Malaysiakini.com（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Georgetown, Malacca win world heritage status, 8 July 2008
The historic Malaysian trading towns of Georgetown and Malacca are among eight new cultural sites that have been added to Unesco's World Heritage List today.
According to Unesco, both sites have been imbued with a multicultural heritage after more than five centuries of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West.
Georgetown and Malacca joined two other World Heritage Sites in Malaysia which won listing in 2000 - the Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak and the Kinabalu Park in Sabah.
Also included on the coveted list are a controversial Hindu temple in Cambodia and an early agricultural site from Papua New Guinea.
Honoured were the 11th century Preah Vihear temple site, perched on a mountaintop on the Thai-Cambodia border; the cities of the Straits of Malacca - Georgetown and Malacca in Malaysia - and the Kuk Early Agricultural Site in Papua New Guinea, marking the country's first entry on the list.
The Unesco committee has been meeting in this oldest of Canadian cities since Wednesday to consider adding to its list of protected architectural and natural wonders.
Unesco promotes the idea that the 850 World Heritage sites on its list belong to the international community, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.
While a World Heritage Site remain the responsibility of the country where the site is located, it is also considered in the interest of the international community to preserve it.
A total of 45 new sites were vying for inclusion on the list this year at the meeting which ends on Thursday, but few are more controversial than the Preah Vihear temple.
Last week, Cambodia deployed riot police to protect the Thai embassy for fear that a border dispute over the temple could spark violent protests.
The move came after Thailand suspended its endorsement of Cambodia's bid for the UN cultural agency Unesco to grant the long-disputed Preah Vihear temple (right) World Heritage status.
Security forces were also mobilised to protect Thai-owned businesses in the capital Phnom Penh.
In 1962, the dispute over the 11th-century temple went before the World Court, which ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia, although the main entrance lies at the foot of a mountain in Thailand.
The long-standing row appeared resolved last month, after Thailand endorsed Cambodia's plan to seek World Heritage status at a Unesco meeting in Canada this week.
A contested landscape
But the deal sparked a political controversy in Thailand, and last week Cambodia closed the mountaintop temple after more than 100 Thais marched to the compound to protest the deal. A Thai court then forced the government to suspend its endorsement of the plan.
Ambassador Francesco Caruso, special advisor to the director general of Unesco, told AFP the listing was not meant to prejudice the ongoing dispute.
Rather, it was hoped it might be amended in the future to a bi-national listing of the temple and its contested landscape.
"It could become a mixed natural and architectural site, the door is open. The Cambodians negotiated a listing that opens the door to such future harmony. The Thais are demanding it now," he said, noting both governments were heavily consulted in the wording.
The ruins of the Hindu temple are the most important example of ancient Khmer architecture outside of Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat, and have weathered centuries of wars and duelling territorial claims with Thailand.
Built to honour the Hindu god Shiva, Preah Vihear stretches dramatically up to a cliff-top in the Dangrek mountain range.
Unesco deemed the site exceptional for its location on a plateau with sheer cliffs overlooking a vast plain and mountain range; its rare architecture and the religious function of the temple; and its carved stone ornamentation.
Cambodia began seeking World Heritage status for the temple nearly six years ago.
To date, 862 sites in more than 140 countries have been designated Unesco World Heritage sites.
Former military site
Also on Monday, the heritage committee included examples of the 17th century military architecture of Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, who built or upgraded more than 300 fortifications along France's borders.
His designs, which had a major role in the history of fortification in Europe and as far away as the American continent, Russia and East Asia, exemplify "the peak of classic fortifications, typical of western military architecture," the committee said.
Other sites added to the Unesco list include Slovakian wooden churches, German early 20th century low-income housing, the Renaissance towns of Mantua and Sabbioneta in Italy, and the Stari Grad Plain on the Adriatic island of Hvar, farmed for 2,400 years.
San Marino, too, entered the coveted list, said the committee, "as a testimony to the continuity of a free republic since the Middle Ages."
Its historic center, with its fortification towers, walls, gates and bastions, dates back to the foundation of the republic as a city-state in the 13th century.
Thanks to its position on top of Mount Titano, it was not affected by the urban transformations of the industrial era to today.
During the session, the committee also approved the extension of the Mountain Railways of India with the inscription of the Kalka Shimla Railway, a 96-kilometer single-track working rail link built in the mid-19th century to provide a service to the highland town of Shimla.
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