People's Daily Online
May 29, 2011
Cambodia is firmly confident that the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee (WHC) will officially accept the management plan of Preah Vihear temple proposed in the 35th WHC meeting in Paris on June 19 to 29, said a top government official on Sunday.
"In the next month's meeting, the World Heritage Committee will make the official decision on the management plan of Preah Vihear temple, which Cambodia submitted in the last year's annual WHC meeting," the cabinet minister Sok An (pictured), Chairman of the Cambodian National Commission for UNESCO, said Sunday at Phnom Penh International Airport upon his arrival from Paris, where he held talks with Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suwit Khunkitti on Preah Vihear temple issues under the mediation by the UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.
"Cambodia has enough legal documents, which are internationally recognized, to support that the temple's management plan is done in Cambodian territory," he said, adding that the plan has also been admired by UNESCO for its good and standardized preparation in the last year's committee meeting.
However, the Bangkok Post online newspaper reported on Sunday that Suwit Khunkitti said the UNESCO has not made decision yet on whether the WHC will debate Cambodia's management plan.
Suwit Khunkitti said that Thailand and Cambodia would hold more talks over Cambodia's management plan for the disputed 4.6-square- kilometre area around Preah Vihear temple ahead of the 35th WHC meeting next month.
In response, Sok An said that Cambodia welcomed more meetings with Thailand under the UNESCO arrangements prior to the next month's WHC meeting in June.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962 and the temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.
Since then, both sides have built up military forces along the border and periodic clashes have happened, resulting in the deaths of troops and civilians on both sides.
Source: Xinhua
Cambodia is firmly confident that the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee (WHC) will officially accept the management plan of Preah Vihear temple proposed in the 35th WHC meeting in Paris on June 19 to 29, said a top government official on Sunday.
"In the next month's meeting, the World Heritage Committee will make the official decision on the management plan of Preah Vihear temple, which Cambodia submitted in the last year's annual WHC meeting," the cabinet minister Sok An (pictured), Chairman of the Cambodian National Commission for UNESCO, said Sunday at Phnom Penh International Airport upon his arrival from Paris, where he held talks with Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suwit Khunkitti on Preah Vihear temple issues under the mediation by the UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.
"Cambodia has enough legal documents, which are internationally recognized, to support that the temple's management plan is done in Cambodian territory," he said, adding that the plan has also been admired by UNESCO for its good and standardized preparation in the last year's committee meeting.
However, the Bangkok Post online newspaper reported on Sunday that Suwit Khunkitti said the UNESCO has not made decision yet on whether the WHC will debate Cambodia's management plan.
Suwit Khunkitti said that Thailand and Cambodia would hold more talks over Cambodia's management plan for the disputed 4.6-square- kilometre area around Preah Vihear temple ahead of the 35th WHC meeting next month.
In response, Sok An said that Cambodia welcomed more meetings with Thailand under the UNESCO arrangements prior to the next month's WHC meeting in June.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962 and the temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.
Since then, both sides have built up military forces along the border and periodic clashes have happened, resulting in the deaths of troops and civilians on both sides.
Source: Xinhua
7 comments:
The tactical error by the Khmer ancestor
The tactical error by King Po-ea Yat In 1431 fearful of having his capital too close to the Siam capital Ayuthaya, by moved his capital from Angkor south to Basan, on the East Side of Mekong, then a year later moved again to Phnom Penh. By moving the capital of the Khmer empire so far to the east away from the Siam capital Ayuthaya the move signalled his weakness and unwillingness to fight the Siam, and virtually encouraged Siam to further encroach on the vast expanse of Khmer territory between the newly established Siam frontier and the new Khmer capital. For their part the Siam were relatively satisfied with their possessing the four Khmer provinces. In addition, they had their hands full trying to control the newly acquired Khmer population.
This particular history was linked to a territorial dispute that broke out in 1958 when Thailand seized control of Preah Vihear, a tenth-century Angkorean temple located up a steep ravine in the Dangrek Mountains just a short distance from the border . The events surrounding the seizure bear some uncanny similarities to the 2003 anti-Thai riots, a violent protest over the temple by 10,000 Thais who menaced the Cambodian Embassy. The following year Cambodia filed suit for sovereignty of the temple in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which decided the case in its favour in 1962. the Thai interior minister said: ‘History will remember this day as the day we lost our sovereignty over the shrine’, adding that the Thai flag would soon be ‘back where it belongs’. Other Thais, including government officials, have made similar remarks over the years about Preah Vihear as well as the ‘lost territories’ (Battambang and Siem Reap) and Angkor Wat. Not surprisingly, such comments have convinced many Cambodians that Thais are still plotting to seize their land.
Thailand is Cambodian historical enemy’ because of ‘the old ideal of Siam annexing Cambodian territories piece by piece’ and the ‘past problems of Thailand putting Thai flags over Khmer temple and chased innocent civilian away from their villages and use it as new borderline between Khmer and Siam’.
