On 22 June 2012 Mr. Rachanant Thananant, Director General of the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs and Deputy Agent of the Kingdom of Thailand in the Phra Viharn Temple interpretation case, and Mr. Thani Thongphakdi, Director General of the Department of the Information and Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, jointly gave a press statement regarding developments in the case as follows:
1. On 21 June 2012 at 14.00 hrs., Mr. Virachai Plasai, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand in The Hague in his capacity as Agent of the Kingdom of Thailand in the Phra Viharn Temple interpretation case, submitted Thailand’s “Further Written Explanations” to the Registrar of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Mr. Philippe Couvreur.
The Further Written Explanations are the second written submission by Thailand to the ICJ in the case. Its purpose is to counter arguments put forth by Cambodia in its “Response” submitted to the Court earlier (8 March 2012). Moreover, Thailand’s Further Written Explanations reiterates Thailand’s legal arguments that have already been pleaded in its first written submission, Thailand’s “Written Observations”, which had been filed with the Court on 21 November 2011.
The Further Written Explanations comprises approximately 240 pages, and 53 documentary and map annexes which are contained in two volumes. The annexes are approximately 380 pages long. Gist of the Further Written Explanations is as follows:
1) Cambodia’s Request for interpretation is inadmissible as it is not a request for an interpretation, but amounts to an appeal to the Court to decide something it had refused to do in 1962, namely that the line on the map referred to by Cambodia as the “Annex I map” is the boundary line and that the legal status of the said map be determined by the Court;
2) the ICJ’s Judgment of 1962 in the Temple case, with which Thailand has fully complied in 1962, does not concern the boundary, but only concerns sovereignty over the Temple of Phra Viharn;
3) the limit of the vicinity of the Temple of Phra Viharn must follow the Thai Cabinet line dated 10 July 1962, which Cambodia has accepted ever since. The Cabinet line is not the boundary line, which is still subject to negotiation under the framework of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC); and
4) the Judgment of the ICJ did not give any legal status to the map referred to by Cambodia as the “Annex I map”. The Court simply relied on the map as one of the many reasons to only indicate that the Temple was under Cambodia’s sovereignty.
2. Thailand’s legal team to litigate the case comprises representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, the Royal Thai Army, the Royal Thai Survey Department, the Office of the Attorney General and the Council of State. This team has been working in close collaboration with Thailand’s team of advisors on international law in preparing Thailand’s Further Written Explanations in accordance with the approach approved by the Council of Ministers on 5 June 2012, the Committee Representing Thailand in the Case Concerning the Temple of Phra Viharn, the Special Committee for the Consideration of Conventions, and the Informal Committee of Legal Advisors established in accordance with the Prime Minister’s instruction.
3. The next procedural steps will be determined by the Court, and may include a public sitting which could take place in 2013. According to Rule 53(2) of the Rules of Court, Parties to the dispute cannot disclose information to the public until the opening of the oral proceedings, or after, unless the Court orders otherwise. Therefore, at this stage the content of Thailand’s Further Written Explanations cannot be disclosed.
4. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to reaffirm that Thailand’s legal team has done its best to litigate the case and to safeguard Thailand’s interests. The team would also like to thank the various agencies concerned for their assistance in the case which underlines their unity in safeguarding Thailand’s sovereignty.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th