DPA
Bangkok - Thai protesters massed outside the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Bangkok office Wednesday to demand that a Cambodian temple be removed from the world heritage list.
About 1,000 members of the ultra-nationalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) gathered to demand UNESCO delist the Preah Vihear temple, which lies on Cambodian soil but is claimed by Thailand, and 'end the violation of sovereignty of Thai territory.'
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is currently meeting in Paris to decide on new sites and discuss progress on formerly designated ones.
UNESCO declared Preah Vihear a World Heritage site in 2008 over Thai objections. Since then Thai and Cambodian troops have clashed on several occasions along the border, most recently in April when 16 people, mostly soldiers, died.
The 11th-century Hindu temple, perched on a cliff that defines the Thai-Cambodian border, has been a bone of contention between the two countries for six decades.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled that the temple was on Cambodia soil, but it stopped short of ruling on where the border lies in the disputed area.
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