As the process of Heritage-listing began, Cambodia announced its intention to apply for World Heritage inscription by UNESCO. Thailand protested that it should be a joint-effort and UNESCO deferred debate at its 2007 meeting.
Following this, both Cambodia and Thailand were in full agreement that Preah Vihear Temple had “Outstanding Universal Value” and should be inscribed on the World Heritage List as soon as possible. The two nations agreed that Cambodia should propose the site for formal inscription on the World Heritage List at the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee in 2008 with the active support of Thailand. This led to a redrawing of the map of the area for proposed inscription, leaving only the temple and its immediate environs.
However, Thailand’s political opposition launched an attack on this revised plan (see Modern History and Ownership Dispute), claiming the inclusion of Preah Vihear could nevertheless “consume” the overlapping disputed area near the temple. In response to the political pressure at home, the Thai government withdrew its formal support for the listing of Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site.
Cambodia continued with the application for World Heritage status and, despite official Thai protests, on July 7, 2008, Preah Vihear Temple was inscribed on the list of World Heritage sites.
The renewed national boundary dispute since 2008 has been a reminder that despite the World Heritage ideals of conservation for all humanity, operating a World Heritage site often requires use of national authority at odds with the local cultures and natural diversity of the landscape. Prior to the listing, Cambodia considered Preah Vihear to be part of a Protected Landscape (IUCN category V), defined as “Nationally significant natural and semi-natural landscapes which must be maintained to provide opportunities for recreation.” However, Category V is generally defined as “Land, with coast and seas as appropriate, where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant aesthetic, cultural and/or ecological value, and often with high biological diversity. Safeguarding the integrity of this traditional interaction is vital to the protection, maintenance and evolution of such an area.”
During the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s seizure of Suvarnabhumi Airport, future Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya reportedly called Cambodian Prime Minister in a 2008 television interview “crazy” and a “nak leng” (commonly translated as “gangster”).
Temple structures in 2003
In 1994, Thailand held a World Heritage proposal conference in Srisaket in which local cultural traditions were considered along with monuments such as Preah Vihear that stimulate more nationalistic sentiments. The use of passes in the Dongrak Mountains reportedly tied together cultural communities and practices divided by a militarized (and imperfectly demarcated) modern border line. A Mon-Khmer ethnic minority, the Kui or Suay (the ethnonyms have multiple spellings), used the passes to hunt and capture elephants in the forests below the Dongrak cliff edge, including the Kulen area which is now a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary. Kui in Cambodia were skilled ironsmiths using ore from Phnom Dek.
While elephant hunting in the vicinity of Preah Vihear was touched upon in the International Court of Justice proceedings, the World Heritage plans overlook local culture and species protection to facilitate national revenues from tourism. One international law professor has urged that practicality calls for laying aside exclusive sovereignty in favor of an “international peace park. A scholarly article concurs in concluding: “Since Thailand and Cambodia have brought only blood and bitterness to this place, it might be desirable to preserve it from both. It could be given back to nature and the indigenous peoples, to be managed cooperatively between the two governments in equal partnership with local communities, as a transborder Protected Landscape-Anthropological Reserve (IUCN category V and old category VII).”[16] Given the massing troops in 2008, perhaps such a transborder reserve would create not only a demilitarized buffer zone in which any future demarcation can be amicably undertaken, but a recognition of the added ecological and cultural aspects of an area which both Cambodia and Thailand may still save from the destructive and exploitative impacts of rapid development so often suffered in other ASEAN countries.
Disputes over ownership since 2008
Main article: Cambodian–Thai border dispute
The ongoing conflict between Cambodia and Thailand over land adjoining the site has led to periodic outbreaks of violence.
A military clash occurred in October 2008. In April 2009, 66 stones at the temple allegedly were damaged by Thai soldiers firing across the border.[18] In February 2010, the Cambodian government filed a formal letter of complaint with Google Maps for depicting the natural watershed as the international border instead of the line shown on the 1907 French map used by the International Court of Justice in 1962.
In February 2011, when Thai officials were in Cambodia negotiating the dispute, Thai and Cambodian troops clashed, resulting in injuries and deaths on both sides. Artillery bombardment in the area occurred during the conflict. The Cambodian government has claimed that damage occurred to the temple. However, a UNESCO mission to the site to determine the extent of the damage indicates that the destruction is a result of both Cambodian and Thai gunfire.
Since February 4, both sides have used artillery against each other, and both blame the other for starting the violence. On February 5, Cambodia had formally complained in a letter to the U.N. “The recent Thai military actions violate the 1991 Paris Peace Accord, U.N. Charter and a 1962 judgment from the International Court of Justice”, the letter claims. On February 6, the Cambodian government claimed that the temple had been damaged. Cambodia’s military commander said: “A wing of our Preah Vihear temple has collapsed as a direct result of the Thai artillery bombardment”. However, Thai sources spoke only of minor damage, claiming that Cambodian soldiers had fired from within the temple.
ASEAN, to which both states belong, has offered to mediate over the issue. However, Thailand has insisted that bilateral discussions could better solve the issue. On February 5, the rightwing People’s Alliance for Democracy called for the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for “failing to defend the nation’s sovereignty”.
An UNESCO World Heritage convention held in Paris in June 2011 determined to accept Cambodia’s management proposal for the temple. As a consequence, Thailand withdrew from the event, with the Thai representative explaining, “We withdraw to say we do not accept any decision from this meeting.
Following a February 2011 request from Cambodia for Thai military forces to be ordered out of the area, judges of the International Court of Justice by a vote of 11–5 ordered that both countries immediately withdraw their military forces, and further imposed restrictions on their police forces. The court said its ruling would not prejudice any final ruling on the where the border in the area between Thailand and Cambodia should fall. It could take the court many months or even years to reach that decision. Abhisit Vejjajiva (caretaker Prime Minister since the just-concluded Thai general election, 2011) said that Thai soldiers will not pull out from the disputed area until the military of both countries agree on the mutual withdrawal. depends on the two sides to come together and talk,” he said, suggesting that an existing joint border committee would be the appropriate place to plan a coordinated pullback.
