Another unsolved mystery.

Mourners mark grenade attack in subdued ceremony amid political tensions
Publication date 30 March 2018 | 15:37 ICT
Draped in mourning white, Ly Neary lit a stick of incense at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum Park on Friday morning, a tribute to her murdered son, journalist Chet Doung Daravuth, who was among at least 16 killed in a grenade on this day 21 years ago.

“Twenty-one years passed by, but I still remembered when I saw my son’s body broken in pieces with blood stains all over this place,” she said. “It was a very cruel attack and justice has not prevailed for the victims.”

Neary, a former senator with the Candlelight Party – the renamed Sam Rainsy Party – spoke before a collection of 40 mourners under overcast skies. They prayed with Buddhist monks before a dozen photos of those slain in the grenade attack of March 30, 1997.

Among them were former Cambodia National Rescue Party senior members Pol Ham and Son Chhay, making a rare appearance and public statements since the arrest of leader Kem Sokha for “treason” and the forced dissolution of their party.

On that sweltering day 21 years ago, the Khmer National Party held a rally led by former CNRP president Sam Rainsy, calling for judicial reform. Four grenades were hurled into the crowd, killing at least 16 people, including schoolchildren and Rainsy’s bodyguard, and injuring more than 100 others. Davaruth, a journalist with pro-opposition newspaper Neak Proyuth, was just 30.

Despite the government’s promises and an FBI investigation, which, while not conclusive, pointed to the likely involvement of Prime Minister HE’s bodyguard unit, no perpetrators were ever punished.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... l-tensions