Ethnic Vietnamese shot dead ahead of Cambodia poll

Ethnic Vietnamese shot dead ahead of Cambodia poll

PHNOM PENH (Reuters): Three ethnic Vietnamese were among four fishing people shot dead by masked gunmen in an attack that bodes ill for Cambodia's July 26 election, a senior government official said yesterday.

Five masked gunmen on Wednesday killed the four members of a fishing family in their boat, moored for the night on the bank of the Mekong River in Kratie province, 140 km from Phnom Penh, deputy provincial governor Pao Homphan said.

"This killing leads to a bad atmosphere for the coming election," Pao Homphan said. "They asked for money, and then they killed them. The attackers did not take anything from the family."

The attackers later sped off in a motor boat, he added. Anti-Vietnamese sentiment tapping into Cambodia's traditional fear of domination by its much larger neighbor has proved a sure draw for politicians in the run-up to the election.

Main opposition politicians Prince Norodom Ranariddh and former finance minister Sam Rainsy, leading a party that wears his name, have promised to expel illegal immigrants from Vietnam if they win the vote.

A spokesman for the Vietnamese embassy said the political rhetoric threatened the safety of ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia.

"In recent days some politicians are increasing the use of anti-Vietnamese words and rhetoric...this is a dangerous political game," spokesman Dinh Van Thanh told Reuters.

The speeches have not escaped Hanoi's attention, he said. "Of course it is harmful to the development of relations between the two countries and it sows suspicion and discord between Vietnamese and Cambodians," he said.

People of ethnic Vietnamese origin are widely believed to be more likely to vote for the de facto ruling party, the Cambodian People's Party of government leader Hun Sen.

Hun Sen's party ruled Cambodia from 1979 to 1993, with support from Hanoi. In January 1979, Vietnamese troops ousted the Maoist Khmer Rouge government, responsible for the death of more than a million people.

The international community hopes to see the elections restore democracy in Cambodia, shattered last July after Hun Sen ousted coalition partner and co-premier Norodom Ranariddh in two days of fighting.

Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC party won the UN-organized polls of 1993, but after Hun Sen objected to their result, agreed to share power with him in order to avoid renewed factional strife.