American Laments Injustice for 1997 Grenade Attack

A Phnom Penh resident is treated for wounds at Calmette Hospital he received during a mortar attack in the capital in the late afternoon on Saturday July 5,1997. Fighting broke out between troops loyal to the rival prime ministers and shellfire hit downtown areas. ( Photo: AP)

Men Kimseng,
VOA Khmer | Washington, DC
Tuesday, 05 April 2011

“Per rule of law, shall we continue with this culture of impunity?”

While the US FBI has closed its investigation into a deadly grenade attack on an opposition rally 14 years ago, an American injured in the attack says he has not given up.

Ron Abney, the former head of the International Republican Institute in Cambodia, was the sole American injured among at least 150 others when unknown assailants threw a series of grenades into an opposition rally in Phnom Penh.

Sixteen people died in the attack, which took place on March 30, 1997.

In September 2010, Abney filed a complaint with the New York Attorney General’s office, claiming Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was visiting the state at the time, and his subordinates had obstructed justice during an ensuing FBI investigation of the attack. Hun Sen and his representatives have repeatedly declined to comment on the case.

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