A recently built Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument was damaged in an early morning explosion near a Siem Reap traffic roundabout, authorities said.
Several people who live near the monument, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said they were awakened by the blast in the provincial capital at about 2 a.m. on Monday.
The blast comes amid online criticism – and protests by overseas Cambodians in Seoul and other cities – of a 1999 economic cooperation agreement between Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.
Tapping into nationalist sentiment, activists have expressed concerns that the agreement – known as the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Triangle Development Area, or CLV – could cause Cambodia to lose territory or control of its natural resources to Vietnam.
That has brought a fierce response from the government, which deployed police, soldiers and special forces across the country to head off demonstrations in Cambodia. More than 30 people were arrested on Aug. 17-18 as authorities set up checkpoints on highways and cities.
There was no claim of responsibility for the blast, and Siem Reap provincial authorities haven’t released any details from their investigation.
Later in the day, police and armed forces were seen patrolling the roundabout area, where they had put up barriers to stop onlookers from getting too close.
Heroic depictions
The friendship monument is one of 17 that Cambodia proposed to build around the country when it requested US$7 million from Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense in 2017.
The monuments feature heroic depictions of a Vietnamese soldier, a Laotian soldier and a Cambodian woman carrying a baby.
They're modeled on a large concrete monument built near the center of Phnom Penh in 1979, months after a Vietnam-led invasion of Cambodia replaced the Khmer Rouge with a new communist regime.
That regime later became the currently ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP. The party’s relationship with Vietnam continues to be a sensitive political topic in the country.
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said whoever damaged the Siem Reap monument was narrow-minded.
“They might have forgotten the past, and that all of us Cambodians in the country are now free from the genocidal regime of Pol Pot,” he said. “It was because of the United Front for National Salvation with the support of the Vietnamese forces.”
Radio Free Asia was unable to reach Siem Reap provincial spokesman Ly Vannak for comment on Thursday.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.