Cambodia holds big concert to hail Preah Vihear temple as world heritage

PHNOM PENH, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia here on Monday held a big concert inside the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh to hail the Preah Vihear temple to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sok An, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and head of the senior Cambodian delegation for applying for the Preah Vihear temple with the World Heritage Committee, presided over the ceremony after arrival from Canada.

Sok An said that the committee banged the hammer to decide to list the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site after "we showed all documents to implement the UNESCO's requests."

"Listing the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site showed us that the temple is top Khmer architecture for humanities," he added.

Cambodia's next generation has to preserve it and it is not only Khmer people but also people of the world have to do so, he said.

At the ceremony, thousands of old and young Cambodians wearing T-shirts shouted, waved the national flag and chanted songs on Khmer history while all top Cambodian singers sang the songs in relation with the Preah Vihear temple and land of Preah Vihear with traditional music.

All the 21 members of the World Heritage Committee during its 32nd session unanimously approved the Cambodian application to list the temple as the World Heritage Site in Quebec, Canada, last week.

Fortunately for Cambodia, last minute efforts by the Thai delegation to delay the vote and to have joint management of the temple failed at the current session of the committee.

On June 15, 1962, the International Court of Justice decided toward the ancient Angkorian site at the Cambodian-Thai border to Cambodia over the protest of Thailand.