague-based International Court of Justice next month, assessing that the World Court's trial on the case may be prolonged until next year. The ICJ ordered in July 2011 that both Thailand and Cambodia immediately withdraw their military personnel stationed in a provisional demilitarised zone and refrain from any military presence within that zone and also urged both Bangkok and Phnom Penh to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reach an agreement on allowing the 10-nation bloc's observers to enter the contentious zone. The World Court also ordered the two neighbouring countries to revive their stalled talks to resolve the unsettled border issue and report developments to the UN court until a final verdict on Cambodia's petition, filed in April 2012, for an interpretation of its 1962 ruling is handed. (TNA)