We Must Never Forget

December 2, 2010
Originally posted at http://sochua.wordpress.com

Koh Pich 22/11. Why did it happen?

The sacred memories of our brothers and sisters will not be forgotten: let us wear the black ribbon for 100 days

Cambodia holds day of mourning for stampede dead

A Cambodian man compares a photo to those of stampede victims at Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010. Thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital late Monday, leaving over three hundred dead and scores injured in what Prime Minister Hun Sen called the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge

A Cambodian man carries the body of his son killed in a stampede, at Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010. Thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital late Monday, leaving over three hundred dead and scores injured in what Prime Minister Hun Sen called the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge.

A Cambodian doctor checks blood pressure of survivors of Monday's stampede at Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010.

Survivors of Monday's stampede lie on a bed at Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010. Thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital late Monday, leaving over three hundred dead and scores injured in what Prime Minister Hun Sen called the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge.

A crowd looks at a bridge where people stampeded during a water festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010. Thousands of people stampeded during the festival in the Cambodian capital, leaving over three hundred dead and scores injured in what the prime minister called the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge. (Heng Sinith, AP Photo)

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010
By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodia began a day of mourning Thursday with the prime minister weeping at the spot where hundreds died during a wild riverside stampede.

Prime Minister Hun Sen cried as he lit candles and incense at a narrow bridge where thousands of festival-goers panicked, trampling hundreds underfoot on Monday night. He was joined by the Bassac River in the capital Phnom Penh by his wife Bun Rany and Cabinet members. Flags throughout the country were flying at half-mast and a Buddhist ceremony was scheduled for later in the day.

There has been confusion over the death toll from the tragedy. The latest official casualty tally was 347 dead and 395 injured, down from earlier official figures.

A government investigation showed that as the suspension bridge swayed under the weight of thousands of revelers, some began to shout that the structure was going to collapse. Others pushed, heaved and even jumped off the span as a panic took hold that ended in the mass deaths.

"People became panicked when they saw other people fall down, and they started running when they heard cries that the bridge was going to collapse," city police chief Touch Naroth told AP Television News on Wednesday.

The official probe into the accident continues with a final report expected next week, said Om Yentieng, a member of the investigating committee, Thursday. He said earlier casualty figures were not correct due to overlapping of counts by various institutions.

Hun Sen has described the stampede as the biggest tragedy since the communist Khmer Rouge's reign of terror, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people in the late 1970s.

During Thursday's official day of mourning, the Tourism Ministry has asked all entertainment venues, including karaoke parlors, nightclubs, beer gardens and discotheques, to close for the day.

The stampede happened during celebrations of a three-day holiday marking the end of the monsoon season, when as many as 2 million people are believed to have come to the capital. As festivities wrapped up Monday night, tens of thousands flocked to a free concert on an island in the Bassac River.

An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 people were streaming over a bridge that connects the island to the mainland when it began to sway, according to Banyon TV, which serves as a mouthpiece for the government and was citing the investigation committee.

Om Yentieng said there were no signs on the dead bodies that any had been electocuted as some earlier reports suggested.

Street cleaners late Wednesday removed the debris that littered the yellow-and-gray bridge after the disaster: rubber sandals and other footwear, plastic bracelets, water bottles, condom wrappers and pieces of sugar cane pieces, a local snack.

Cambodia PM weeps for stampede dead [-If Mr. Hun Xen really regrets this accident, responsibility taking is of the order next]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen cries during a memorial service near a bridge where festival goers were killed Monday in a stampede in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thursday, November 25, 2010
UKPA

Cambodia's prime minister has wept at the spot where hundreds died during a wild riverside stampede, as the country began a day of mourning for victims.

Hun Sen's tears came as he lit candles and incense at the narrow bridge where tens of thousands of festival-goers panicked, trampling hundreds underfoot, on Monday.

There has been confusion over the exact number of deaths. The latest official casualty tally from the incident was 347 dead and 395 injured, down from earlier official figures.

The premier was joined at the Bassac River in the capital Phnom Penh by his wife Bun Rany and cabinet members. Flags throughout the country were flying at half-mast and a Buddhist ceremony was being held.

A government investigation showed that as the suspension bridge swayed under the weight of thousands of revellers, some began to shout that the structure was going to collapse. Others pushed, heaved and even jumped off the span as a panic took hold that ended in the mass deaths.

The official probe into the accident continues with a final report expected next week, said Om Yentieng, a member of the investigating committee. He said earlier casualty figures were not correct due to overlapping of counts by various institutions.

Hun Sen described the stampede as the biggest tragedy since the communist Khmer Rouge's reign of terror, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people in the late 1970s.

During the day of mourning, the tourism ministry asked all entertainment venues, including karaoke parlours, nightclubs, beer gardens and discos, to close for the day.

