Children in Angkor Wat (Photo: First Post)The First Post (UK)
‘You literally step over maimed kids
begging outside tourist haunts’
begging outside tourist haunts’
The restoration of Angkor Wat may bring more drugs, looting and mugging, says Philip Jacobson
A decade after French archaeologists began the task of restoring the magnificent Baphuon temple at Angkor Wat (right), Cambodian authorities have authorised the re-opening of parts of the structure to the public.
One of the largest and oldest temples in the sprawling complex, it was dismantled block by block about 50 years ago in an attempt to save the crumbling building from total collapse: when the civil war erupted, restorers fled from the Khmer Rouge rebel forces, and all their records were destroyed.
The French team discovered 300,000 huge stone blocks tumbled around the site: miraculously, they have succeeded in putting together sections of this giant jigsaw puzzle.
Angkor Wat is Cambodia's prime tourist attraction and the decision to open Baphuon will add pressure on the overstretched resources of Siem Reap, the nearest city.
When the renowned British photographer Don McCullin covered the war in Cambodia during the 1970s, Siem Reap was a sleepy provincial backwater where the Khmer Rouge held sway, routinely executing captured western journalists. On his first visit there in peacetime, some two decades later, he encountered the vanguard of western visitors braving basic accommodation and dodgy restaurants for the chance to see the temples.
Not long ago, McCullin returned to find Siem Reap transformed, bursting with flashy new hotels, karaoke joints and sleazy nightclubs patrolled by teenage prostitutes.
"The place looked like a giant building site and one area had so many bars that it's now known as 'Pub Street'," he reported. The stampede for development was putting increasing strain on the town's inadequate infrastructure, while old hands complained that drug dealing and petty crime, such as bag-snatching from mopeds, was on the increase.
"You can't blame ordinary Cambodians, who suffered so much in the war, for wanting to cash in, even if the souvenir sellers and taxi drivers can really get on your nerves," said McCullin. "But you have to wonder how much money is reaching the people who need it most when you literally step over crippled ex-soldiers and maimed kids begging outside tourist haunts."
The city's Landmine Museum, created by a former Khmer Rouge child soldier, provides a harrowing record of the carnage wreaked by uncleared minefields.
Boom time in Siem Reap is also providing a major headache for Unesco, which has international responsibility for the preservation of the Angkor complex, a World Heritage site since 1992. The temples are already heaving with visitors from dawn to dusk. Although efforts to clamp down on looting are slowly paying off, poorly paid local guards can still be bribed to turn a blind eye: some massive stone pieces have been removed with chainsaws and lifting machinery, almost certainly destined for unscrupulous dealers.
One of the largest and oldest temples in the sprawling complex, it was dismantled block by block about 50 years ago in an attempt to save the crumbling building from total collapse: when the civil war erupted, restorers fled from the Khmer Rouge rebel forces, and all their records were destroyed.
The French team discovered 300,000 huge stone blocks tumbled around the site: miraculously, they have succeeded in putting together sections of this giant jigsaw puzzle.
Angkor Wat is Cambodia's prime tourist attraction and the decision to open Baphuon will add pressure on the overstretched resources of Siem Reap, the nearest city.
When the renowned British photographer Don McCullin covered the war in Cambodia during the 1970s, Siem Reap was a sleepy provincial backwater where the Khmer Rouge held sway, routinely executing captured western journalists. On his first visit there in peacetime, some two decades later, he encountered the vanguard of western visitors braving basic accommodation and dodgy restaurants for the chance to see the temples.
Not long ago, McCullin returned to find Siem Reap transformed, bursting with flashy new hotels, karaoke joints and sleazy nightclubs patrolled by teenage prostitutes.
"The place looked like a giant building site and one area had so many bars that it's now known as 'Pub Street'," he reported. The stampede for development was putting increasing strain on the town's inadequate infrastructure, while old hands complained that drug dealing and petty crime, such as bag-snatching from mopeds, was on the increase.
"You can't blame ordinary Cambodians, who suffered so much in the war, for wanting to cash in, even if the souvenir sellers and taxi drivers can really get on your nerves," said McCullin. "But you have to wonder how much money is reaching the people who need it most when you literally step over crippled ex-soldiers and maimed kids begging outside tourist haunts."
The city's Landmine Museum, created by a former Khmer Rouge child soldier, provides a harrowing record of the carnage wreaked by uncleared minefields.
Boom time in Siem Reap is also providing a major headache for Unesco, which has international responsibility for the preservation of the Angkor complex, a World Heritage site since 1992. The temples are already heaving with visitors from dawn to dusk. Although efforts to clamp down on looting are slowly paying off, poorly paid local guards can still be bribed to turn a blind eye: some massive stone pieces have been removed with chainsaws and lifting machinery, almost certainly destined for unscrupulous dealers.
3 comments:
To help Ankor, world hiritages, Cambodian, and Cambodia; forst and may be for all is to get bad power out of Hun Sen!
That mean to reform Cambodia Royal Arme and Police.
UNTAC should do that so you would handle Cambodia to the Cambodian, not groups of stupid lunitic.
The problem of anonymity is that anyone can speak irresponsible words like this. What's the relationship between Angkor and Hun Sen? He may be a bad leader or else.. But there's no relationship between Angkor heritage and him..
Hun Sen is the PM of Cambodia, the police of Hok Lundy is under him, the soldiar of tear Banch is under him. He has 10,000 body gards. Why can he use some to gard Ankor?
your father Hun Sen is the irresposible person, the people under him who paid by our national treasury never did any thing to protect Cambodia interst!
Anonimity give us free dome of spech under the crazy dictator like you father and his killer inlaw Hok Landy!
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