As an observer Marty said Indonesia would not take over their responsibility in assuring a cease-fire but would support it and would accurately report its findings in the field.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to invite Indonesia as an observer in their efforts to find a peaceful settlement following a military clash between the two countries on February 4-7, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.

"In the ASEAN informal foreign ministerial meeting today it was agreed that Cambodia and Thailand should settle their problem peacefully and to invite Indonesia as an observer and engage it in talks later," the Indonesian foreign minister said here on Tuesday.

As an observer Marty said Indonesia would not take over their responsibility in assuring a cease-fire but would support it and would accurately report its findings in the field.

"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," he said.

When the observers to be sent and how many the would be has not yet been determined but he said it had better be done immediately.

"The faster the better according to me," he said adding "it is because the border disputed by the two countries is not very vast and therefore not many observers, which would consist of unarmed military and civilian personnel, would be needed."

Marty said the minister of defense and the commander of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) had been informed about it and would make their officers ready to be assigned as observers along with officials from the ministry of foreign affairs.

"However we need to know first situation on the ground and therefore an advanced team would be sent first to decide the number (observers) and the needs in the field," he said.

The minister said the achievement was a form of Indonesian leadership in the ASEAN and was not only because of its position as an ASEAN chair because Indonesia had directly entered into the conflicting countries.

"This will be the first for a 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," he said.

Initially, Marty said, Thailand and Cambodia had different views with one of them wishing Indonesia to become the chairman of the peace talks while the other did not want to involve a third party.

"However after negotiations an agreement was reached to involve Indonesia in the two parties as ASEAN chair which is supposed to be the place for conflicting parties to convey their complaints and it is hoped the next negotiations would be done in Indonesia," he said.

He said that Thailand and Cambodia actually had the same wish to make peace and would not want to clash and so the challenge for Indonesia would be how to overcome the communication problems between them.

Marty also said he would report the results of the meeting on Tuesday and the assignment of the monitoring team to the UN Security Council.

The recent military clash between Thailand and Cambodian happened in the border area near the Preah Vihear Temple which has been declared by the International Court in 1962 as belonging to Cambodia but the area around it is still disputed by the two countries.

Minister Marty Natalegawa on February 7-8 met with Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piramya to ask the two sides to exercise restraint and to allow ASEAN to help them reduce their tension.

On February 15, he attended the UN Security Council`s meeting that responded to the request of Cambodia to discuss the problem and the result was the UN Security Council to support ASEAN to help settle the conflict.

ASEAN consists of ten countries including Brunei Darrusalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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