Click on the photo to zoom inOriginal report from Phnom Penh
20 June 2008
When Unesco's World Heritage committee meets in Canada next month, they will review an application for Preah Vihear temple that was the product of years of work and a delicate agreement between two neighbors.
The World Heritage application took seven years to complete, officials told reporters on Friday, and there is no clear sign it will be accepted at a meeting in Quebec from July 2 to July 12. Meanwhile, the two governments have reached a detante over the application, even if not all their citizens have.
"Up to now, there's no conflict between the Cambodian government and Thai government," Chan Tani, secretary of state for the Council of Ministers, said. "So far I do not see that there is a problem. But we must be careful to prevent the risk. If Preah Vihear is not admitted, it is still Cambodian property."
Cambodian and Thai delegations have been meeting since 2001 over Cambodia's desire to have the temple protected. An international court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but the border surrounding it, along a high cliff, remains disputed. In the end, it was a May 22 meeting in Paris between Council Minister Sok An and Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama that moved the application process forward.
The application brought many latent border anxieties between Cambodia and Thailand to the fore, and over the past week, protesters in Bangkok have accused the Thai government of giving land to Cambodia. Critics of the Cambodian position have said the government surrendered too much in its negotiations with Thailand over the application.
Cambodia has so far remained calm over the application, which included a map of the temples and a request that 30 meters of land surrounding each structure be included under Unesco's protection.
Ancient temples remain an emotional touchstone for many Cambodians. In 2003 Cambodian mobs looted and burned the Thai Embassy and other Thai businesses in Phnom Penh following rumors that a Thai actress claimed Angkor Wat should belong to Thailand.
Moeung Son, president of Eurasia Travel and president of the Khmer Civilization Support Fund, said he expects a successful application, because Cambodia proposed only its own temples to be protected as a World Heritage.
The World Heritage application took seven years to complete, officials told reporters on Friday, and there is no clear sign it will be accepted at a meeting in Quebec from July 2 to July 12. Meanwhile, the two governments have reached a detante over the application, even if not all their citizens have.
"Up to now, there's no conflict between the Cambodian government and Thai government," Chan Tani, secretary of state for the Council of Ministers, said. "So far I do not see that there is a problem. But we must be careful to prevent the risk. If Preah Vihear is not admitted, it is still Cambodian property."
Cambodian and Thai delegations have been meeting since 2001 over Cambodia's desire to have the temple protected. An international court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but the border surrounding it, along a high cliff, remains disputed. In the end, it was a May 22 meeting in Paris between Council Minister Sok An and Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama that moved the application process forward.
The application brought many latent border anxieties between Cambodia and Thailand to the fore, and over the past week, protesters in Bangkok have accused the Thai government of giving land to Cambodia. Critics of the Cambodian position have said the government surrendered too much in its negotiations with Thailand over the application.
Cambodia has so far remained calm over the application, which included a map of the temples and a request that 30 meters of land surrounding each structure be included under Unesco's protection.
Ancient temples remain an emotional touchstone for many Cambodians. In 2003 Cambodian mobs looted and burned the Thai Embassy and other Thai businesses in Phnom Penh following rumors that a Thai actress claimed Angkor Wat should belong to Thailand.
Moeung Son, president of Eurasia Travel and president of the Khmer Civilization Support Fund, said he expects a successful application, because Cambodia proposed only its own temples to be protected as a World Heritage.
11 comments:
Ah Siam bykri!
wake up cambodia!!! all your land including ankor wat was made by thai's. You lucky to have a country.. we thai people felt sorry for you dark skin khmer..
yes, right. whatever! khmer don't allow this stupid thai person to influence our emotion as this ignorant person is so desperate to try to get khmer people to talk to his lonely, disease infect brain. so, our bet is to just ignore his cries. god bless cambodia.
The temple clearly belongs to the Khmer-Thai. Khmer don't like to build anything on the mountain, only Khmer-Thai or Khmer-Loa does that because they are true mountain people.
Ah you stupit SIEM , what are you talking a bout ? everything made by SIEMS in CAMBODIA , you SIEM PEOPLES are create my our great KHMER empire , yopu just a theft that steal evrything from our nice kHMERS people that all.
NO you are lucky that we give you some land to create a lot of HOOKERS..
SREW YOU SIEM 5:36 AM , we will take all our land back .
I wiLL BE BACK !!!
Khmer nation will find again the long lost brothers & Sisters and help one anothers to build a new Empire for the beter future. Khmer are not wory such a handful of ignorants Siamese prtesters cause by their teachers misteaching infromations of Hisotry.
May Buddha bless Khmer all!.PL.K
all khmer demand that the world spell our preah vihear correctly so not to confuse thinking it is thailand or something. our gov't should ask all our embassy all over the world to spelling it as: preah vihear, not prah viharn or whatever. it belongs to cambodia and we, khmer, would like the world and their respective gov't to spell it the way khmer people spell it so it can represent cambodia from now on. it is PREAH VIHEAR temple, the khmer spelling way. and all khmer people can help to educate all tourists and foreign nationals in cambodia to stick with the cambodian spelling, please. all of us can do our part to help educate everyone. thank you!
on behalf of all khmer people who otherwise have no opportunity to voice ourselves, i urge unesco to differ from the illegal and unlawful demand of the so-called thai people's alliance for democracy (pad) and the thai senate committee who are protesting to delay the listing of cambodia's preah vihear temple into the world heritage protection and to enforce or uphold the international laws of justice and the lawful treaty of 1907 and the lawful order of the world court in 1962 that ruled preah vihear temple is unconditionally belongs to cambodia's sovereignty; and thus urge thailand to educate their people to respect the law as the temple is not even theirs in the first place. thank you.
WTF, 7:44? Why is it when you idiot married to blue-eyed people, you are still claiming to be Khmer, and when we (Khmer-Thai) married to Chinese people, we are no longer Khmer, but Siam. Who are you trying to fool, Ah Jkout? The temple belong to Khmer-Thai, period, and no French's shit (your boss) ain't gonna change that. You got that, motherfucker?
Khmer King named Suryvaraman built Preah Viheah beofe Angkor Wat.
The King was Khmer.
2:19 PM. Were you born in Cambodia but your ancestors were Vietnamese, that is why you don't stop harassing Khmer people?
This is a new game of Viet Communist Hanoi and Thailand.
THANKs King SIHANOUK for having our
PREAH VIHEAH BACK.
MAY BUDDHA BLESS KING FATHER.
Post a Comment