By SUPALAK GANJANAKHUNDEE
THE NATION
Hundreds of anxious visitors waited for hours yesterday to get access to the re-opened national park at Pha Mor I Daeng, the main gate to Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple.
The key attraction at the site is the 11th century temple, controlled by Cambodia since an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962. But it remains closed due to a border dispute.
Hundreds of visitors arrived at Pha Mor I Daeng front gate early yesterday after local news reports that authorities would re-open Khao Phra Viharn National Park, the closest and easiest way to get |to the Hindu temple from Thailand.
Si Sa Ket governor Seni Jittakasem called an urgent meeting in the morning with all concerned agencies after pressure to appease people waiting to enter the park.
The governor said he could not open Pha Mor I Daeng in the morning as announced, as the Forestry Department, which is in charge of the area had yet to endorse the |plan.
Some 300 visitors waited anxiously until 2pm, when rangers at Pha Mor I Daeng station opened the gate for them to get inside.
A foreigner visitor, Soulard Bertrand, who was there with his family in the morning, said he would not return until the whole family could enter.
The visitors could only go as far as the fence by Preah Vihear since Cambodia had yet to open the temple. Visitors could enter Pha Mor I Daeng free of charge until March 1 when the site will be opened officially, governor Seni said.
The Preah Vihear was shut in June last year after a group of |protesters who called themselves Dhammayatra entered the temple.
The group, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy, accused the Samak Sundaravej government of giving away sovereignty over land by Preah Vihear when it backed Cambodia's bid for the temple to become a World Heritage site.
The protest later triggered a border skirmish in October in which four soldiers from both sides were killed, and many others injured.
Rounds of border talks including another meeting last week have failed to resolve conflict about the disputed areas including 4.6 square kilometres where the Hindu temple sits.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said after a meeting with Thai Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan last week that troops on both sides would be withdrawn from disputed areas near Preah Vihear soon.
However, the two sides have failed to reach a solution on withdrawing or re-deploying troops from the dispute areas, according to Lt General Wiboonsak Neeparn, the Second Army Region Commander who in charge of the area.
Meanwhile, Cabinet yesterday dumped Thailand's World Heritage committee chaired by Pongpol Adireksarn and replaced it with a new set of conservatives including Adul Wichiencharoen, a former chairman of the committee.
Adul was replaced by Pongpol during the Samak government last year as he strongly opposed the idea of backing Preah Vihear becoming a World Heritage site.
The key attraction at the site is the 11th century temple, controlled by Cambodia since an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962. But it remains closed due to a border dispute.
Hundreds of visitors arrived at Pha Mor I Daeng front gate early yesterday after local news reports that authorities would re-open Khao Phra Viharn National Park, the closest and easiest way to get |to the Hindu temple from Thailand.
Si Sa Ket governor Seni Jittakasem called an urgent meeting in the morning with all concerned agencies after pressure to appease people waiting to enter the park.
The governor said he could not open Pha Mor I Daeng in the morning as announced, as the Forestry Department, which is in charge of the area had yet to endorse the |plan.
Some 300 visitors waited anxiously until 2pm, when rangers at Pha Mor I Daeng station opened the gate for them to get inside.
A foreigner visitor, Soulard Bertrand, who was there with his family in the morning, said he would not return until the whole family could enter.
The visitors could only go as far as the fence by Preah Vihear since Cambodia had yet to open the temple. Visitors could enter Pha Mor I Daeng free of charge until March 1 when the site will be opened officially, governor Seni said.
The Preah Vihear was shut in June last year after a group of |protesters who called themselves Dhammayatra entered the temple.
The group, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy, accused the Samak Sundaravej government of giving away sovereignty over land by Preah Vihear when it backed Cambodia's bid for the temple to become a World Heritage site.
The protest later triggered a border skirmish in October in which four soldiers from both sides were killed, and many others injured.
Rounds of border talks including another meeting last week have failed to resolve conflict about the disputed areas including 4.6 square kilometres where the Hindu temple sits.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said after a meeting with Thai Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan last week that troops on both sides would be withdrawn from disputed areas near Preah Vihear soon.
