Two killed in attack on Cambodia poll workers
Two killed in attack on Cambodia poll workers
PHNOM PENH (Reuters): Suspected Khmer Rouge guerrillas attacked officials taking voting kits to northern Cambodia for the July 26 general election, killing two security men and wounding five, officials said yesterday.
The election team was attacked near the former Khmer Rouge headquarters at Anlong Veng while they were transporting voting material to polling stations on Friday afternoon, the government officials said.
The two dead were military men, providing security for the election team. It was not immediately clear how many of the five wounded were election workers or members of their security team.
"The gunmen came from Ta Mok's group," Gen. Chea Mon, a senior commander based in the northern town of Siem Reap told Reuters, referring to the Khmer Rouge military strongman.
He said the two men were killed and the five wounded when their tractor was attacked by the rebels using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Chea Mon said the attack took place about 10 km (six miles) northeast of Anlong Veng. A National Election Committee (NEC) official in Phnom Penh confirmed the attack.
"We're very sorry about this incident but we're not stopping the election process there," NEC secretary-general Im Sousdei told reporters.
A military official said earlier that some ballot boxes were stolen by the gunmen but an NEC official later said the voting material was mostly destroyed and burnt in the attack.
The Khmer Rouge, responsible for the death of an estimated 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 "killing fields" rule, have suffered mass defections and a string of military defeats in recent months.
But remnants of the group are still fighting the government from remote hills along the border with Thailand. The guerrillas have condemned the election.
The Khmer Rouge signed a 1991 international peace treaty officially ending some two decades of bloody revolution and war but boycotted a 1993 vote organized by the United Nations.
The former Khmer Rouge headquarters at Anlong Veng came under government control in March when guerrillas there mutinied against their leaders and defected to the government.
Hardline Khmer Rouge remnants under the command of the one- legged Ta Mok withdrew to remote hills along the Thai-Cambodian border to the north of Anlong Veng.
Meanwhile in Trad, United Nations officials said yesterday said the repatriation of about 87,000 Cambodian refugees living in Thailand was unlikely to be completed as planned ahead of the Cambodian general election on July 26.
An estimated 20,000 Cambodians would probably be left in Thailand after the election though repatriation efforts would continue after next Sunday's poll, they said.
The officials added the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Thai authorities had repatriated another 640 Cambodian from camps in Trad yesterday.
About 60,000 Cambodians have been living in camps along the Thai-Cambodian border after fleeing factional fighting in their homeland which erupted after a bloody coup last year.
Cambodia's First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who was ousted in the coup but is standing in the coming election, has urged the speedy repatriation of the refugees.
Many of the refugees fled as Ranariddh's resistance forces retreated to remote Cambodian jungle holdouts near the Thai border following his overthrow by Cambodian strongman Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.
About a further 17,000 refugees crossed into Thailand following subsequent Cambodian government offensives against Khmer Rouge insurgents this year.
Officials said they were unsure whether the Cambodians repatriated yesterday would be eligible to vote in the election. Cambodian election officials have said they have not been given enough time to complete voter registration of returnees ahead of the poll.