Thai legal team satisfied with statement to ICJ

THE HAGUE, April 18 (TNA) - Thailand’s legal team is satisfied with the country's statement given to the International Court of Justice or ICJ in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Wednesday during a testimony on a contentious area surrounding the ancient Preah Vihear temple along the Thai-Cambodian border. Veerachai Palasai, chief of the Thai legal team and also the Thai Ambassador to the Netherlands, expressed the satisfaction with Thailand's first-round verbal testimony given to the World Court, noting that the Thai legal team has done everything to its plan mapped out earlier. Veerachai acknowledged that he is also satisfied with his clarification on the Thai map during Wednesday's presentation, as he has carefully studied about the map for about three years, prior to the judicial fighting against Cambodia's charges filed with the ICJ. The top Thai envoy in The Hague told journalists that the Thai legal team will, however, listen to Cambodia's new-round testimony to the ICJ on Thursday, the second and final day. The Cambodian legal team is scheduled to deliver its final verbal statements concerning the unsettled 4.6-square kilometre-area surrounding the Preah Vihear Temple Thursday night (Thailand's time); while the Thai side will deliver its final statements on Friday. The ICJ is expected to then issue its ruling on the case by the end of this year. The World Court ruled in 1962 that the ancient Preah Vihear Temple belongs to neighbouring Cambodia, but the surrounding land has remained in dispute, prompting Phnom Penh to ask the ICJ in 2011 to reinterpret its 1962 judgement whether the contentious area belongs to Cambodia or Thailand. Meanwhile, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana, who is also attending the hearing at The Hague-based World Court, said he is not worried over a request by the ICJ that both Cambodia and Thailand submit their own statements on geographic coordinates of the Hindu temple to the court, as it is normal for the court to ask for exact geographic data under dispute. While the verbal battle has been continuing at the ICJ, the situation in Kantharalak District of Thailand's northeastern Si Sa Ket Province bordering Cambodia and near the Preah Vihear Temple generally remained normal on Thursday morning, when Cambodians crossed the common border to buy goods at a Thai market as usual. Thai villagers living in the border area also expressed their satisfaction with the Thai legal team's fighting Cambodian charges at the ICJ and they were optimist that Thailand would win the case. (TNA)