Speeches
Remarks by Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli, Signing Ceremony for the 2007 Ambassador's Fund Awards
Takeo Provincial Museum
November 15, 2007
Your Excellency Veng Sereyvuth, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts
Distinguished Guests
Members of the Press
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great honor for me to be here with you this afternoon to sign grant awards for two very worthy cultural preservation projects under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. First, the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation will provide more than $44,000 in funding to allow the completion of restoration work at Prasat Han Chey, which was begun last year with U.S. assistance. Second, the U.S. State Department's Cultural Heritage Center is providing nearly $30,000 to assist the Ministry in securing collections of uninventoried archaeological artifacts by entering them in a newly-created national inventory database.
The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation provides an opportunity for U.S. embassies to directly demonstrate America’s respect for the cultural heritage of host countries and to play an active role in protecting those heritages. The Fund was created by the U.S. Congress in 2001 in order to assist less developed countries in preserving museum collections, ancient and historic sites, and traditional forms of expression. In 2007 the Ambassador's Fund will support 57 cultural preservation projects in 54 countries. Since its inception, the Fund has awarded 436 preservation grants in 119 countries.
This year's competition was extremely stiff. The Embassy received nearly a dozen high quality proposals from a variety of prestigious Cambodian institutions and NGOs for cultural preservation projects. Then, the final projects selected for Cambodia had to compete against others from over 100 countries. The fact that Cambodia is receiving two grants attests to the U.S. government's commitment to assist the Cambodian government in protecting and preserving the country's cultural heritage.
Restoration work on Prasat Han Chey temple was initiated in 2006, but excavations revealed that extensive repair of the temple's foundations were needed. The grant from the Ambassador's Fund will allow the Ministry to make these repairs and reassemble the temple structure. In addition to completing the restoration work, this grant will allow the Ministry to survey and map the entire face of the mountain where the Han Chey temple is located and to work with local residents to establish a Han Chey Cultural Heritage Management Committee that will be responsible for overseeing and protecting the site from vandals and other forms of destruction after the completion of the project.
The second grant will assist the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in its efforts to help secure collections of uninventoried archaeological artifacts. These artifacts, most of which were illegally excavated, have been seized by law enforcement authorities and are currently held in government storerooms outside Phnom Penh. Including them in the national inventory is a necessary first step towards ensuring that they will not again be subject to theft and illicit trafficking.
As I have said before, the importance of the past is sometimes forgotten in the rush of everyday life. But the past is crucial to our future. Without knowledge of the past and respect for our history, we are rootless and lost. The past ought to be an inspiration and a source of creativity for those who live today. As we all know, one of Cambodia’s most precious assets is its cultural heritage. But your historic monuments suffer from years of neglect, looters have targeted archaeological sites and ancient temples, and priceless carvings and artifacts held in the national collection are deteriorating due to the ravages of time. The U.S. is committed to the protection of Cambodia’s heritage, and these two grants represent just one aspect of my country's assistance to Cambodia in this endeavor.
Over the last several years, the U.S. government has provided more than $866,000 to fund cultural preservation projects in Cambodia. Additionally, in 2003 the U.S. and Cambodia signed a bilateral agreement that imposes import restrictions on Khmer archaeological material entering the United States. This agreement made it possible for the U.S. government to repatriate to Cambodia earlier this year a looted Khmer antiquity smuggled into the United States, and we expect several more such repatriations in the near future. The agreement comes up for renewal in 2008, and the U.S. Embassy is already working with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts to ensure this happens.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts congratulations and the best of luck in carrying out these extremely important projects. I would especially like to commend Dr. Bong Sovath for his excellent management of Phase I of the Prasat Han Chey project. Usually, the Ambassador's Fund does not fund project continuations, so this renewal is a testament to Dr. Bong's outstanding efforts. And finally, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to His Excellency Veng Sereyvuth for his advocacy and support on behalf of the Ministry of Culture.
Congratulations and thanks.
