BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s prime minister said on Friday that his government will propose a referendum on whether to revoke two agreements on the demarcation of its border with Cambodia as part of a plan to address a simmering dispute with its neighbour.
Thailand and Cambodia have bickered for decades over undemarcated points along their 817-km (508-mile) land border.
Tensions exploded into a deadly five-day conflict in July – the worst fighting between the two countries in over a decade – that killed at least 48 people and temporarily displaced hundreds of thousands on both sides.
For years, the two countries have relied on an agreement signed in 2000 that provides a framework on joint survey and demarcation of the land boundary.
Another agreement, signed in 2001, provides a framework for cooperation and potential resource-sharing in maritime areas claimed by both countries.
Both agreements have come under public scrutiny in Thailand, however, over the past decade, particularly following the latest clashes, which ended with a ceasefire brokered in Malaysia on July 28.
“In order to avoid further conflict, the House of Representatives has already set up a committee to study the matter, while the government policy will be to propose holding a referendum on the issue,” Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.
A referendum would provide a clear mandate on the matter, he added.
The two agreements were relatively successful in the past but have now become problematic for relations between the two countries, said Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
“Their revocation may not be a direct solution to the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, because it could create a vacuum,” he said.
“The government must make clear what will replace them, and this has to be agreed by Cambodia as well,” he said.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Joe Bavier)
