[400-year-old] Khmer Kampuchea Krom pagoda in Treang Province ravaged by fire

15 August 2007
By Moeung Tum
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

With the ongoing protest demanding that the Vietnamese government release Monk Tim Sakhorn from jail, a report indicated that a Khmer Kampuchea Krom pagoda was ravaged by fire today.

RFA Vietnamese language service reported that the temple of the Moha Tub pagoda was ravaged by fire at 3:00 AM on Wednesday 15 August 2007. The pagoda is located in Treang province (Soc Trang in Vietnamese) in Kampuchea Krom (current South Vietnam).

Venerable Kim Ren, the abbot of the Moha Tub pagoda, said that the fire was started when one of the 60 candles in the temple (Vihear) fell down.

The extent of the damage on this 400-year-old temple is not known yet, however, a source indicated that almost all the antique Buddha statues in the temple were ravaged by fire.

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.