HUMAN rights activist Heang Rithy submitted a letter of complaint on Wednesday to several foreign embassies, the FBI and the United Nations following an incident last week in which an assailant threatened to kill him and an adviser.

In letters obtained by the Post and addressed to the embassies of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Heang Rithy described the details of the incident and asked assistance for "the security and safety of my life".

A previous letter of complaint sent to the Ministry of Interior on September 26 received no response.

"I lodged a formal complaint with Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister and minister of interior to catch the unidentified assassin who wanted to kill me, but no response has been received yet," Heang Rithy wrote in the letter.

Heang Rithy, president of the Cambodian National Research Organization, said an unidentified assailant threatened to kill him on the evening of September 25.

"A man drove his car against traffic and pulled in front of my car. He told me to get out and then said he would shoot me and my adviser," he told the Post last week.

The assailant fled when military police arrived on the scene and remains at large, he said.