PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet called yesterday for a “peaceful” resolution to a row with Thailand over a disputed Khmer temple in a sensitive border area.
Thailand said on Monday it had formally protested to Cambodia after a group of Cambodian women was filmed singing a nationalist song at the contested Prasat Ta Muen Thom – or Prasat Ta Moan Thom in Khmer – on the border of the two countries.
The clip shows Cambodian women in traditional dress singing “all Khmer people are happy to sacrifice their lives when the nation is at war and shedding blood”.
Thai soldiers guarding the temple then ushered the women away from the 11th-Century temple, which lies right on the border, to the Cambodian side.
Hun Manet called on both Cambodian and Thai troops yesterday to remain calm and allow the two countries to work to end the “historic issue peacefully”.
Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Monday he was “uncomfortable” with the incident and had sent a letter of protest.
“We are worried that history will repeat itself,” he told reporters.
This was an apparent reference to the bloody military clashes that erupted in 2008 between Thailand and Cambodia over the Preah Vihear temple, which lies some 150 kilometres east on the same stretch of border.
The row over a patch of land next to Preah Vihear led to several years of sporadic violence, resulting in at least 28 deaths before the International Court of Justice ruled the disputed area belonged to Cambodia.
Hun Manet told a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh that the dispute should be resolved peacefully but that Cambodia would protect its sovereignty.
“Cambodia wants to resolve it peacefully but Cambodia reserves the right to protect itself by whatever means – including through the use of armed force – if any country uses force to invade Cambodia,” Hun Manet said.
Prasat Ta Muen Thom was built by Jayavarman VII, king of the Khmer Empire that dominated the region from the 11th to 13th centuries.
