A United Nation's agency report has confirmed that Khmer Rouge guerrillas
entered Poipet from Thailand on May 27, and during an attack there killed six
people.
The UNBRO report - published originally in a local newspaper
Cambodge Soir - is likely to put even more pressure on the Thais to
tighten the border, as they claim to have done.
The report said an UNBRO
officer investigated the attack four days after it had occured, and confirmed
between 30 and 60 KR fighters entered the city from the south.
The report
quoted locals as saying that the KR soldiers also had Thai trucks "following a
local arrangement between some Thai military and the KR commander", though this
was not confirmed.
The attack was concentrated on a hotel called the Sra
Sour which is owned by the commander of the RCAF 12th division, Lieutenant
General Lay Virak.
The UNBRO report said the May 27 midnight attack was
because of a personal feud between Virak and a local KR commander.
Spies
in Poipet tipped off the KR when Virak was approaching his hotel, the report
said.
The attackers exploded a mine at the base of the building and fired
B-40 and RPG rockets, and AK-47 rounds.
The hotel was only partially
destroyed, with most damage being done to four wooden houses next to the hotel.
It was from the houses that most casualties were found, the report
said.
Six people were killed, including a five-year-old child, two women
and three men.
About 50 people were wounded, including two guerrillas who
were apparently taken to hospitals in the Thai province of
Aranyaprathet.
The report said the May 27 attack followed previous ones.
On May 9 the KR shelled Poipet from their Klar Ngop base, then up to 40
guerrillas entered the city, and wounded three people and destroyed four
houses.
Immediately after this attack, the report continues, the RCAF
arrested two "stray" Thai men as spies, and rushed them to Phnom Penh in a
helicopter.