The stampede happened during celebrations of a three-day holiday marking the end of the monsoon season, when as many as two million people were believed to have come to the capital.

As festivities wrapped up on Monday night, tens of thousands flocked to a free concert on an island in the Bassac River. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 people were streaming over a bridge that connects the island to the mainland when it began to sway, according to Banyon TV, which serves as a mouthpiece for the government and was citing the investigation committee.

National Mourning at Koh Pich Bridge (Photo: AP, AFP, Reuters)

Cambodia marks memorial day for hundreds who died in bridge crush

Nov 25, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Senior government officials laid wreaths on Thursday at a bridge in the capital where hundreds died earlier this week during a crush.

Flags flew at half-mast across the capital as Prime Minister Hun Sen and politicians from all parties laid wreaths and lit incense for 347 revellers known to have died late Monday evening on the final day of the annual Water Festival.

Hundreds of ordinary Cambodians also paid their respects, as did dozens of foreign nationals working in the capital.

At the ceremony, Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema told the German Press Agency dpa that the authorities would learn the lessons for next year.

'You can see the bridge is not (built to) carry thousands and thousands of people,' he said. 'And that's why this disaster happened - it is the very worst.'

'And in my position as the governor of Phnom Penh, I am very sorry to our people and the families (of those dead or injured),' he said.

Earlier the government revised the death toll down to 347, after conflicting reports late Wednesday that the number of dead had reached 456.

Hundreds more were injured when an estimated 8,000 people became trapped on the 100-metre long pedestrian bridge linking mainland Phnom Penh to the Diamond Island entertainment area.

There have been calls for the bridge to be demolished in the wake of the tragedy.

On Wednesday the government issued an appeal for cash and material help for victims of Monday's crush 'in the spirit of solidarity in order to help and share the victims' difficulties.'

Representatives from King Norodom Sihamoni and the ruling party handed out food and clothing to survivors at Phnom Penh's Calmette Hospital on Thursday.

Both the government and the private developer of the Diamond Island complex, which built the small suspension bridge, have denied responsibility for insufficient crowd control measures.

The government said most of the victims suffocated or died from internal injuries when the crowd panicked. A preliminary report stated that chaos ensued after the bridge started swaying.

The crush happened around 9:30 pm (1430 GMT) Monday, the final day of the annual Water Festival, an event that authorities said attracted around 2 million people to the capital, temporarily doubling its population.

An unknown number of people jumped off the bridge, and some people are still believed to be missing.

Cambodia in day of mourning

Nov 25, 2010
AFP

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIANS hold a national day of mourning on Thursday after more than 450 people died in a festival stampede that officials believe was caused by rumours that an overcrowded bridge was collapsing.

Grieving relatives and government officials, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, were expected to attend an early morning religious ceremony at the scene of the tragedy on Monday, the final day of the Water Festival.

Authorities said the throngs of revellers crossing to an island in Phnom Penh that was one of the main festival sites panicked as rumours rippled through the packed crowd that the bridge was about to give way.

'The deaths happened because the bridge was overcrowded and there was panic that the bridge was collapsing because it is hung by cables and it was swaying,' said Prum Sokha, who is heading a panel investigating the tragedy.

'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.

'The people had nowhere to run,' said Mr Sokha, secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior. The government admitted it had overlooked issues of crowd control, while the victims' families expressed growing anger about security at the event, which attracted some three million revellers from all over Cambodia.

Entertainment in Cambodia ordered to close on Thursday to mourn dead from stampede tragedy

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian Ministry of Tourism has ordered all entertainment businesses to close on Thursday to mourn the dead from Monday's stampede tragedy, an official said on Wednesday.

"To join mourning the dead, the Ministry of Tourism instructs the owners of entertainment businesses such as karaokes, night clubs, discotheques, beer gardens, and restaurants entertained with concerts to close their businesses for one day on Nov. 25 from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.," said a directive signed by So Mara, secretary of state for the ministry.

So Mara told Xinhua on Wednesday that the ban is following the order from the government to all ministries and institutions and private enterprises to take Nov. 25 as the national day of mourning the death in the stampede tragedy, and flying national flags with half-mast.

"As the whole nation takes Nov. 25 to mourn, entertainment is not allowed on that day in Cambodia," he said. "On Thursday, if we find any entertainment businesses violate this directive, we will revoke their operating license."

The stampede tragedy happened at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday at Diamond Island's north bridge during the last day of the Water Festival, leaving at least 378 people killed and 755 others injured.

Lieutenant General Sok Phal, deputy chief of the National Police and vice-president of the special committee for the accident investigation, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the death was caused by accident as people were not aware that the bridge is a suspension bridge, so when the bridge swung and some shouted that the bridge was collapsing, it spurred turmoil among the crowds.

