Armand:
I think the people of Thailand and our government reacted maturely to the situation, in contrast to the complete lack of restraint demonstrated by our neigbour...
"The January 2003 riots were prompted by an article in the Cambodian Rasmei Angkor (Light of Angkor) newspaper on 18 January. The article alleged that a Thai actress, Suvanant Kongying, had said that Cambodia had stolen Angkor (the ancient Khmer temple complex near Siem Reap), and that she would not appear in Cambodia until it was returned to Thailand. The newspaper’s editor gave the source for the story as a group of Khmer nationalists who said they had seen the actress on television. No evidence to support the newspaper’s claim has ever emerged, and it seems that the report was either fabricated or arose from a misunderstanding of what Suvanan’s character had said.
On 29 January, rioters attacked the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, destroying the building. Mobs also attacked the premises of Thai-owned businesses, including Thai Airways and Shin Corp, owned by the family of the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. A photograph of a Cambodian man holding a burning portrait of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej enraged many Thai people.
The Thai government sent military aircraft to Cambodia to evacuate Thai nationals, while Thais demonstrated outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok.
Responsibility for the riots was disputed: [Cambodian prime minister] Hun Sen attributed the {Cambodian] government’s failure to prevent the attacks to “incompetence”, and said that the riots were stirred up by “extremists”. The chairman of the National Assembly, Prince Norodom Ranariddh claimed that opposition leader Sam Rainsy had directed the attacks. Rainsy said that he had attempted to prevent the violence.
In the context of the ongoing intimidation and violence instigated by Hun Sen in the run up to the 2003 elections, many believe that the riots were merely yet another of these tactics gone out of control."
extract from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Phnom_Penh_riots
See also the U.S. Department of State "Report to the Congress on the Anti-Thai Riots in Cambodia on January 29, 2003" released by the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, May 14, 2003.
http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rpt/20565.htm
