Thailand seeks review of Preah Vihear World Heritage Status

BANGKOK, June 17 (TNA) – Thailand will oppose the World Heritage Committee on its listing of Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border as a World Heritage site, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Wednesday.
 
Mr. Abhisit said Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting action assigned Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suwit Khunkitti to lodge the objection at a World Heritage Committee meeting to be held in Spain against the United Nations for Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) which had granted the ancient temple World Heritage Site status. 
 
Mr. Suwit, who will attend the meeting in his capacity as a member of the World Heritage Committee and not as representative of the Thai government, will air complaints that the listing of the temple might go against the charters of UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee, the prime minister said.
 
After the listing more armed clashes occurred between the two countries in the disputed area, Mr. Abhisit continued.
 
He said UNESCO will be asked to review its decision, as the disputed area is a valuable cultural entity itself and could be conserved to allow the peoples of both countries, as well as tourists, to visit the temple, which has become a conflict zone.
 
Mr. Abhisit said the “planned opposition will not come too late, as it will be on the agenda of the upcoming meeting.”
 
UNESCO granted Cambodia’s application for Preah Vihear temple to be designated a World Heritage Site in July 2008.
 
The listing was made at the time of the government of former Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej.
 
The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the Preah Vihear temple belongs to Cambodia, but the most accessible entrance begins at the foot of a mountain in Thailand, and both sides claim some of the surrounding  territory.
 
“I personally want to see peace in the area and peoples of both countries receive benefit from the historical heritage site,” Mr. Abhisit said.
 
Panithan Wattanayakorn, deputy secretary-general to the prime minister, said the listing of the temple as the World Heritage site has affected the otherwise warm relations between the two countries.
 
Dr. Panithan reiterated that the Thai government’s planned objection was not directed at the Cambodia government, but rather at the international agencies which had created the problem. (TNA)