Khmer Rouge now kidnapping westerners - police
Khmer Rouge now kidnapping westerners - police
PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Khmer Rouge guerrillas have begun a new
policy of kidnapping westerners in Cambodia to raise money and
scare off foreign investors, a police commander said yesterday.
The government blamed the Maoist guerrillas for the abduction
on April 11 of Britons Dominic Chappell, 25, and Tina Dominy and
Australian Kelly Wilkinson, 24, in southern Sihanoukville
province.
"Yes -- we can say this kidnapping of westerners is a new
policy of the Khmer Rouge because there are two gains for them --
ransom and the disruption of the country's economy by deterring
foreign investment," said Maj. Gen. Teng Savong, spokesman for
the National Security Ministry.
He said roads leading to the seaports of Kampot and
Sihanoukville were no longer totally safe.
Visiting Australian Immigration Minister Nick Bolkus said
yesterday: "Our most recent information is they're safe. There
have been sightings." He declined to elaborate.
Bolkus told a news conference two Australian federal police
officers were liaising with the British embassy and Cambodian
officials investigating the kidnappings.
The British embassy has warned in a travel advisory that Khmer
Rouge guerrillas may be targeting Westerners. The Australian
embassy warned only of "lawless elements".
Western diplomatic sources say the abduction could be the work
of renegade Khmer Rouge units operating outside the control of
their headquarters. The possibility that disgruntled, unpaid
government soldiers or police are responsible was not ruled out.
Wilkinson's father and brother have arrived in Cambodia and
are being accompanied by an Australian embassy official.
A Reuter photographer returning from Sihanoukville yesterday
said the government had deployed a squad of military police at
the scene of the kidnapping in Sre Ambel village.
A reporter also returning from Sihanoukville said suspected
Khmer Rouge rebels shot and slightly injured an American
motorcyclist near Sre Ambel on Monday night.
The American was recovering in Phnom Penh's Calmette Hospital
from the attack, whose motive was not clear.
Khmer Rouge guerrillas in neighboring Kampot province are
holding U.S. aid worker, Melissa Himes, 25, and two Cambodian
staff, kidnapped on March 31 while on a well-digging project.
A spokesman for Himes' employer, Food for the Hungry
International, said there was no change in the situation.
Westerners seized by the guerrillas in the past -- either
during a robbery or for ransom -- have been freed unharmed.
Meanwhile, AFP quoted an aid agency official as saying
yesterday that Khmer Rouge guerrillas shot and seriously wounded
an American aid worker who was driving a motorcycle along the
main road from Cambodia's port town of Sihanoukville to the
capital.
"He was shot through the foot and across the neck," Ruth
Miller, a representative of the Adventist Development and Relief
Agency, said."It's an absolute miracle that he wasn't killed."
The incident occurred around 6 p.m. (1100 GMT) Monday when the
aid worker, who is in his late twenties, was driving along
National Route 4, about 70 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh.
Miller did not identify the worker.
She said her colleague spotted two gunmen dressed in Khmer
Rouge uniforms at the side of the road from a distance of about
100 meters.
"He was fairly certain it was the Khmer Rouge," she said.