TAIPING, Malaysia, July 28, 2009 (AFP) - More than six decades after the end of World War II, the graves of fallen soldiers are still carefully tended amidst Southeast Asia's jungles, paddy fields, and emerging cities.

On a plot half the size of a football field surrounded by jungle in Malaysia's northern Perak state, 866 polished tombstones stand in serried ranks in an eternal parade at the Taiping War Cemetery.

As a few curious visitors file through, workers toil under the tropical sun, trimming shrubbery and planting bushes in between the manicured lawns.

The men and women buried here are some of the 1.7 million war dead commemorated in similar cemeteries worldwide by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), providing a permanent memorial to the fallen.

Set up in 1917 to provide graves for Commonwealth dead of World War I, the commission today has 23,277 sites in more than 150 countries and territories, commemorating those
lost in the two "great" wars and subsequent conflicts.

World War II saw the Japanese military engage Allied troops in British Malaya (now Malaysia), Singapore, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and most of the commission's Asian cemeteries are located in these countries.

After hostilities ended in 1945, smaller plots were added to accommodate Commonwealth troops who died in post-war conflicts like Indonesia's independence war and Malaysia's communist insurgency.

"It is not easy to maintain these cemeteries as some are deep inside remote jungles and others on mountains, the cemeteries often marking where the men fell," said the comission's regional horticultural training officer David Bennett.

Singapore-based Bennett, who has been with the CWGC for more than two decades, says the cemeteries must meet exacting standards.

"We try to keep the same strict standard of maintenance and horticulture at all our cemeteries worldwide and all the cemeteries look almost identical, whether it is the Somme in France or the Kranji war cemetery in Singapore."

"The idea is to provide the families and relatives of those who lost their lives in the various wars a well-tended place where the remains of their loved ones rest and where they will always be remembered."

Last year, the commission spent 80 million dollars on its work, with funds contributed by Australia, Britain, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa -- whose nationals form the majority of the war dead.

However, many of these cemeteries, which for some years saw visitor numbers dwindle, are suddenly seeing a resurgence of interest as younger generations discover the history of their countries.

"In Southeast Asia, many of the wars and conflicts were fought by men and women who were very far away from home and they lie here after giving up their lives for a greater global cause," says historian Jeyathurai Ayadurai, who runs the Changi Prisoner of War museum in Singapore.

"Today, countries in the region are independent nations with our young men serving in our military and the younger generation are encouraged to visit these memorials so no one forgets the contributions of these men and women."

Bennett says the Kranji cemetery, which commemorates 24,675 war dead, sees close to 10,000 visitors annually. The most popular sites in the region are at Kanchanaburi in northern Thailand, with more than 50,000 visitors a year.

"The cemeteries in Thailand are very popular among tourists because of the Siam-Burma death railway made popular by the movie 'The Bridge over the River Kwai' which showed the horrors POWs went through in building the railway," he says.

Some 13,000 prisoners of war succumbed to abuse, malnutrition and disease during the 14 months it took to carve the 424-kilometre (263-mile) railway through dense jungles and mountains, under orders from their Japanese captors.

It is also estimated that 80,000 to 100,000 Asian civilians, who were also used as forced labour, perished in the railway's construction but most of their remains have no known markers or graves.

Tourists from around the world, including Japan, arrive by the busload to visit the cemeteries, where the graves are marked with bronze plaques carrying the soldier's name, age and unit if known.

"They view the cemeteries more as a tourist attraction but we don't mind as long as people are respectful, and this only helps to get more people interested in our work," Bennett says.

A renewed interest in the period has also seen other memorials constructed in the region.

Kanchanaburi's Hellfire Pass Museum and memorial was established north of the town in 1998 by Australia and Thailand to mark the place where 124 men died in the three months it took to build a cutting through solid limestone -- a crucial part of the railway.

The notorious site was given its name by POWs, who faced beatings, disease and starvation, and who said that the noise and light from bamboo torches and carbide lamps made it look in the late evening like the "fires from hell."

Funds were also allocated to build the Sandakan Memorial Park on Borneo Island in 1999, to mark the place where 2,400 Australian and British POWs perished in forced "death marches" at the end of the war.

However, not all Commonwealth war dead and those who died in following conflicts get the full CWGC treatment.

Although the commission takes care of all graves located within its cemeteries, it is unable to care for war dead who are buried in other cemeteries but they do provide uniform headstones.

For Stephen Toon, a leader of Australia's National Malaya and Borneo Veteran's Association, it is important to keep the graves of all those who fought in good order.

"Last year, we visited the civilian Kamunting Road cemetery just a few kilometres from the Taiping War cemetery where 28 Australian servicemen along with several British and Commonwealth troops were buried but it was all overgrown and a mess," he told AFP.

Toon, with the help of Australian Air Force personnel stationed in Malaysia worked to clean up the site and held a formal remembrance ceremony at the cemetery in June this year.

"It is important that we honour our war dead and it shouldn't matter whether they lie in a recognised cemetery or not," he said.

"What is important is the fact that after so many decades, we still remember all of those who had fallen so that we can enjoy the peace and prosperity that we have today."