Cambodian politics takes a violent turn

The violence followed months of mounting tensions between the former battlefield enemies, and the ensuing accusations signalled that the bitter rivalry would continue.

National police director Hok Lundi told a news conference that Ranariddh and his Funcinpec Party had sought to eliminate Hun Sen and two other senior members of his Cambodian People’s Party, Vice Prime Minister Sar Kheng and Hok Lundi himself.

But almost at the same time, a Funcinpec official accused Hok Lundi of ordering the killing of Ranariddh.

With Khmer Rouge guerrilla leader Pol Pot on the run somewhere in the northern jungle, the violence in Phnom Penh could threaten the unstable coalition government pieced together by the United Nations in 1993 after years of genocide and civil war.

Tuesday’s tussle came just ten days before United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visits Cambodia to support democracy and urge the Prime Ministers to resolve their differences peacefully.

Dismayed crowds gathered outside the police chief’s home after the news conference, looking at empty shell casings from rocket launchers and automatic rifles littering the street and the shattered windows of an adjacent commercial bank.

Less than two blocks away, Serey Kosal, who is Ranariddh’s special envoy, told reporters he had a tape recording implicating Hok Lundi in an assassination attempt against the First Prime minister.