Today marks historical event for Cambodia while the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague of Holand interpreted the verdict of the Preah Vihear issue of June 15, 1962 again as this temple is belong to Cambodia, not Thailand. On this November 11, 2013, the court affirmed its stand again. Cambodian people from all strata including the politicians are happily cheering to this judgement. The most cheering politicians are Prime Minister, adviser(s) to Premier and the spokesperson of the government (listened from RFI and VOA).
For online group debate such as CAN and Campro, the members shared different aspects on the judgement. Reading the original document of the judgement, the court declared the Temple belongs to Cambodia while the document doesn’t elaborate or clarify the contested surrounding area or vicinity of 4.6 km square land parcel. The court termed “promontory” or means “a narrow area of high land that sticks out into the sea” in its written judgement. For Cambodia, the mentioned 4.6 km square is not mentioned in its legal contesting at all. Cambodia has never said or termed such 4.6 km square; Cambodia has seriously referred legal contesting to the Map or the Annex 1 Map, according to Phay Siphan, the spokesperson on Hello VOA today. After the court released its judgement, the editor of ThaiPBS Sermsuk says Thailand has lost 1-2 sq km around temple NOT 4.6 sq km (link).
The interpretation conundrum might rest within a sloppy trail as individual Cambodian and Thai will have their say and their vocal opinion.
However, the adjudication of the court has already been impregnably uncontested. When all parties discussed on those long standing legal and technical aspects in front of the judge(s), the conclusion to this final decision has already covered all those filing documents and arguments. This interpretation is different from the judgement on the June 15, 1962 as the addendum of documents and arguments have already been warrant from all concerned and contested parties. So the judgement in this time adjudicated all legal compositions and ascended into mission-fulfilled legal attainment. The temple, the surrounding, the vicinity or the promontory etc., all belong to Cambodia.