However, the two sides have failed to reach a solution on withdrawing or re-deploying troops from the dispute areas, according to Lt General Wiboonsak Neeparn, the Second Army Region Commander who in charge of the area.
Meanwhile, Cabinet yesterday dumped Thailand's World Heritage committee chaired by Pongpol Adireksarn and replaced it with a new set of conservatives including Adul Wichiencharoen, a former chairman of the committee.
Adul was replaced by Pongpol during the Samak government last year as he strongly opposed the idea of backing Preah Vihear becoming a World Heritage site.
5 comments:
Shut for good.
Comrade Thong Khon,Xamer Tourist Minister,must re-evaluate secuirty factors and reassert the interest in enhancing access and amenity to Preah Vihear site for the benefits of tourism and scholarship.
Build a nice,safe and well lid road with security guards at night to the site.Also the raod can be a strategic venue for defence and transport in case of urgency.
Angkorians strategic achievements were to build roads with rest houses and water reservoirs to empower country and population livelihood.
Angkor highway linked up along all importtant shrines such Ta Moan, Ta Krabei,Sdok Kok Thom etc....
Why not revive that raod?
Hitler built autobahns in Germany to be world class roads; Rome,Italia built road networks across its empire all the way to Istanbul,Turkstan.
I think it is about time media reports - and the Thai press in particular - ceased refering to Preah Vihea temple as 'the Hindu temple' so as not to further confuse public perception or understanding of issues pertaining to this historical monument.
Firstly, if one accepts that the temple was built by the Khmers (as indeed it was) then it should rightly be described as 'the Khmer temple' instead regardless of its existing geographical location in the same manner that Roman or Greek ruins are known and admired for their origins.
Hinduism might have inspired the construction of the temple, but it was not the only reason behind the erection of such a monument. All human cultures in all civilisations often choose to leave behind something for posterity which endows their sense of shared roots in landmark events of their ancestors thereby helping to ensure continuity and unity among present and future generations. Of course, by inscribing Preah Vihea as a World Heritage site, Unesco has seen the wider value and relevance this monument has to offer to all humanity beyond the confines of national political interests. Nonetheless, it would be an attack upon the integrity of the temple itself by distorting and denying its historical origins, especially, in light of current tension over the ruins between Cambodia and Thailand.
References to the 'Hindu temple' in question in official Thai documents and pronouncements possibly prompted the question to be raised at the International Court at the time of its adjudication of the dispute as to why a Hindu temple posed so much significance to a Bhuddist country like Cambodia. However, Theravada Bhuddism practised in Cambodia today betrays at least two other major co-religious components: one is indiginous paganism and the other is Brahmanism (Hinduism).
Obviously, whether through oversight or deliberate misinformation, 'the Hindu temple' and the 'disputed land surrounding the temple' healines in not only the Thai media, but also, regretably, the same words repeated by a number of international TV news channels in recent months have done much to cloud international public opinion about the issue concerned as well as taking the limelight away from the Thais' flagrant violation of their neighbours' sovereignty.
It is not in the two nations' best interest to allow this dispute to develop into a full blown conflict. Both nations should grant peace the best chance possible by working on whatever positives that can be found through friendship and cultural affinity between themselves as human beings and nations. Thailand already has substantial business investment in Cambodia and with its established tourism infrastructure could stand to benefit even more from avoiding war and continued tension with Cambodia.
The alternative would be devastating for both countries in human and material terms. As victims and children of war in recent decades, Cambodians know this better than most. If the Thais have been spared similar fate, it is their good fortune and they should not take this for granted for despite their supposed military superiority and wealth, a sustained military campaign could soon put an end to that. At the very least, as humans we can imagine - if this is possible - the grief a mother or a wife would have to endure over the loss of her son or husband.
I agreed with the first comment 'shut for good'. I am sick and I don't see there are any beneficial in dealing with them anymore. I had had enough of this thieved nation.
Everything on the mountain belongs to Khmer on the mountain. They should be the one to decide what to open and close, nobody else.
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