Indonesia has been holding the ASEAN leadership two months now, and the ongoing Cambodia-Thailand conflict is putting the nation`s leadership skills to the test. 

On February 22, 2011, ASEAN foreign ministers held an informal meeting in Jakarta to discuss the armed clash between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand. 

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) consists of ten countries - Brunei Darrusalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In the urgent meeting of ASEAN ministers, Indonesia, the current ASEAN Chair, was requested to send observers to monitor a ceasefire in the affected areas of both sides` border. 

In early February 2011, Cambodia and Thailand had traded heavy weapons fire in an area around the 900-year-old Hindu Preah Vihear Temple located in the disputed border area. 

The two neighbors maintained a heavy military presence on either side of the border in the clashes that killed at least three Thais and eight Cambodians and wounded dozens of troops and civilians on either side, according to transnational news agencies. 

Ties between the neighbors have been strained since the temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in July 2008.

The previous border disputes between the two ASEAN member states had erupted into violence in October 2008 and April 2009, as troops from both nations exchanged fire over ownership the ancient temple and the surrounding land.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear itself belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand and the 4.6-square-kilometer (1.8-square-mile) area around the temple is claimed by both sides.

Following the Feb. 4-7 clashes, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as the current chairman of ASEAN, decided to send Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa to Cambodia (On Feb. 7) and Thailand (on Feb. 8) to meet his counterparts.

"This year Indonesia as the chairman of ASEAN has a moral responsibility to become part of the solution (of the Cambodia-Thailand conflict)," President Yudhoyono said at his office in Jakarta on February 7.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has also taken on the issue as an urgent matter. 

The UNSC invited the ASEAN Chair alongside Cambodia and Thailand at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on February 14.

The UN Security Council president, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil, called in the meeting for a "permanent ceasefire", AFP reported. 

Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan in a press statement said the UNSC`s open and official support for conciliation efforts to the ASEAN Chair was a sign that the United Nations had faith in ASEAN to help its Member States find amicable regional solutions to bilateral problems. 

"In the spirit of the ASEAN Charter, calling for closer and more effective consultations on political and security matters, ASEAN is seeing its Chair personally engaged in offering good offices for the first time in its history," he said.

Both Cambodia and Thailand welcomed Minister Marty to help in their search for an amicable and peaceful solution to their differences, as ASEAN continued to strengthen its dispute settlement mechanism, in line with the ASEAN Charter, Dr. Surin added. 

Cambodia and Thailand reported to the informal meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Jakarta recently (Feb. 22) that they had mutually achieved an agreement to avoid further violence along their common border in the area of the Hindu Temple of Preah Vihear. They also pledged to resume their bilateral negotiations.

Their positive commitment towards peaceful settlement was endorsed by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers in the Jakarta Meeting. 

"ASEAN members welcome and support Cambodia`s and Thailand`s strong commitment to the principles contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and the ASEAN Charter about the settlement of dispute by peaceful means and renunciation of the threat or use of force," Marty said after the meeting. 

The ministers also expressed their appreciation to Indonesia for agreeing to send observers to the affected areas of both sides of the border as requested. 

Dr Surin Pitsuwan in his press statement said "The Meeting called upon Indonesia to engage appropriately to support the two countries` efforts to resolve the tense situation. The positive outcome of the Meeting came after long and arduous efforts on all parties especially Minister Hor Namhong (of Cambodia), Minister Kasit Piromya (of Thailand) and Minister Marty Natalegawa." 

Explaining the would-be set up observer team, Minister Marty said on a separate occasion recently that the observer team which would be dispatched within days to weeks ahead, would comprise civilians and military personnel from the foreign affairs ministry, the defense ministry and the National Defense Forces (TNI).

"Their number might not be over 20," the minister said, adding that they would be divided into two groups and would be posted in Thailand and Cambodia each. 

He explained that the border disputed by the two countries was not very vast and therefore needed not many observers.

"Indonesia is not a peace enforcement body that enforces peace but an observer that makes a report about what happens and present it to the ASEAN chair and the two parties," the minister said adding that the Indonesian government would first send an advanced team to assess the situation on the ground. 

The terms of reference for the observers will be based on Indonesia`s experiences in welcoming similar missions from ASEAN Member States in Timor-Leste in 1999 and Aceh in 2003-2005, and Indonesia`s own mission to Southern Philippines. 

The ASEAN Chair is expected to promptly propose a model for the two countries` consideration. 

"This will be the first for our country to be invited to become an observer by two conflicting parties which will not be stationed in a buffer zone but in Cambodia as well as Thailand. This shows the trust of the two parties and ASEAN in Indonesia," Minister Marty said

Source: ANTARA