AUGUST 26: Two gangsters attacked three friends riding home on a motorbike

from a restaurant where the two groups had argued in Sras Chak commune, Phnom Penh.

The assailants escaped after killing Tim Sophal, 21, and stabbing vehicle repairer

Ros Bunthan, 20, in the stomach, police were told by their friend Hang Preng, 20,

who was unhurt. Bunthan was taken to a hospital.

AUGUST 26: Hour Hoeun, 59, was arrested by police for questioning over a grenade

attack that killed two people and injured six others in Prey Svay village, Battambang

Province. Sok Soeu, 57, told police Hoeun recently argued with him in a dispute over

land. A neighbor, Keo Koeun, told police Hoeun had previously attempted to throw

a grenade over the house of Sok Soeu, 57, with whom Hoeun had a land dispute. But

Koeun came upon him and took the grenade from Hoeun's hand and threw it into a nearby

pond.

AUGUST 27: Police arrested a student, Noun Phearun, 16, for trying to rob

a woman at 8:30am in Kop Ambel village, Ang Snoul district, Kandal province. Police

said Phearun was captured while escaping into a nearby forest after villagers came

upon him when they heard a woman, Nam Theara, 32, shouting for help. Theara said

Phearun threw pepper over her face and injured her eyes when she tried to resist

with him.

AUGUST 28: The Kampong Cham Provincial Court detained four people charged

with killing a neighbor's dog three days earlier in Trapaing Chambak village. Heng

Luy, deputy prosecutor, told reporters the arrest was made after Yaing Yoeun complained

that the four, Rith Chhoun, Van Sambo, Eng Samarth, and Pheng Bunthoeun, killed his

dog and ate it. Luy said even if only one pen were stolen, the person who took the

pen would be a thief. He said a dog is the property of its owner, so whoever takes

it is a thief.

AUGUST 29: Meng Sai, the former director of the anti-human trafficking office

at the Ministry of Interior, was arrested after being accused of extorting money

six months previously in Phnom Penh. Police said Sai had absconded six months earlier

after the Ministry of Interior suspended his job and opened the way for the court

to investigate his case. Police said Sai extorted $20,000 from a Korean national

and gave the cash to the former municipal police chief, Heng Pov, for a ransom for

release after he was arrested for human trafficking.

AUGUST 29: Chhum Chak, 38, was freed by Kandal Provincial Court, which found

him not guilty after a 15-year-old girl accused him of raping her in Ta Chor village,

Kandal province. The girl told the presiding judge, Chey Sovan, that Chak raped her

when she was gathering vegetables behind her house. Chak denied the rape and said

she volunteered to have sex with him. The girl said Chak promised to give her 5,000

riel, but he gave her only 2,000 riel after the rape.

AUGUST 29: A woman, Wai Yim, 47, was sentenced to four years in prison and

fined four million riel after Phnom Penh court convicted her of drug trafficking

from Steung Treng province to Phnom Penh. The presiding judge, Sao Meach, said Yim

was arrested on February 12, while she was selling about 2,000 pills in Chey Chumnas

commune, Phnom Penh. Yim denied the charges.

AUGUST 29: A 15-month-old baby, the daughter of Ou Sophea, 27, was found dead

at 7:30pm in a paddy field in Prey Tea village, Phnom Penh. Police came to examine

the body and suspected robbery was the motive for the killing because Sophea said

her gold earrings and a gold ring were stolen. Police said the girl was abducted

while the family were diverted by a new television they had bought.

AUGUST 29: Seang Heng, 20, was fatally attacked while walking home from work

at 7:30pm in Psar Depot 3 commune, Phnom Penh. A passerby said one of six gangsters

chopped Heng from behind with a cleaver then escaped. Heng was taken to Preah Kossamak

hospital, then transferred to Calmette Hospital, where he died.

AUGUST 30: Chhan Hean, 35, died in a hospital after Ta Baraing, 60, stabbed

him with a knife during a drinking argument in the evening in Kbal Spean village,

Banteay Meanchey province. Chhoeung Sokhom, chief of the provincial police office,

said Hean was stabbed twice in the stomach and the chest, and taken to the hospital,

where he died. Baraing was arrested for murder.

AUGUST 30: Doeu Thisovantola, 20, died at Calmette Hospital two hours after

jumping from the fifth floor of his house in Mittapheap commune, Phnom Penh. Police

said Thisovantola killed himself because of a love crisis; a neighbor said an army

general had put an end to Thisovantola's love affair with his daughter.

AUGUST 31: A group of six robbers escaped after killing Sin Soch, 30, while

he was eating dinner with his wife at 8:30pm in Toul Prich village, Ang Snoul district,

Kandal province. Chap Kim told police one of the robbers asked her husband to come

out of the house, and they shot him in the waist with an AK-47 when he opened the

door. Kim said the robbers grabbed some property and escaped. She said they had tried

to rob her family many times after her mother-in-law recently sold a plot of land

for $20,000.

AUGUST 31: Police are looking for Muy San, 28, who escaped with his family

after killing his uncle, Bou Soy, 50, during an argument at 9:30pm in Dak Por village,

Kampong Speu province. A neighbor told police San was angry and axed Soy three times

in the chest and the back after Soy screamed at him when San told Soy to speak quietly

while he argued with his wife.

SEPTEMBER 2: Kang Him, 57, and his daughter, Sim Vanay, 18, were fatally gunned

down during a night robbery in Kraing Makak village, Kandal province. Him's wife,

Chuon Yom, 55, told police that six robbers forced and opened the front door and

killed her husband with an AK-47 when he tried to resist them, then shot dead the

daughter. Yom said they stole her daughter's one damleung (37.5g) gold necklace then

escaped.

SEPTEMBER 2: A 60-year-old man, Ti Meng, was arrested for the multiple rape

of a 15-year-old girl over two weeks in Chan Mongkul village, Takeo province. Chum

Chhoeun, chief of Prey Kabass District Police, said a 15-year-old girl complained

that Meng had sex with her when she came to his house to buy rice. The girl said

Meng had sex with her twice during the two weeks, and he bartered her one kilogram

of rice each time in exchange for sex.

SEPTEMBER 3: A money exchanger, Heng Bun, 53, was robbed while opening his

shop at 6:20am in O'Russei market, Phnom Penh. Bun said one of two robbers aimed

a K-54 handgun at him and demanded his cash bag containing ten million riel, then

they escaped on a motorbike.

SEPTEMBER 3: A fisherman found the body of a motorbike taxi driver, Long Khoeun,

53, at 8:15pm on a dike in Andong Trach village, Battambang province. Police came

to exam the body and said Khoeun was murdered elsewhere and his body dropped there

during a robbery in the early evening. Police said the killer stabbed Khoeun three

times in the back with a knife.

SEPTEMBER 4: Police freed a 5-year-old boy, Pov Sovansak, who had been kidnapped

the previous day in O'Russei 2 commune, Phnom Penh. Yim Simony, chief of January

District Police, said Sovansak, the son of a money exchanger, Pov Koy, was captured

by two young people who took him away on a motorbike while playing with other children

in front of his house. Police arrested two suspects when they came to get $15,000

ransom from Pov Koy.

- Translated from Khmer newspapers Koh Santepheap and Rasmei Kampuchea by Aun

Pheap