New Wave of Looting Hits Cambodia - Brief Article

Since 1924 when Andre Malraux carted not upon a ton of stone statuarys from Angkor Wat, the looting of Cambodia's archeological sites has accelerated. The tumultuous civil upheavals of the past three decades have left ancient Cambodian sites flat more vulnerable to pillage. The greatest in quantity recent reports from the area indicate a fresh wave of plundering that have the appearances to be on a massive scale and better organized than before.

Since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge last year, centurys of remote and unprotected archeological districts in the lawless countryside have been attacked by the agency of looters. UNESCO representatives in Cambodia freshly released information about art thefts in Banteay Chhmar, an area of extensive 12th-century ruins located 15 miles from the Thai border in northwestern Cambodia. Many of the buildings are overgrown with vegetation and inaccessible by the agency of road, but earlier this year, villagers witnessed looter removing a 500-square-foot section of bas-relief from individual temple alone. Using drills and axes, the thieves chopp the statuarys into smaller pieces to be smuggl abroad. Thai police lately intercepted trucks entering the geographical division from Cambodia with 117 large pieces of stone from another dismantled temple

Authorities believe that greatest in quantity of the booty is smuggl without through Thailand, eventually making its way to the booming antiquities markets of the West. Thai and Cambodian military officials newly announced a joint agreement aimed at stemming the roll on of illegal Cambodian artifacts. It is too by and by to say what effect the pact will have upon the 1,200-plus archeological sites scattered from one extremity to the other of the country. Developments in the situation may be tracked upon the Internet (www.camweb.org).

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