The Cambodian government condemns the sales of products to “garnish” toilets that bear the images of Khmer temples and asked the Amazon Company to immediately remove them from its websites, e.g. amazon.com and amazon.fr.
Today’s Royal Embassy of Cambodia to the US’ press release stated that it is shocked and upset that images of Angkor temples, i.e. Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Bayon, and Beng Melea, are used on some embarrassing products – toilet seat covers, bath area rugs, toilet seat lids, etc.
The temples have been World Heritage sites since 1992 and benefit from Reinforced International Protection (UNESCO) since 2017.
The embassy wrote: “… the manufacturers went all the outrageous way to use the flag of the Cambodia as the design of a bathroom mat set.”
Ambassador Chum Sounry sent a letter to the chairman, CEO and president of Amazon, Mr Jeffrey Preston Bezos, demanding the immediate removal of these items from the websites.
“I learned with shock and dismay that Amazon put these things up for sale on its websites. These ignominious products seriously insult the national honour and prestige of Cambodia,” Mr Sounry said.
“On behalf of the Cambodian government, we ask Amazon to immediately stop these products’ sales by removing from its websites all these goods, which have been strongly condemned by all Cambodian people.”
The Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, Phoeung Sakona, said yesterday (Thursday, Jan.17) that she too has sent a letter of complaint to Amazon.
The director general of the Apsara National Authority also sent a protest letter to Amazon stressing that “it is not necessary to insist on the ignoble character of this use,and that the dissemination of these ignominious products must be stopped quickly.”
Source: “Amazon Products” – Google News