Phnom Penh - Tomb raiders are decimating Cambodia's archaeological sites, looting ancient and remote cemeteries to sell antiques to tourists, an independent watchdog warned on Friday as it prepares a campaign to educate potential buyers.

The problem is in part an unintended side effect of Cambodia's success in protecting its world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex, said Terressa Davis of Heritage Watch, an independent group which works to protect Cambodia's archaeological heritage.

"Angkor is very well protected now, but there is still a large demand on the international art market for Cambodian arts," Davis said. "So thieves are going to temples outside of Angkor and stealing statues there," Terressa said.

Article Source - News 24.com

"Most people do not realise that this is going on," she added.

The hardest-hit provinces are the poor regions along the Thai border, such as Banteay Meanchey province, where villagers have unearthed ancient graves on a large scale to find ancient tools to sell to smugglers who sneak them into Thailand, she said.

Some of the cemeteries in Banteay Meanchey date to 500 BC, while other cemeteries and temples are from the Angkor era, roughly the ninth to the 14th centuries.

In a bid to curb the illegal trade in artefacts, Heritage Watch is opening a two-month exhibition at Angkor Wat starting October, to educate tourists about how the looting destroys Cambodia’s heritage, Davis said.

The aim of the exhibition is "try to get tourists to realise that this is going on and also to educate them, so they don’t purchase antiquities".

"Many, many tourists here buy Khmer antiquities that are stolen, and they don’t realise that they are stolen when they buy them," she added.

Nearly 20% of foreign tourists admit to buying an antiquity in Cambodia, according to a Heritage Watch study. With about one million foreigners visiting every year, that means hundreds of thousands of antiques are leaving the country, Davis said. ;;