Security concerns have closed the US Embassy and led to the cancellation of today’s anniversary ceremony in Phnom Penh for victims of the Sept 11 suicide attacks on Washington and New York, embassy officials said on Tuesday.
Municipal police were also deployed on Tuesday to locations near the British and US embassies to beef up security ahead of the anniversary and fears that militants will use today to launch attacks against US targets worldwide.
Denied their bases in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia has been fingered as a possible location for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida militants to re-group and US Embassy officials in Phnom Penh said they would take no chances.
“We’ve thought about this. There is no mystery. This is the one-year anniversary,” US Charge d’Affaires Alex Arvizu said.
“In light of the Sept 11 anniversary we can’t rule out the possibility of an incident involving the embassy and decided to close the embassy effective from Sept 11,” Arvizu said.
A morning ceremony was scheduled to be held at the US ambassador’s residence on Norodom Boulevard today in commemoration of the thousands who died in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard the airliner that crashed in the US state of Pennsylvania.
Arvizu said security information received by US Embassy officials was both “generic and specific,” and though it was regrettable to cancel the commemoration and close the embassy, it was prudent to do so.
“The review of the security situation is obviously a process that is re-evaluated everyday…we took another look, with guidance from Washington,” he said.
The embassy will be closed on Wednesday and probably the rest of the week, Arvizu said.
US citizens can still contact the embassy through a duty officer, who will remain on telephone standby.
Embassy security guards and Municipal Police armed with automatic rifles were stationed outside the sprawling US compound on Tuesday evening.
Four-wheel-drive embassy vehicles were also parked horizontally behind four security checkpoints to help reinforce security gates.
Police officers were also slinging hammocks and tarpaulins at a site near the British Embassy.
A spokesman for the British Embassy said the embassy will remain open today, but declined to comment on security arrangements.
“It’s the anniversary of Sept 11 and people are taking precautions,” the spokesman said.
Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara said he ordered citywide security for the anniversary.
No information has been received on a possible attack and the increased security deployment was strictly precautionary, Chea Sophara said.
“I have no information, but normally on this day…it is better to have prevention,” he said.
Sau Phan, deputy-director general of National Police, said officers have been ordered to stop vehicles parking near the US and British embassies and to prohibit heavy trucks driving near the compounds.
“Police will divert the direction of any trucks driving near the embassy area. Big trucks are not allowed nearby because we are afraid that terrorists might try to push through their barricades,” he said.
He would not say how many police have been mobilized for the security operation.
In 1999, the US Embassy closed briefly following what then-Ambassador Kent Wiedemann said were “credible” threats of an attack.
The closure followed a Phnom Penh newspaper report that Osama bin Laden had called on Muslim militants to mass on Southeast Asia’s borders.
Following last year’s suicide attacks, the US Embassy in Phnom Penh also closed and US citizens were requested to “keep a low profile” and vary their routes and times of travel.
