​KR used Thai territory for attack: UN report | Phnom Penh Post

KR used Thai territory for attack: UN report

National

Publication date
16 June 1995 | 07:00 ICT

Reporter : Matthew Grainger

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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.

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