Men Charged With Terrorism In Failed Bomb Plot

2007-08-02
By SOPHENG CHEANG
AP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: A Cambodian court charged two men with terrorism Wednesday (August 1st) in connection with a recently failed plot to blow up a monument in the heart of the country's capital, officials said.

Sok Roeun, a prosecutor at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said he charged Kem Toeun, 53, and Son Than, 42, with terrorism, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Police arrested the two men Monday (July 30th), a day after explosives disposal experts defused bombs planted at the city's Cambodia-Vietnam friendship monument, said police Maj. Gen. Chhay Sinarith, who is chief of the Interior Ministry's information department.

"Their main purpose was to destroy the monument because it is a symbol of good relations between the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments," Chhay Sinarith said, adding police were looking for more plotters.

The three homemade bombs found Sunday (July 29th) _ made of 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.

The monument was erected by a pro-Vietnamese Cambodian government nearly 20 years ago.

Both arrested men are members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Liberation Front, said Chhay Sinarith. He said the group is based outside Cambodia and advocates taking back territory in southern Vietnam that used to belong to Cambodia.

Many Cambodians resent neighboring Vietnam, which is a traditional enemy that they feel has designs on their country's land. But government-to-government relations are good _ Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was originally part of a puppet regime installed by Hanoi after the Vietnamese invasion.

Hun Sen's political opponents view the monument as a symbol of a humiliating decade-long occupation by Vietnamese troops following their invasion.

Protesters partially destroyed it during an anti-government demonstration in 1998.

The monument was later restored, and visiting Vietnamese leaders often go there to pay respects to their fallen soldiers.

Cambodian men charged with terrorism in failed bomb plot

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian court charged two men with terrorism Wednesday in connection with a recently failed plot to blow up a monument in the heart of the country's capital, officials said.

Sok Roeun, a prosecutor at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said he charged Kem Toeun, 53, and Son Than, 42, with terrorism, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Police arrested the two men Monday, a day after explosives disposal experts defused bombs planted at the city's Cambodia-Vietnam friendship monument, said police Maj. Gen. Chhay Sinarith, who is chief of the Interior Ministry's information department.

"Their main purpose was to destroy the monument because it is a symbol of good relations between the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments," Chhay Sinarith said, adding police were looking for more plotters.

The three homemade bombs found Sunday — made of 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.

The monument was erected by a pro-Vietnamese Cambodian government nearly 20 years ago.

Both arrested men are members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Liberation Front, said Chhay Sinarith. He said the group is based outside Cambodia and advocates taking back territory in southern Vietnam that used to belong to Cambodia.

Many Cambodians resent neighboring Vietnam, which is a traditional enemy that they feel has designs on their country's land. But government-to-government relations are good — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was originally part of a puppet regime installed by Hanoi after the Vietnamese invasion.

Hun Sen's political opponents view the monument as a symbol of a humiliating decade-long occupation by Vietnamese troops following their invasion.

Protesters partially destroyed it during an anti-government demonstration in 1998.

The monument was later restored, and visiting Vietnamese leaders often go there to pay respects to their fallen soldiers.

Two Held in Vietnamese Friendship Bombing Probe [-The bombing is a pretext to arrest Khmer Krom?]

Cheab Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
31 July 2007

Police have arrested two Khmer Kampuchea Krom suspects following a blast at the Vietnamese Friendship Monument in Phnom Penh Sunday.

Kim Toeun, 53, a construction worker and former Khmer Rouge brigade chief, and Son Than, 42, of unknown profession, are being held in Phnom Penh.

Both were once members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Liberation Front, said Ministry of Interior chief of information, Chhay Sinarith.

Police compared the act, which left behind two unexploded TNT-fertilizer bombs, to political activities such as those conducted by the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, who had a shootout with police in Phnom Penh in November 2000.

Chhay Sinarith called the incident a political threat to the Cambodian government but stopped short of calling it a terrorist attack.

"We see that the characteristics are not of a terrorist nature like in other countries, [especially] in the Middle East," he said. "We see that those explosions caused people's deaths. But these activities are more political in nature."

In recent weeks members of the Khmer Krom ethnic minority have complained of discrimination and detention in Vietnam.

The rights of the group has been at the center of several violent demonstrations lately, and one Khmer Krom monk recently disappeared after being defrocked in what rights groups fear was a forced expulsion to Vietnam.

2 Members of the alleged "Kampuchea Krom Front" arrested for bombing the Eyesore Friendship Monument

Tuesday July 31, 2007
Cambodian authorities arrest 2 suspected of planting homemade bombs

(Kyodo) - Cambodian authorities have arrested two people suspected of planting homemade bombs in the Cambodian capital and hope three more suspects will be arrested soon, a senior police official told Kyodo News on Tuesday.

"Two suspects were arrested yesterday, and now we are filing the case to the court," Chhay Sinarith, director of the Police General Information Department, said.

He said the suspects, identified as Son Than, 42, a motorcycle taxi driver, and Kim Toeun, 52, a construction worker, claim to belong to the Kampuchea Krom Front, which they say wants to "liberate Kampuchea Krom from Vietnam."

Kampuchea Krom, once one part of Cambodia, was ceded to Vietnam in 1949 and since then organizations and communities based there and abroad have accused Vietnam of mistreating Khmers in the region.

The Kampuchea Krom Front is, however, "small and is not harmful to the country and the people of Cambodia," Chhay Sinarith said. "They were intending to destroy the Statue of Friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam."

One of three homemade bombs packed with TNT in buckets exploded at the statue at about 5:20 a.m. Sunday, slightly damaging it.

Two other bombs were defused.

The statue, built in 1989, is several hundred meters away from Cambodia's Royal Palace.

After the 1998 general election, opposition protesters who accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being too close to Vietnam attacked the statue with axes and gasoline, destroying part of it.

It was later restored.