Security Concerns Hampered FBI in 1997 Investigation

Police look for survivors of the grenade attack.

Sketches of three suspects identified by FBI.

Then second prime minister Hun Sen.

Sam Rainsy, right, opposition party leader, prays in front of some displaying portrait photos of Cambodian victims of a deadly grenade attack of March 30, 1997, at a memorial stupa in the capital Phnom Penh.

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
14 January 2010

A security threat to an FBI agent in 1997 and concerns over US cooperation with Cambodia put a grenade attack investigation on hold, according to recent media reports.

The agent, Tom Nicoletti, was sent to Cambodia to look into the attack, on an opposition rally, which killed sixteen people and wounded more than 100 others, including an American citizen.

Nicoletti, who is now retired, told the English-language Cambodia Daily that by the time he left Cambodia, the evidence he had collected was not up to US standards for prosecution. He had planned to return, he said in e-mails to the newspaper, but an unfavorable situation in the country prevented it.

Nicoletti said he had been pulled out of Cambodia for fear he may be the target of attacks for his investigation, which pointed toward possible collusion in the attack on opposition leader Sam Rainsy by members of then-second prime minister Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit.

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