Temple ruling shocks Thailand International Court awards ancient temple to Cambodia

The International Court of Justice confirmed Cambodia’s ownership of the ancient temple site of Khao Phra Viharn. Judges rejected Thailand’s claim that the ruins were within its territory by a nine-to-three majority. Cambodia had declared that Thailand was obligated to withdraw the forces it had stationed, since 1954, at the ruins.

The court said Thailand had accepted, by default, a map of the Dangrek mountain range showing the temple on Cambodian land. The map was part of the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907, which created the modern border. Thailand objected that French cartographers mapped the border without collaborating with Thai cartographers, contravening the 1907 treaty. But the court stated, ‘Since there was no reaction on the part of the Siamese authorities, either then or for many years, they must be held to have acquiesced. If the Siamese authorities had accepted the map without investigation, they could not now plead any effort vitiating the reality of their consent.’

A 1935 survey showed that other French and British maps placed the temple on Thai territory. But Thailand had also continued to use and to publish, maps showing Phra Viharn as Cambodia’s. In addition, during negotiations for the 1925 and 1937 Franco-Siamese treaties, which confirmed the existing frontiers, as well as in 1947 before the Franco-Siamese conciliation commission in Washington, Thailand could have raised the matter. ‘She did not do so,’ the judgment said.