Tuesday, 24 May 2011Vong Sokheng
Phnom Penh Post
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An (pictured) and other senior government officials departed for Paris yesterday to attend a UNESCO-brokered meeting with their Thai counterparts to discuss how to safeguard the 11th Century Preah Vihear temple.
Speaking to reporters at Pochentong Airport, Sok An, who chairs the National World Heritage Committee, said the meeting would focus on evaluating damage to the temple caused by violent clashes over four days in early February that left at least 10 people dead.
“We will focus on an evaluation of damage to the temple from 414 shells fired by Thai soldiers,” he said, adding that UNESCO experts would participate in the evaluation.
UNESCO declared the Preah Vihear temple a World Heritage Site in 2008 over Thai objections. When fighting broke out near the temple, the Paris-based organisation called on both sides to exercise restraint, and later appointed a former UNESCO head, Koïchiro Matsuura, as a special envoy to discuss the issue with both sides.
Matsuura met in February with Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai Premier Abhisit Vejjajeva to discuss preservation of the temple, which sustained surface-level damage from bullets and artillery.
Cambodia and Thailand are expected to butt heads over Cambodia’s proposed management plan for the temple at a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris next month.
3 comments:
French must help solve this problem, because of French that's why cambodia lost khmer krom lands to vietnam and lots lots of territory to SIAM!! French had caused CAMBODIA a lot of territory...It's all French's fault!!
French knew damn well that they had caused Khmers alot of territory lost to VIET/SIAM!!!!!! It's all fucken French'fault!!!!!!!!French should help cambodia more like China did...
Make ah siam or thai pay for the damges they had done to the temple.
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