Defence Minister Tea Banh said on Wednesday at a site inspection of the capital’s Win-Win Monument that construction is on schedule to meet its December 29 inauguration date, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the policy prime minister Hun Sen used to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to join peace talks in the early 1990s.

Dubbed the “Win-Win Monument”, the edifice is primarily meant to celebrate Hun Sen’s “Win-Win Policy” of allowing Khmer Rouge holdouts to keep their military positions in exchange for defecting to government forces, ending decades of civil war.

Sacrifice

The monument, which will commemorate the achievements of Hun Sen and is intended as a symbol of peace, is 90 per cent finished.

Construction is being sped up so it will be completed on schedule.

“The construction of the Win-Win Monument has been urged to be sped up so that it will be finished before the planned inauguration day to commemorate the 20th anniversary on December 29,” Banh said.

He said the Win-Win Monument is meant to commemorate all Cambodians throughout history who sacrificed their lives for the Kingdom, and it is intended as a symbol of the peace Cambodia obtained after the end of a devastating decades-long civil war and still enjoys.

The structure will become part of Cambodia’s heritage for future generations, he added.

He said design embellishments represented the “principles” of the win-win strategy and so people would understand it more clearly through visiting the monument, which would “become an educational institution deciphering a 20-year period of many difficulties”.

The construction of the monument began on February 2016, and it stands on eight hectares of land featuring tree-lined gardens.

The construction budget comes from a government subsidy and not from the state budget, said Banh who is also the deputy prime minister.

Costs could yet be confirmed because additional construction is required, he added.