FEBRUARY 10: A primary school teacher, Hang Sakun, 52, was found hanged dead

in a tree in the early morning in Sras Thuol village, Kampong Speu province. Police

suspect Sakun was irrational and committed suicide because a neighbor, Meng Leng,

36, said Sakun used to tell him that he had no hope in his life. Sakun left a wife

and six children.

FEBRUARY 10: Police arrested Man Van, 34, after he attacked Chhon Chhouk,

26, and his wife Chhoeun Yarth, 29, during an argument at 9:30pm in Bot Santrea village,

Prey Veng province. Police said Van chopped Chhouk twice in the head and the shoulder

with a heavy knife, fatally wounding him, then chopped Yarth in the arm when she

tried to help her husband. Chhouk died later at a hospital.

FEBRUARY 11: Kao Soklong, 37, a policeman at the Sihanoukville Municipal Anti-Terrorism

Office, was found murdered with his throat cut in the early morning in Thmey village,

Sihanoukville. Police said Soklong was murdered while returning home from work the

previous night. They suspected a group of gangsters because he recently arrested

some people for robberies.

FEBRUARY 11: Ros Sokea, 22, was stabbed in the stomach with a knife during

a nighttime dancing argument in Chek village, Svay Reang province. A witness said

Sokea stepped on the foot of one of ten drunken gangsters while rock dancing at a

party in a neighbor's house. The assailants escaped. Sokea was sent to a provincial

hospital for treatment.

FEBRUARY 12: Hai Hour, 42, was robbed of his motorbike while driving home

from a karaoke shop where he had been drinking and eating with his friends in the

early evening in O'Andong village, Meanchey district, Phnom Penh. Hour said at a

clinic that one of two robbers blocked his path, hit him on the temple with a spade,

knocking him down, then they escaped on his bike.

FEBRUARY 12: Thorng Chandara, 25, was arrested for questioning after a 22-year-old

woman accused him of raping her twice in two different guesthouses in Psar Thmey

1 commune, Phnom Penh. The woman told police that Chandara persuaded her to go for

a picnic but raped her twice while they stayed for two days at different guesthouses.

Chandara denied having raped the woman and said she loved him.

FEBRUARY 12: Police arrested Hun Man, 18, after he struck Ran Pheakdey, 16,

four times with an ax during a dancing argument about 10pm in Svay Chrum village,

Prey Veng province. Man told police Pheakdey stepped on his foot while rock-dancing,

and an argument ensued. Police sent Pheakdey to a hospital for treatment as he was

chopped twice in the head and twice in the back.

FEBRUARY 13: Five gangsters escaped after robbing Prak Samoeun, 36, of his

motorbike as he rode at 9:30pm in Psar Doeum Thkao commune, Phnom Penh. Samoeun,

a motorbike taxi driver, told police the gangsters blocked his path and threatened

to kill him with a sword then took his bike.

FEBRUARY 14: Prok Chak, 45, a recycling collector, was blown to bits when

a bomb exploded at 11:20am in Ta Poung village, Ang Snoul district, Kandal province.

Police said the bomb exploded while Chak was using detecting equipment to search

for buried steel.

FEBRUARY 14: So March, 41, complained to police after her second husband,

Siv Minh, 31, a Vietnamese motorbike-taxi driver, hit her when she angrily rejected

his proposal that he marry her 16-year-old daughter and that March become his mother-in-law.

They live in Chrey Korng village, Dangkor district, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

FEBRUARY 15: Three gunmen robbed a hairdresser, Soeu Sreylin, 25, while she

slept at midnight in Teuk Laak 1 commune, Phnom Penh. Sreylin told police the robbers

hid in her shop and knocked her inside door open, then aimed a handgun at her. Sreylin

said they took her diamond necklace, a diamond ring and a diamond bracelet, together

valued at $13,000, and $30,000 in cash. Police arrested three workers for questioning.

FEBRUARY 16: Police are looking for Noeun, 28, who escaped after knifing her

husband, Orp Lan, 35, during an argument in the morning in Serey Sokha village, Kampong

Cham province. Lan told police at a provincial hospital that Noeun stabbed him in

the chest after he punched her twice in the face while drunk. Lan said the argument

happened after Noeun refused to give him some more cooked frogs to eat while he was

drinking wine.

FEBRUARY 16: Police came to inspect the body of Or Kheang, 39, after he was

found hanging from a tree about 10pm in Talat Thmey village, Phnom Srouch district,

Kampong Speu province. Tuy Ton, the chief of District Police, said Kheang was murdered

elsewhere and his body hung to look like suicide. A villager said six people had

been seen walking from the place.

FEBRUARY 17: A Khmer national kick-boxer, Chea Tot, 23, died at Russian hospital

after attempting suicide the previous night in Kampong Samnanh commune, Kandal province.

Long Chea, 63, Tot's father, told police his son set fire to himself with gasoline

after his wife left him for her parent's house during an argument caused by jealousy.

FEBRUARY 17: A Norwegian national, Saluesen Rygve, 27, was found dead on a

bed at his room while staying with a friend for a night in the Heritage hotel in

Monorom commune, Phnom Penh. Police refused to give any comment about the death,

but hinted that they found some narcotic drugs in his room. Police sent the body

to Calmette hospital for examination.

FEBRUARY 17: Hem Phat, 49, was sent to Calmette Hospital for treatment after

being attacked with a cleaver in a nighttime dancing quarrel at a wedding party in

Snai Puol village, Prey Veng province. A witness told police that Phat was chopped

three times in the back while trying to stop an argument between two groups of gangsters.

Police arrested one of the assailants while he was escaping in a car.

FEBRUARY 17: Police arrested Moeun Sovannara, 24, who killed his father, Chhim

Marin, 47, in Steung Meanchey commune, Phnom Penh. Sovannara stabbed the drunken

father to death with a sword while he was beating his wife, police said.

FEBRUARY 17: American citizen Michael John Koklich, 50, was arrested on suspicion

of sexual activity with up to six underage girls in Tonle Bassac commune, Phnom Penh.

Keo Thea, deputy chief of Anti-Human Trafficking Office, said Koklich, a guitarist

who used to play at Martini bar, crashed his motorbike into a police barricade on

Sothearos Boulevard in an unsuccessful attempt to escape.

FEBRUARY 18: Nao Chanthan, 19, died at Chantrea clinic in Phnom Penh after

he was beaten during a revenge attack while driving home on a motorbike with two

friends at 8:30pm in Kambol village, Kandal province. The friends, Nhol Pros, 23,

and Chak Choeun, 22, who were severely injured, said six people blocked their path

and attacked them with sticks then escaped on two motorbikes.

FEBRUARY 18: Son Naysim, 25, protested when arrested for an assault five days

earlier in Khsam commune, Kampong Chhnang province. Police said Naysim had escaped

after he and his fellows injured a neighbor during an argument. Naysim protested

that his arrest was a breach of promise because he and his friends had paid $50 each

to the provincial court as a ransom to avoid arrest.

FEBRUARY 19: A Canadian national, Patrick Gihara, 71, was found dead in his

locked room in the Freedom hotel in Mittapheap district, Sihanoukville. Lok Limin,

a deputy chief of the technical office for corpse inspection, said Gihara probably

died of a heart attack while using too much romance medicine. Police sent the body

to the Canadian Embassy in Phnom Penh.

FEBRUARY 20: A motorbike-taxi driver, Pheakdey, 20, was found dead in a forest

in Mondul Bei village, Siem Reap province. Police said Pheakdey was strangled elsewhere

and his body dropped there two days earlier. Police suspect the murder involved robbery

as his bike was stolen.

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

Pheap