Preah Vihear

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong and 10 legal experts left Phnom Penh Interna-tional Airport on yesterday for the International Court of Justice in The Hague ahead of next week’s four-day hearings over the Preah Vihear territorial dispute.

“We hope that the ICJ will interpret [our complaint], because the court has paid strong attention to this issue,” Namhong told reporters at the airport before departure. “It is based on the law, and I will ask the court to take interest in key words written in its 1962 verdict.”

The ICJ awarded the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962, but the hearings, starting on April 15 and running until April 19, will focus on a disputed 4.6-square-kilometre patch in the vicinity of the ruin.

”We have French, British and American legal experts, and I will meet them in France,” Namhong said. “I am optimistic that we will see Thais stop claiming the land.”