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| Flowers and tributes have been left at the bridge where the tragedy occurred Continue reading the main story (Photo: Reuters) |
BBC News
Cambodia is holding a day of mourning for more than 450 people killed in a festival stampede.
Prime Minister Hun Sen is due to join officials and grieving relatives for a religious ceremony at the footbridge where the tragedy happened.
A preliminary investigation has found that the swaying of the bridge near the capital, Phnom Penh, triggered a panic.
Witnesses said some people were crushed on the bridge, while others fell into the river and drowned.
Crowds of revellers had been crossing the bridge to reach an island where an annual water festival was being held on Monday.
A committee set up to investigate the disaster found that many of the people on the suspension bridge were from the countryside and were unaware that such structures often swayed, local media reported.
Between 7,000 and 8,000 are thought to have been on the bridge at the time.
Cremations
"Some started screaming that the bridge was collapsing, that people were getting electric shocks and that the iron cables were snapping, so the people pushed each other and fell down and the stampede happened," said Prum Sokha, heading the panel of inquiry.
The first funerals and cremations took place across the country on Wednesday.
Mr Hun Sen said a memorial would be built "to commemorate the souls of the people who lost their lives in the incident... and to remember the serious tragedy for the nation and the Cambodian people".
But many relatives say they want answers.
"I feel very sad and angry about what happened," said Phea Channara at a funeral service for his 24-year-old sister near Phnom Penh.
"I wonder if the police really did their job. Why did they allow it to happen?"
Mr Hun Sen has described the stampede as the country's biggest tragedy since the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s, which left an estimated 1.7 million people dead.
5 comments:
The spirit of the deaths will get into them.
Government officials and all media controlled by CPP tried to hide another cause of the death:
ELECTRICUTE by the bridge wires.
The fact finding commission must be independent, committee members who handed pick by the government could NOT find out the true cause of the death. Its finding result will be manipulated as the case of the Chea Vichea killing.
As the first report by Channel NewsAsia and the interview of the injured people by Phnom Penh Post Newspaper, the electrocute on the bridge caused the stampede.
The death of more than 450 people could not be justified by the stampede only on 7 meters wide and 100 meters long bridge. A doctor at Calmette Hospital who refused to give his name said most the death from suffixation and electrocute. Also, during this mayhem there were reports of turning off the lights on the bridge.
It's a great insult to the death and injured people by denying the electrical shock factor.
Blaming only on the stampede, Koh Pich Company who owned by relatives of the powerful and pro-CPP tycoon, will not be liable for this disaster.
Suing or prosecuting the rich, the powerful and the tycoon in Cambodia is out of question, but if we could not find the real cause, we never could fix the problem.
This was a man made tragedy, not a natural disaster.
Please find out the truth so we could really learn from it, and all the death can rest in peace.
Your Majesty Samdech Ta former King Norodom Sihanouk,
Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen,
Thank you for your both kindness and understanding.
What we need is prevention methods, not to let this type of accident happen again in the future.
It also makes me very worried to see so much alcohol allowed to enter or be produced in our beloved Kingdom of Cambodia? What about “ YA BA “ and other types of DRUGS from Thailand and Vietnam?
Can His Majesty Samdech Ta and Samdech Hun Sen stop all sorts of drugs coming to Cambodia? The accident may not be related to drugs and alcohol but just some thing that I could not sleep peacefully from now on to the future, in the names sake of true Khmer citizen.
Can Samdech Hun Sen kindly ask all 5 million Vietnamese illegal immigrants to peacefully return to Vietnam, so Koh Pich will not be too crowded more and more every day, every month and every year to come.
All Vietnamese illegal immigrants can easily come in and settle inside Cambodia even though they already have their own country Vietnam.
When Cambodia is too crowded, definitely we Khmer people can not go to settle inside Vietnam, can we?
Please Vietnamese, you said you came to rescue us from Pol Pot, and you don’t want to return home, it is not right according to 23rd October 1991 Paris Peace Agreement, can all of you go back to your country now.
Vietnamese illegal immigrants, you see because 5 million of you are inside Cambodia, it makes us too crowded and we wasted our lives at Koh Pich without good reasons.
Your Vietnamese Communism expansionist mind in Cambodia, is to give an excuse to China mainland to occupy your Spratly Islands, Parcel Islands, the whole of your Eastern sea border and perhaps the Northern border sooner or later.
5 million Vietnamese illegal immigrants in Cambodia, please go back home to defend your country from Chinese mighty economic invasion.
May I pray to God and the Lord Jesus Christ that those who have lost loved one will be comforted.
My condolences to all the victim's family.
Regards,
Kulen Monorom
(The rice farmer's son)
Does Hun Sen tears at Koh Pich stampede memorial is real or just crocodile tears?
If Hun Sen really care for Khmer people and the Country after Hun Sen shed some tears at Koh Pich stampede memorial let wait and see whether Hun Sen has sincere condolences for Khmer people at Koh Pich bridge stampede victims the following must change and happen:
1.The victims of Koh Pich bridge stampede must get financial assistance as Hun Sen promised.
2. Any kind of land eviction must provide appropriate compensation for the people.
3. Boeung Kak residents must get appropriate compensation.
4. Higher salaries for working Khmer.
5. Hun Sen must stop using forces brutally against peaceful demonstration.
6. Hun Sen must stop influx yuon immigrations to Cambodia.
7. Hun Sen must finish his mandate as Prime Minster and resign.
Will some of these above happen after Hun Sen crocodile tears at Koh Pich stampede memorial on 25 Nomvember 2010 today.
No need to wait and see none of above will not happen because Hun Sen can not make any decision of doing any of above because his master yuon will not let these happen in Cambodia.
Most Khmer who know their own real history know that why Yuon installed Hun Sen and Khmer Viet Minh in 1979 for?
It all about Indochina Federation to kill and put Khmer and Lao people and Khmer and Lao countries under Yuon yoke.
So Hun Sen tears shed at Koh Pich bridge stampede memorial is crocodile tears.
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