The groundbreaking ceremony for the Anlong Veng Win-Win Monument in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong district is scheduled for March 9 and will be presided over Minister of National Defence Tea Banh.
Deputy provincial governor Di Rado told The Post on March 8 that the 300ha site for the monument had been chosen carefully, as this was where the civil war had ended.
He added that the monument would pay homage to the heroic merits of the political operators, especially Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ended the civil war in Cambodia.
“The monument will be 7,200sqm. I am unaware of the budget set aside for this project, but I am assured that there is no shortage of funds for the monument. It is possible that we may be short of funds for some related infrastructure. If so, we will call for donations,” he said.
During a March 7 pre-ceremony inspection, Kun Kim – chairman of the Win-Win Monument Construction Committee – said that in the past week, elements of the army’s Intervention Brigade 8 and Intervention Division 3 had used their equipment to prepare a road to the site of the monument. They had also guaranteed that the site was clear of land mines and explosive remnants of war.
“A team from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces constructed a 2,168m road to enable the sculpture to be built. They consulted with the provincial water resources department to do so, as there is a dam nearby,” he added.
Nem Sovath, chairman of the Military History Research Working Group who conducted the research ahead of the monument’s construction – said his team had collected and collated a large amount of information which supported the decision to turn the idea of the monument into a reality.
“To date, hundreds of thousands of people have visited the Techo Phnom 200 Military Historic site to study and reflect. Although there are no skyscrapers there, its significant meaning and powerful atmosphere have led people to organise many ceremonies and events there,” he said.
Sovath said that as part of his team’s research, it had selected significant figures that made great contributions to peace in the Kingdom to be immortalised in the stone of the monument. The sculptures would encourage the patriotic spirit of the next generation of Cambodians and encourage participation in the protection of territorial integrity, he added.
