Thursday, 23 July 2009

Cambodia Vigilant After Jakarta Bombing: Official

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
22 July 2009

Cambodian has taken action to identify terrorist suspects at airports and borders following the bombings in Jakarta last week, a police spokesman said.

Nine people where killed when suicide bombers attacked two hotels in Jakarta, on the island of Java, raising the specter of Islamic militancy in the Southeast Asian country.

In 2002, similar attacks killed 202 people, including 152 foreigners, in Bali, an island east of Java, and the mastermind of those attacks, Hambali, was later found to have hidden in Cambodia.

Hambali was arrested near Bangkok in 2003, and Cambodia emerged as a willing friend in US counterterrorism efforts. The FBI provided counterterrorism training to the Cambodian military police and soldiers as recently as May.

However, the specific actions now being taken to watch for suspicious visitors are a security secret, said Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, adding that Cambodia has been continually vigilant against counterterrorism.

Terrorism can happen anywhere anytime, so Cambodia will be vigilant and “not miss one minute,” he told VOA Khmer.

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