Thailand Never Asks UNESCO to Delist Temple as World Heritage

2011-03-03
Xinhua
Web Editor: Yihang

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has never asked UNESCO to remove centuries-old Preah Vihear temple on the disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia from the World Heritage list, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

The delisting was neither raised by Abhisit nor by Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya during last week's visit of UNESCO special envoy Koichiro Matsuura, the ministry's spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said in a press statement.

"In fact, when the UNESCO special envoy himself mentioned this issue, Prime Minister Abhisit responded that 'no one is talking about delisting'," the statement said.

Thani made the comments in response to media enquiry that the spokesperson of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had quoted Matsuura as saying that Thailand had the intention to ask UNESCO to delist the temple as a World Heritage site.

The statement said Thailand's position was that as long as the two countries' dispute over a 4.6-square-kilometer territory around Preah Vihear temple remained unresolved, any activities regarding the temple, including the consideration of an administering plan of the area, should be postponed.

Both nations claim sovereignty over the plot of land.

Phnom Penh was reported to plan to submit the administering plan to the World Heritage committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in June this year.

"Thailand reaffirms its readiness to fully cooperate with Cambodia and the international community in finding a mutually satisfactory solution" to the temple issue, the statement said.

The tension has remained high over the disputed border since the 11th century temple was approved as a World Heritage site on July 7, 2008 at the request of Cambodia.

A series of clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops last month inflicted casualties on both sides and forced thousands of Thai and Cambodian border villagers to flee their homes.