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.