Army general rocks Angkor temples with karaoke

Army general rocks Angkor temples with karaoke
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

PHNOM PENH, Oct 9: A Cambodian Army general is building an illegal karaoke entertainment resort in Cambodia's world heritage Angkor temple complex site in the country's jungle-clad north, a report said Monday.

General Chea Morn, commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces' region four, has built a concrete platform out into the Western Baray -- a huge ancient man-made lake, the English-language Cambodia Daily reported. "It doesn't affect the environment or the baray," Chea Morn told the newspaper of his development within the Angkor complex, which dates back one thousand years and is the country's most important cultural and religious monument.

"We have a generator, but we will only run it sometimes. It is a very small place in the jungle, a long way from town and if I earn money it is a very small amount," he said.

The karaoke bar consists of several wooden structures, the newspaper said. Under an agreement with the United Nations' cultural organisation, UNESCO, the government has agreed to limit development in surrounding areas in return for money and help protecting the temples at Angkor. A 1994 decree, signed by King Norodom Sihanouk, also set up strict zoning rules governing the area, according to the daily. "If the government needs it, I will give it back," the general said of the land on which the bar is built.