Cambodian bombings linked to Hong Kong crime syndicates
Cambodian bombings linked to Hong Kong crime syndicates
PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday blamed a bomb strike that left three people dead on "terrorists" while a leading royalist linked the attack to Hong Kong organized crime syndicates.
"I think the Hong Kong Hotel was involved with the mafia from Hong Kong," Prince Norodom Ranariddh, chairman of the National Assembly, said.
An initial bomb exploded at the Hong Kong Hotel and Restaurant on Wednesday, along the Cambodian capital's busiest street Monivong Boulevard, but the area had been evacuated after police reacted to a tip-off.
As police cordoned off the area and people gathered at the scene, a second bomb exploded about 100 meters away at the Hotel Favour.
Ranariddh did not detail any further links with Hong Kong but added: "I think it (the bombing) was not because of political reasons."
He told journalists the blast would affect the prestige of Cambodia."Some investors and tourists will worry and I have urged the government to investigate as soon as possible."
Earlier Prime Minister Hun Sen said he suspected terrorists were behind the blasts but stressed the damage paled when compared with other countries.
He referred to the Oklahoma bombing in the United States, which six years ago left 168 people dead, as an example.
"Cambodia doesn't have any more wars. There is nobody who will come to burn or destroy (Cambodia) again. But yesterday there was a terrorist act which seems to have the intention of taking revenge," he told villagers in Kampong Speu province, west of Phnom Penh.
Three people died, including a police officer, and at least 11 people were injured after bombs ripped through two Khmer-owned hotels. Police linked the strikes to a series of extortion demands, one for $100,000.
He declined to say who may have been responsible for Wednesday's bombings.
Phnom Penh police chief Suon Chheangly told AFP on Thursday that investigations had uncovered several clues but he decline to give further details saying this would jeopardize police efforts.
He confirmed a man claiming to represent a group called "Maria" had made a series of demands to police and the hotels in several telephone calls leading up to the bombings.
In another development, Cambodia's royalist FUNCINPEC party on Thursday named Prince Norodom Sirivudh, who was convicted of plotting to kill Hun Sen in 1995, as its secretary-general.
At a ceremony marking his appointment, former foreign minister Sirivudh called for continued cooperation between FUNCINPEC and Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
"I am happy to be the secretary-general again. I promise that I will follow and support the policies of the party," he said in a speech.
"We need cooperation between the two big parties, CPP and FUNCINPEC, for national reconciliation and to have security and political stability in order to develop the country," said Sirivudh.
The prince, half-brother of King Norodom Sihanouk, was secretary-general of the party when Hun Sen accused him of plotting to assassinate him in 1995.
Sirivudh denied any plan to kill the then Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. The accusation, and Sirivudh's conviction, came as relations between uneasy coalition partners FUNCINPEC and Hun Sen's CPP were rapidly breaking down.
The prince was allowed to leave the country and was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison. He lived in exile before returning in 1999 under a royal amnesty granted by the king.
Sirivudh is popular among FUNCINPEC members who believe he will recharge the party, the junior member of the current coalition government.