He said the dead people were due to suffocation and stampede, no any sign of electrocution or terrorism.

Cambodia's Water Festival from Nov. 20 to 22 is the largest annual festival in the Southeast Asian nation, around 3 million Cambodians, especially those from rural areas converged to the city to enjoy the regatta.

Koh Pich accident: Sorrow and mourning (Photos from AP, Reuters)

Condolences from the Cambodian Labour Confederation

Monks bless dead after horror [-Koh Pich bridge: the "gate to hell"]

Nov 24, 2010
Reuters

DESPERATE SCREAMS


Scores of people leapt to their deaths from the pedestrian bridge, unable to swim and dragged under water amid frantic splashing as desperate and panicked people plunged down from above.


While many victims drowned, most perished while trapped under the weight of hundreds of fleeing revellers.


Hours after the tragedy, the scene was untouched. Shoes, flip-flops and ripped clothing piled up a foot high across some parts of the 80m bridge linking Phnom Penh to a gawdy man-made entertainment island packed with restaurants, fairground rides and exhibition centres.

Hundreds of onlookers endured the stench of rotting garbage and tip-toed across the trampled grass to get a glimpse at the place where so many died.

Many people sat in silence on the steep banks of the Tonle Sap, a tributary of the Mekong River, listening to the chanting of hundreds of Buddhist monks who laid flowers and lit incense to bless the dead.

Flags were flown at half mast across the city of about 2 million people, which swelled during the festival as hundreds of thousands flocked in from surrounding provinces for the festival marking the end of the rainy season.

Television repeatedly showed footage of shirtless, shoeless bodies laid out on the ground and on hospital floors, many open-eyed and covered in bruises.

Relatives of the dead wept at the Khmer-Soviet hospital, where more than 100 unclaimed and unidentified bodies, most of them teenagers, lay side-by-side, covered in white sheets.

'I didn't feel safe on the bridge, there were just too many people, so I crossed just in time,' said Bothra Cheahcha, whose friends were among the dead.

'It's tragic and I was so lucky,' he said. 'I feel like I'm reborn, like I have been given a second chance at life.' -- REUTERS

PHNOM PENH - SAFFRON-ROBED Buddhist monks chanted as onlookers gazed silently across a bridge piled with the shoes and torn clothing left behind by victims of a stampede in Cambodia's capital.

The body count stood at 375 by sunset on Tuesday and was expected to rise. Many people were missing and Cambodians had many questions about one of the darkest days of their country's recent and troubled history.

The cause of the stampede on the Diamond Gate bridge late on Monday, the last day of an annual three-day Water Festival, remained a mystery.

'Everyone is shocked that this can happen to us,' said Chhun Sreypong, 45, clutching her one-year-old baby and looking out across Phnom Penh's Tonle Sap river, from where scores of limp bodies were dragged.

'Those who died were mostly youngsters. Many mothers have lost their children. No one knows why this happened.' Survivors gave chilling accounts of being buried under piles of bodies, alive and dead, for as long as three hours, crying for help and clambering for air, open-mouthed as police doused the trapped crowd with water cannons.

'People were shouting for help and began to push,' said Touch Theara, 38, who was among the thousands who flocked to Diamond Island to eat in restaurants, listen to live music and buy cheap clothes. Her sister and her friend died on the bridge, which some described as a 'gate to hell'. About 755 people were injured.

Cambodia mourns festival tragedy

Stampede Toll Increases in Cambodia

Questions Mount About Cause of the Deadly Accident, as Country Prepares for a Day of Mourning.

NOVEMBER 24, 2010

By PATRICK BARTA

The Wall Street Journal

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Questions about what caused a deadly bridge stampede in Cambodia's capital late Monday mounted as the country prepared for a day of mourning later in the week.

The death toll from the stampede, at the end of Cambodia's annual water festival, rose to 378 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured. Many of the injured rested on mats in the hallways of Phnom Penh's main hospital, which didn't have enough rooms for the victims, while relatives identified bodies laid out at the back of property. Authorities trawled waters beneath the bridge where the disaster occurred for more bodies.

It wasn't clear what triggered the stampede. Some witnesses said it was set off when a handful of festival-goers crossing the crowded bridge, between downtown Phnom Penh and a nearby river island, fell unconscious, triggering a panic. Efforts to escape intensified the gridlock, as people pushed in both directions, immobilizing the crowd. Many people said they were unable to move anything but their heads for more than an hour, in some cases resting on top of dead bodies.

Survivors said they were convinced that some of the victims had been electrocuted after authorities allegedly sprayed water onto the bridge to help disperse the crowds. The bridge was illuminated with bright lights, but it was unclear whether water could have triggered any electrocutions.

