The UN is a forum for ensuring global security. It can be an important forum at times for securing regional or even local security but only when the circumstances are right.
Both countries (Cambodia and Thailand) remain far apart in resolving the conflict — but not because both sides don’t have interests in peace but because both sides are so far apart in their views of history.
History is the beginning and end of many conflicts because once both parties can agree on the past, disagreements of the present and future become negotiable.
This conflict can be traced back to decades and even centuries of history and we must not overlook how this conflict sits in this context, which came out in elements of both the Cambodian and Thai delegates’ speeches.
While the Thais were certainly more articulate, which wins over the crowds, the Cambodians have the truth on their side (of Thai aggression), but only if they actually take a deliberate and concerted, and internationally recognised effort to prove the facts on the ground.
Cellphone videos are one piece of evidence, but no one is going to rely on cellphone footage as proof of what happened unless there is a robust foundation of other evidence to support it.
Youk Chhang is director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The views and opinions expressed are his own.
