Killing, acid attack dash hopes for peaceful election in Cambodia

Hopes that Cambodia can deliver a peaceful election campaign have been dashed with the weekend killing of a prominent opposition journalist and an acid attack on a ruling party official, prompting concern among human rights groups yesterday.

Ngor Srun, a secretary of state with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), was doused with acid on Sunday morning and later rushed to Thailand, officials said, as preparations were being made in Phnom Penh for the cremation of journalist Khim Sambo and his 22-year-old son, Khat Sarin Theada.

The father and son were shot while travelling on their motorbike on a busy street outside a sports stadium in the capital on Friday evening. Previous Cambodian elections have been marred by killings and violence, and Khim Sambo, affiliated with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, was the twelfth journalist known to have been killed since 1992.

He had been working for the daily Khmer-language Moneakseka Khmer (Khmer Conscience), a newspaper allied with opposition leader Sam Rainsy, since 1997.

Sam Rainsy said the killing could derail the election process, and compared Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

'It is being derailed by the political assassination of journalists who disseminate what the opposition has to say,' he said. 'It is the beginning of a terror campaign by the ruling party ... Hun Sen is like Mugabe: he wants to stay in power forever.'