Many victims were screaming for authorities to cut off the electricity, said Ly Chea Oun, a 17-year-old Phnom Penh student, who said several people were electrocuted as he lay stuck in the tangle of bodies. He had nearly made it across the bridge when leaving the island, but got stuck when a tide of people overwhelmed him. He was later rescued and taken to the hospital.

Government spokesmen denied that water cannons were used or that people were electrocuted, and said they were still trying to determine the full cause of the disaster. Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered an investigation and said Thursday would be a national day of mourning.

Other victims said the bridge simply was too narrow to handle the enormous crowds of people attending concerts on the island, which is part of a major new real-estate development called Diamond Island, or Koh Pich, directly across from Phnom Penh's central downtown area on the Tonle Bassac River.

The $300 million project, expected to cover 75 or more hectares of housing, convention and other facilities over the next several years, is being developed by local developers with financing from one of Cambodia's biggest financial institutions, Canadia Bank PLC, according to local media reports.

A Canadia Bank representative said Tuesday he believed the tragedy was caused because there were many people on the bridge, and someone was pushed over. He said he had heard no reliable reports concerning electrocutions.

"This can't be blamed on anybody," said the representative, Charles Vann, an executive vice president at Canadia Bank, as he toured Phnom Penh's main hospital with an entourage of staff handing out money to victims, including $1,000 to relatives of the deceased and $200 to the injured. "This is an incident nobody expected."

He said more bridges would be added in the future.

The disaster came at the end of Cambodia's annual three-day water festival, when an estimated two million or more people descend on Phnom Penh from other parts of Cambodia and from overseas. Many go to see boat races along the city's riverfront that mark the end of the rainy season, with teams of rowers in traditional boats.

Many expatriates view the festival as a time to get out of Phnom Penh, which they say doesn't have the infrastructure to handle such an influx of people. Many rural visitors sleep in crowded homes of relatives or in city parks.

"It's basically a gridlock of bodies," said Stephanie Zito, a spokesperson for international relief agency World Vision, who attended the event and said at one point she spent more than an hour trying to traverse eight city blocks jammed by throngs of people. Her group on Tuesday was helping source medical supplies and other necessities.

Local hospitals were beginning to catch up with the demand for services by late Tuesday, with many of the injured festival-goers heading back to their villages. But many of the more-seriously injured were being treated in hospital hallways, resting on straw mats with mobile intravenous drips. Most of the male patients were shirtless, many still dazed.

Chheum Chhean, a 25-year-old who paints Buddha images in pagodas outside of the capital, said he had made it about halfway across the bridge when he felt people pushing in both directions, and he started to get pinned in. Soon he was barely able to keep his head above the bodies.

"When I was in the middle, I heard nothing," he said as rested in the hallway at Calmette Hospital with a tin of sterilized milk and several small bags of cooked rice. "There was no air—it was difficult to breathe." Later, he was freed and walked two or three steps before collapsing unconscious, he said.

Outside, relatives of victims scanned poster boards covered with of images of the dead taken soon after their bodies were uncovered. Wooden boxes were stacked up waiting to be filled as relatives identified bodies lined up under white sheets in an open-air morgue.

One woman, 48-year-old Neing Kan, said she had come to Calmette Hospital from the countryside after she saw the news on television and was unable to reach her daughter, who attended the concerts with her son-in-law and eight-month-old grandson. She came carrying a photograph of her daughter, a young woman with black hair, standing next to a river in a white dress. She said she was afraid to view the bodies and she was asking passersby if they could help.

One man said he recognized the young woman and had seen her body in a morgue at another hospital. Ms. Neing Kan slumped over a parked Toyota Camry and wept, but later decided to spend the night with a relative before visiting the other hospital.

Another family entered the hospital's morgue to find a 14-year-old girl under a white sheet on the pavement. She had been attending the concert with her uncle, but he walked ahead of her and then lost her in the sea of people. The girl's aunt, Eng Sreymorn, identified the corpse. Afterward, two young men moved the body into an orange bag and zipped it up so it could be put in one of the coffins. That left three other bodies still to be identified.

Write to Patrick Barta at patrick.barta@wsj.com

Thailand mourns king's sister

Undated photo shows Princess Galyani, during a ceremony in Bangkok. The only sister of Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej died of abdominal cancer on Wednesday at the age of 84, the royal household said. (AFP)

Wednesday 02 January 2008
Radio Netherlands

Bangkok (2 January) - The formation of a new Thai government has been postponed following the death of Princess Galyani, the sister of King Bhumibol. The king's sister had been diagnosed with cancer in June. There will be a 15-day period of national mourning.

Two parties which were about to announce their support for a coalition government have delayed the announcement for the time being.

Thailand's People Power Party of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which was the big winner in the 23 December elecitions, is in the process of forming a new government.