This story becomes more strange the more it is translated. The Vietnamese would have no problem beating the shit out of her if their piece of jewel is truly destroyed -- lucky her perhaps because it's a replicated one. LOL APSARA helps to protect the UNESCO world heritage site. They are lapdogs at best.

Tourist Wanted for Breaking Buddha Statue

he Apsara Authority and local police are searching for a tourist from New Zealand accused of breaking a statue of the Buddha inside Bayon temple at Angkor Archaeological Park last week, according to a statement issued by the Apsara Authority on Sunday.

The tourist, Willemijn Vermaat, 40, went missing inside Bayon temple on Thursday evening and her tuk-tuk driver asked the local tourism police for help finding her, according to the statement. They mounted a search party, but could not locate her until early Friday morning, when she was spotted by restoration workers and police detained her for questioning.

Police released Ms. Vermaat later on Friday, but shortly thereafter discovered that a statue inside the temple where she had been found was broken into several pieces. When they sought to take the woman back into custody, she had already left the country, the statement says.

“The Apsara Authority is cooperating with the heritage protection police and tourism police to find a criminal who destroyed the statue to condemn her according to the law,” it says.

The statue Ms. Vermaat is accused of destroying dates from the reign of Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. It was already broken into several pieces when it was originally discovered, but was restored in 1988 so that it could be put on display at Bayon.

Provincial heritage protection police chief Man Chhoeun admitted that what happened inside the temple on Thursday night was not clear, and that there was no direct evidence to show that Ms. Vermaat was responsible for the damage.

“We don’t have evidence to prove that the woman destroyed the statue, because we didn’t see it with our eyes, but we suspect this woman did it, because she was there,” he said.

Mr. Chhoeun said Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, the head of the Apsara Authority, would meet with New Zealand officials to discuss the incident.

The Apsara Authority temporarily closed Bayon temple to visitors on Saturday and transported the pieces of the statue to.....

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http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/touri ... tue-69638/

^ Wow!

Now she is being chased down by police.

Sounds like she was doing some work back in the Netherlands and decided to check out Asia on her way back to Wellington, New Zealand.

I wonder if she has plans to smash a bunch of Buddha statutes in Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, or if it was spontaneous!

Hope they catch her and find out exactly what she was doing.

Here is her picture so they can find her quicker.

this must be a bit scary, that she was locked up in some cave all night...?
when she realised, everyone had left and it was getting dark...
didnt she find the exit anymore or what happened?

It was just on the dutch television news. She is dutch and she destroyed it because she hear an inner voice telling her to do it. Nothing further what happened to her.

ralphamsterdam wrote:It was just on the dutch television news. She is dutch and she destroyed it because she hear an inner voice telling her to do it. Nothing further what happened to her.

Sounds logical to me.

It seems a little ironic she works for Sustainability Trust. http://www.sustaintrust.org.nz

I don't think they'd approve of her actions.

WoW, she sounds straight nuts! !

A Kiwi tourist has admitted to destroying a Buddha statue in Cambodia. Willemijn Vermaat claimed she smashed the relic at the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex because it “didn’t belong in the temple.”

Vermaat, 40, is accused of destroying the statue at Bayon temple on Thursday. Aspara Authority, which manages the temple complex, said in a statement that a tuk-tuk driver filed a complaint after a female passenger did not return to pay him.

A tuk-tuk is a three-wheeler transport vehicle popular in Cambodia.

The heritage police tracked down the passenger, identified as Vermaat, inside the complex early Friday morning. They just told her to leave. However, when restoration workers found the one-metre sandstone statue broken into four pieces, police suspected that the woman was the culprit behind the vandalism since she was the only person who stayed beyond the 5:30 pm closing.

The authorities want to take her back into custody, but it’s understood that she has already left the country. Although there is no direct evidence that Vermaat was the one who destroyed the statue, she has confirmed that she was the one who knocked it over.

She told APNZ that she felt “really strange,” like she was being possessed to destroy the statue, when she was in the temple.

“The temple is not a Buddhist temple, it belongs to a goddess called Inanna – and this is not something I knew, this is something they told me – one of the things that she hates ... is rubbish and she feels that her temple has been used for the wrong things,” she said.

The destroyed Buddha statue is either a centuries-old relic dating back from the 12th century or a replica that is just 26 years old. According to the Cambodia Daily, it dated back to the reign of Jayavarman VII, the founder of the Khmer Empire. However, according to the Phnom Penh Post.....

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http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/569479/2 ... Dz0dRnfrqA

ralphamsterdam wrote:It was just on the dutch television news. She is dutch and she destroyed it because she hear an inner voice telling her to do it. Nothing further what happened to her.

Too many Stroopwafles methinks.

The Angkor Wat complex is popular with tourists. Inset, the plinth where the statue stood.
By Brendan Manning

A New Zealand woman accused of destroying a Buddha statue at the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia has admitted doing it because it "didn't belong" in the temple.

Willemijn Vermaat was detained by authorities early on Friday morning but was later released.

Cambodian authorities earlier said there was no direct evidence that Ms Vermaat was responsible for destroying the statue but she confirmed to APNZ today that she had.

Ms Vermaat, who returned to Wellington last night, said she apologised to Unesco for damaging the site.

The site is described by Unesco as "one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia".

Cambodian authorities alleged Ms Vermaat destroyed the statue after she went missing inside the Bayon temple last Thursday night.

statement from the Apsara Authority said her tuk-tuk driver had asked the local tourist police service for help finding her. She was found early on Friday morning.

Ms Vermaat was detained by police for questioning but was later released, the Cambodia Daily reported.

Shortly afterwards, authorities found the 1m-high Buddha statue had been broken into four pieces at the Bayon temple.

The Apsara Authority then sought to take her back into custody, but she had already left the country.

The Cambodia Daily said the statue dated back to the reign of Jayavarman VII, in the 12th century. It was already broken into several pieces when it was discovered, and was restored in 1988 to be displayed at Bayon.

However, the Phnom Penh Post reported the statue was a replica dating back to 1988. The paper said the temples at Angkor Wat were filled with replicas due to widespread looting and war.

She admitted she had pushed over the statue, saying it "didn't belong" in the temple.

Ms Vermaat said she had been travelling alone and spoke to local police after leaving the temple, who later let her go.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman confirmed Ms Vermaat had returned to New Zealand and had contacted the ministry.

However, although she was a permanent resident of New Zealand, she was not a citizen, and was therefore "referred to her own embassy".

A spokesman from the Netherlands Embassy in Wellington said they did not comment on individual issues, but he confirmed the embassy had not received any requests from Cambodian authorities to organise compensation for the broken statue.

"So far we have not been in contact with Cambodian authorities and we are not going to actively contact Cambodian authorities.....

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http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article ... d=11342146