PREAH VIHEAR: Locals want vendors off temple steps

SANOH WORARAK

SI SA KET : Local people are demanding the eviction of Cambodian souvenir vendors from the stairway leading to the ancient ruins of Preah Vihear temple.

Sanong Huaychan, chief of Kantharalak district which borders the temple, said the Cambodian vendors' stalls are on both sides of the stairway leading up to the ruins. Although the temple is on Cambodian territory, the steps begin in Thailand.

Local people will press the authorities to drive the vendors out, he said.

The eviction issue was raised at a meeting in Si Sa Ket yesterday attended by local officials, historians and senior monks. The forum was entitled ''Preah Vihear becoming a World Heritage Site: What's in it for Si Sa Ket?''

The meeting was told that Thais built the souvenir kiosks, but they were taken over by Cambodians after Preah Vihear was given to Cambodia by a World Court ruling in 1962.

Some of the forum participants insisted a local movement was needed to safeguard ''national treasures''.

Speakers rebuked Foreign Affairs Minister Noppadon Pattama for saying that some people were going overboard with their nationalistic bravado.

The minister said he did not want ill-intentioned people derailing ''this smooth-running train'', a reference to the ongoing Thai-Cambodian negotiations over the demarcation of Preah Vihear.

In the map to be used for the listing of the ancient ruins as a World Heritage Site, the border line at Bandai Naga (Naga-lined stairways), the entrance to the Hindu temple in Si Sa Ket province, apparently encroaches upon Thai territory by about 10 metres.

Speakers at the forum heatedly discounted Mr Noppadon's statement that the Cambodian vendors have been selling souvenirs at their present site from the beginning.

The National Security Council (NSC) will meet today to examine Cambodia's map of Preah Vihear, which Phnom Penh hopes to use for the World Heritage application. The NSC will decide if the map should be rejected.