Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Culture Ministry Welcomes UNESCO Registration of Toul Sleng

Written by DAP NEWS -- Tuesday, 15 September 2009

UNESCO’s registration of Toul Sleng as a documentary heritage was welcomed by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MCFA), according to an MCFA official on Monday.

MCFA Secretary of State Som Sokun said in a press conference at Sunway Hotel to mark World Memory Day on September 14 that “Cambodia will receive funds from donors for the registration of the Toul Sleng documents into Global Documentary Heritage.” “All the nations over the world named this as our national soul, [and it is useful] especially to educate to the new generations as well,” he added.

“We were very proud to be happy that Cambodian Government included both the MCFA and the Ministry of Justice to cooperate with UNESCO to take this task seriously,” Som Sokun added.

UNESCO will help protect the archives and other members of the international community will support the site, he said. UNESCO Vice Presidential Secretary Yours Ang said that “Since 1975-1979, all documents from the Pol Pot regime have been held as evidence at the definite archive site at the well-known Toul Sleng Genoc- ide Museum.”

Yours Ang added that Toul Sleng, used as a detention centre 1975-79 and designated as S-21, holds 4,186 prisoner ‘confessions’, 6,226 biographies of prisoners and 6,147 photographic prints.

There are also 5,000-6,000 documents relating to prisoner torture and a lot of other notes, he added.

The Cambodian Government has been asked to participate in caring for this heritage.

Philipe Delanghe, UNESCO’s expertise programmer for Cambodia, said that “This registration was recognized and valued into the Global Documentary Heritage already.”
“We must save and keep it in order to extend information, according to the UNESCO’s program.”

Global Documentary Heritage are said by UNESCO to be a “world mirror to reflect to human language, national culture and the world memory for people.”

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