It's hard to say that it was a tactical error made by our past king to relocate the capital. I know Phnom Penh is our 4th capital. We were constantly being push to run and hide from Siem invader. Maybe it was a wise decision to relocated to where it would be safer. Phnom Penh is still at where it is, located in front of four merging rivers, Tunlay Chatomuk. I think there is something good about this area. It has been almost 600 years now that Phnom Penh is still standing. Even with the ruthless dirty work of the Khmer Rouge driving hundreds of thousands of residents in April 17, 1975 making it a ghost city, Phnom Penh was resurrected from her death to rebuild. The closest Siem ever gotten to invading Phnom Penh was at modern day province of Kompong Chnang, which was very close. We could have lost that capital again. That happened before we lost Kampuchea Krom to Youn, so our land was still big back then. Now that we no longer have Kampuchea Krom, Khmer land has gotten so small that we can't afford to run and hide anymore more, except facing the invaders to the death if we ever want to have land to live on. Our enemies don't care if what they do is wrong or right, they only care about their own benefits. Their benefits is the sacraficing of our land. As long as Khmer is facing these two enemies, we have to be in high constant alertness. If we start slacking off in protecting our territory, our land will only get smaller and less populations. Cambodia is being compete by the 2 hyenas of Siem and Youn to take over. Khmer have to be equal or stronger to keep these two enemies at bay. Our land might be small but our spirit and determination to protect it should be the biggest priority.
8:10 PM, don't confused Khmer king name with Cham first name of Po like the stupid guy by the name of Po Kambor who pretended to be Khmer neak' Mean Bonn and liberator.
You need to understand that tai population was so wast in number during those period. Later on Siam started to make some distinction and separated some tribes called Shan apart, but before that Siam used every tai new comers who ready to fight,to die to invade Khmer. Even right now as I type this comment, tai race still plot to create a new independent state out of India with the name of Ahom or Assam. Luckily for India they have the population of a billion plus to prevent the tai's dream. Ponhea Yat, he needed to prevent Siam from capturing khmer population again into slavery .Remember when France established the protectorate,Khmer Kandal have a number of less than a million. Cambodia had 3 millions by the time of the independent and 7 millions when US started to drop bombs on them. Right now Khmer needs more population to counter the Thai and the Viets but I read khmer news everyday and see many rapes and abuses. Khmer guys and gales need to have genuine love and some outdated traditions have to be discarded.
4:41AM, I'm assuming the Tai race that live in southern China in the province of Yunnan border with Burma, Laos, and Vietnam is what you're talking about. I didn't know they spreaded out as far as India. Anyhow, they wouldn't surprise me. The modern day Thai of Thailand are made up of these Tai tribe. It's hard to say how much but Thais are actually a new race created from the Siem race. The modern day Thais are actually made up mostly of 3 races, Siem(Siyam), Tai, and Khmer. I don't know why, maybe the word "Siem" has much nagative definition, so the Thai race was invented in 1939 to smokescreen their true nature. Prior to this, Tai were chased out of their homeland during the mongols invasion of China. Where else would they went, except into Khmer, of course. The Tai were refugees living in Khmer territory. I don't know if it was the Kubla Khan's(great grandson of Ghanghis Khan) tactic to give Khmer a Trojan horse by injecting the Tai refugees into Khmer territory but it surely works very damn well. Anyway, Khmer gave shelter to Tai, fed them, and allowed them to coexist with the Khmer populations. Sometime later, when the opportunity opened up, the Siem/Tai rebelled against the Khmer to create their own independence state called Sokhutai(Tai?), initially, then conquered by Ayuttaya(Siem?) to created a bigger Siem/Tai state and ultimately an invading force that wreck havoc with the Khmer. I hate to remind Khmer the barbaric treatment by Siem/Tai but Khmer prisoners were used as slave-labors to assist in digging canals to drain water out of that marshland area to create Krung Tep or Bangkok. Yes, you read it right. The creation of the city of angel(Krung Tep/Bangkok)had its own dark deep past.
8:09 AM, Tais lived in many southern and southwestern Chinese provinces, started in the main land across Taiwan down to Kwang tung to Yunnan till Arunachal Pradesh India. Vietnam is comprised a great number of Tais too. I don't know why we Khmer called Vietnam Yuon, but international scholar refer Yuon more appropriately to the Mongolian dynasty who took over the Chinese Empire.
As for the Thai, this word dawned in Pibul Sangram's mind when he read in Paris the novel 'Thai' wrote by Anatole France related to the Thaii of ancient Greece story.It was Pibul who then introduced word Thailand as the name to replace Siam Kingdom.
Siem was the name Khmer referred to the Tai group who started to escaped Mongol invasion and took refuge around Sib Sawng Phan Na first before they move in and got the hold on the area of Sukhotey. So Siam and Tai are the same people who preceded the current Thai nowadays. Also you should know about Konstantin Falcon the Greece guy who lived and helped Siam administration before the Chakrey dynasty. Falcon was similar to Marcos Paulo of the Khan but not that quite.
The Viet themselves don't know why we Khmer call them Youn. I would say it's about as bad as Khmer called the Thais, Siem. Of course Thais and Viets have their own derogatory term for us Khmer too, nevertheless One thing for sure, Yuan(Youn?) dynasty of Mongols had ruled China for quite sometime. Matter of face, Annam(Vietnam) was Mongols/Chinese state until the deteriation of the Mongols empire. This probably why Khmer during that time called the Viet, Youn, all because Annam was part of Mongols/Chinese territory.
Our government[Sok An] do a lot of talking, but every year since 2008 Thais government were able to successfully block our attempts to have Preah Vihear Management Plan at the UNESCO hearing.
Maybe, we[Cambodian] not using the right words to convince the committee members. We must be very carefully in using the right wordings when dealing with this kind of issues. Either we did something wrong or we have the wrong group of people representing us.
It is very unusual that the UNESCO COMMITTEE MEMBERS postpone our plan three consecutive years and every years the victory went to the Thais.
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