Marty stated Indonesia put a clear timeline in each of the proposed clusters with the hope that every steps taken by both sides will be going in motion.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has proposed a new approach for the solution of the Thai-Cambodian border conflict, Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said here Monday.

Speaking to the press after hosting a trilateral meeting with his counterpart from Camdodia, Hor Namhong, and from Thailand, Kasit Piromya, Marty said the three-hour meeting itself was a follow up to a meeting between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva last Sunday (May 8) on the sidelines of the 18th ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Center.

"We call the new idea the Package Solution where we no longer ask one country to do one step and then the other country will follow by doing the next step. Instead, we will identify a number of steps or measures that need to be done and put them in little clusters and propose them to both Thailand and Cambodia," the minister said.

He said Indonesia had proposed that both countries take synergic steps at the same time without having to discuss again about who`s doing what first. The minister took as example Thailand may submit formal diplomatic note containing agreement over the Terms of Reference (TOR) about the deployment of Indonesian observers to the border area. At the same time, both countries may announce that they will start the General Border Committee (GBC) and the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) soon and consider relocating their troops from along the border area.

Marty stated Indonesia put a clear timeline in each of the proposed clusters with the hope that every steps taken by both sides will be going in motion. Asked about why the Monday meeting took a long time, Marty said it was because during the meeting he and the two ministers discussed each proposed cluster word by word.

"Now Minister Kasit Piromya and Minister Hor Namhong will come back to their country and report about Indonesia`s proposal to their prime ministers. We expect to hear news about the follow up of the proposal soon," said the minister adding that the afternoon discussion went interactive and fruitful accompanied with tea and cookies.

Last Sunday on a press conference on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vijjajiva stressed the need of the two countries to discuss the TOR`s details and the conditions of the Thai government had tabled for the government of Cambodia.

"So, we have agreed that our foreign ministers will stay one more day in Jakarta so that they would be able to discuss the way how to integrate bilateral peace process with or without the facilitation of Indonesia, and the dispatch of the monitoring team to the area to prevent conflict," he said.

According to Abhisit, in his meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen which was facilitated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his capacity of the ASEAN chair, the two sides still have a number of differences.

He said that the dispatch of the border monitoring team from Indonesia, and the location of military posts and forces as part of the border settlement process still has to be discussed in one package.

The Thai foreign minister said that what they were doing was not for gaining points in political term. "The ultimate objective is to achieve a lasting peace so that the peoples of the two countries can co-exist peacefully along the Thai-Cambodian border," he said.

Cambodia and Thailand had a border conflict just a week after Cambodia`s Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

The conflict erupted after Thailand laid claim to 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of shrubs next to the temple. The exchange of artillery fire that ensued killed and wounded many soldiers and civilians on both sides, and caused tens of thousands of the two countries` villagers nearby the disputed area to flee to safe shelters.

Since the past years Indonesia and other ASEAN member states have tried to support both Thailand and Cambodia in solving their border problem through peaceful negotiations.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011