The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Explosives experts prevented homemade bombs from going off on Sunday at a controversial monument in the heart of the Cambodian capital, officials said.
The bombs, a mixture of TNT and fertilizer packed in three buckets, were planted at a monument dedicated to Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia to topple the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
The monument is located in a park about 500 meters (yards) from the southern wall of the Royal Palace, where King Norodom Sihamoni and his parents live.
"If we had not succeeded in destroying the bombs, that monument would have collapsed," Hok Lundy, Cambodia's national police chief, told reporters.
The monument was erected by a communist Cambodian government nearly 20 years ago.
Political opponents of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was also prime minister of the Vietnamese-installed government, view the monument as a symbol of a decade-long occupation of Cambodia by Vietnamese troops following the invasion.
Suon Rindy, deputy cabinet chief of the Phnom Penh Municipality, called the failed bomb attack an "act of sabotage that was aimed at stirring up the political climate" in Cambodia.
He declined to speculate on the motives behind the act, citing an ongoing investigation.
Protesters partially destroyed it during a postelection protest in 1998.
The monument was restored later, and Vietnamese leaders often go to pay respects to their fallen soldiers during visits to Cambodia.
"Since the bombs were planted at the monument, they were clearly intended to destroy it. If the plotters just wanted to create some noise, they would not have had to place the bombs here," said Touch Naroth, the capital's police chief.
He said police flocked to the site after the fuse of one of the bombs exploded at around 5:30 a.m. (0030 GMT), but it failed to set off the full blast.
Mine-clearers used ropes to tie up the explosives and dragged them off the middle platform of the monument to the ground. The fuse for the second bomb went off but caused no damage or injury.
They later set up a sandbagged bunker to detonate the third and last bomb.
The bombs, a mixture of TNT and fertilizer packed in three buckets, were planted at a monument dedicated to Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia to topple the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
The monument is located in a park about 500 meters (yards) from the southern wall of the Royal Palace, where King Norodom Sihamoni and his parents live.
"If we had not succeeded in destroying the bombs, that monument would have collapsed," Hok Lundy, Cambodia's national police chief, told reporters.
The monument was erected by a communist Cambodian government nearly 20 years ago.
Political opponents of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was also prime minister of the Vietnamese-installed government, view the monument as a symbol of a decade-long occupation of Cambodia by Vietnamese troops following the invasion.
Suon Rindy, deputy cabinet chief of the Phnom Penh Municipality, called the failed bomb attack an "act of sabotage that was aimed at stirring up the political climate" in Cambodia.
He declined to speculate on the motives behind the act, citing an ongoing investigation.
Protesters partially destroyed it during a postelection protest in 1998.
The monument was restored later, and Vietnamese leaders often go to pay respects to their fallen soldiers during visits to Cambodia.
"Since the bombs were planted at the monument, they were clearly intended to destroy it. If the plotters just wanted to create some noise, they would not have had to place the bombs here," said Touch Naroth, the capital's police chief.
He said police flocked to the site after the fuse of one of the bombs exploded at around 5:30 a.m. (0030 GMT), but it failed to set off the full blast.
Mine-clearers used ropes to tie up the explosives and dragged them off the middle platform of the monument to the ground. The fuse for the second bomb went off but caused no damage or injury.
They later set up a sandbagged bunker to detonate the third and last bomb.
2 comments:
Thanks for waking up,at least we are starting,Ankorian blood you use to be the fightres now and the future you are still, GO FOR THAT
Every fucken time I walked next to this fucken Vietcong monument, I really feel very degrading as Cambodian! This fucken monument is trying to convey some fucken ideas which didn't even exist! This fucken monument is trying to show that the Vietcong are saving or helping the Cambodian woman and her child! If the Vietcong really save Cambodian people why do 2 million Cambodian people have to die!!!Why?
It is the fact that the Khmer Rouge soldiers were attacking the Vietcong and the Vietcong response back with a full scale invasion of Cambodia to take advantage of the Killing Field! The Vietcong prolong the war for another 10 years which more Cambodian people were dying fighting another Cambodian people!
Remembered! The Vietcong prevented all international aid from reaching Cambodian people for 2 years since the invasion and by then hundred of thousand and thousand more Cambodian people died of starvation! Now tell me! Is this saving Cambodian people by the Vietcong? No! This is more killing by the Vietcong of Cambodian people!
Shame on the Vietcong who claimed as the liberator!
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