Mr. Mounir Bouchenaki, Director of the Division of Physical Heritage, recalled the recommendations made by the Committee at the time of the inscription of the Angkor site on the World Heritage List in December 1992, and informed the Bureau of the latest action taken by the Director-General of UNESCO for the safeguard of Angkor. The Director-General decided to give additional support to the UNESCO Office in Cambodia, by assigning Mr. Khamliène Nhouyvanisvong, former Acting Assistant Director-General for External Relations, to the post of Director of this Office, and also naming him Personal Representative of the Director-General. Mr. Richard Engelhardt was called upon to undertake new functions at UNESCO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, as Regional Advisor for Culture. Mr. Bouchenaki also informed the Bureau of the nomination of Mr. Azedine Beschaouch to the post of Special Advisor to the Assistant Director-General for Culture. However, Mr. Beschaouch will continue to monitor the technical work for the safeguard of Angkor in his capacity of Special Representative of the Director-General.
Mrs. Minja Yang, who is responsible for the intersectoral programmes for Cambodia and Chief of the Angkor Unit, was invited to present the latest developments of the Zoning and Environmental Management Plan (ZEMP). Mrs. Yang defined the categories for the protection of the cultural sites which serve as a basis for establishing the different zones at Angkor: i) monumental sites; ii) protected archaeological reserves; iii) protected cultural landscapes; iv) archaeological, anthropological and historical points of interest. She stressed the importance of taking into consideration the sociological, touristic and economic aspects, with a view to integrated sustainable development in the region of Angkor.
As complementary information on the zoning of the Angkor site, Mr. Beschaouch presented the conclusions of his recent mission to Cambodia. He stressed the fact that the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of Angkor, which had been created during the Intergovernmental Conference of Tokyo, and is co-chaired by France and Japan with UNESCO ensuring the secretariat, had strictly observed the recommendations of the World Heritage Committee. In this regard, on the basis of proposals made by the "ZEMP", the Royal Government of Cambodia, by a decree dated 4 June 1944 relating especially to the zoning and management of the Angkor site, defined a zone of safeguard, the total area of which (including Angkor, Banteay Srei and Roluos) covers an area of 401 squarekilometers. Mr. Beschaouch added that, during the next parliamentary session of the Kingdom of Cambodia, two legislative texts relating to the protection of cultural property and the administration of the Angkor site should be submitted for examination to the National Assembly. He stressed the exemplary effort of the Kingdom of Cambodia to set up a legal, legislative, technical and administrative structure for the integrated safeguarding of the site of Angkor.
Following this report, the Representative of ICOMOS expressed satisfaction with the action undertaken during the last eighteen months for the safeguarding of the site of Angkor and congratulated the UNESCO Secretariat for its work. The Delegate of Thailand proposed that a letter of congratulations be sent to the Royal Government of Cambodia. The Delegate of Senegal, after congratulating Mr. Beschaouch for his nomination at UNESCO, endorsed that initiative.
The Bureau approved this proposal.
As complementary information, Mr. Beschaouch stressed the volume and quality of the work undertaken by the French and Japanese teams at Angkor. He indicated that the "WMF" had proposed, in agreement with the Royal Government of Cambodia, to develop and diversify its action. Finally, as concerns the database produced with the "Integraph" software in the framework of the "GIS" programme, he drew attention to the interest in converting this data to the "SPANS" base, thanks especially to the collaboration of "Parks Canada".