Noodle and coffee shops were filled to capacity on Thursday morning as the US deadline for war on Iraq arrived at breakfast time in Cambodia, and from Kompong Cham province to Banteay Meanchey province people tuned into television sets to see the war that has split public opinion worldwide, and in Cambodia.
In Tuol Kok district, dozens of Cambodians were packed into breakfast restaurants where televisions broadcast CNN and BBC news coverage of the impending US attack on Iraq.
However, many customers left unhappily when the attack did not take place exactly on the 8 am deadline—Cambodia time—and it became apparent that military planners were not tied strictly to the 48-hour deadline of US President George W Bush.
“I watched the Gulf War in 1991 and the shooting was brilliant. Like fireworks,” said Bun Ma, 45, as he sipped coffee while watching television.
With the skyline of Baghdad still calm, Bun Ma said he wanted to see the sophisticated weaponry the US will unleash on Iraq.
But despite his hawkish appetite, Bun Ma said the US should avoid civilian casualties.
“The US has been patient enough and it has no option but to decide to attack Iraq because [Iraqi President Saddam Hussein] is still stubborn,” he said.
The scenes were the same in Sisophon, where reporters interviewed 10 people watching the unfolding events on television.
Seven of the 10 said they did not support the war and that the US and Britain should have spent more time seeking a peaceful solution.
But Dien Del, Funcinpec parliamentarian and former resistance commander, said on Thursday he supported the US operation to oust Saddam Hussein and also said Washington had been patient enough with Baghdad.
However, Dien Del said he deplored Israel’s treatment of Palestinian Arabs, and the US-led attack on Iraq would play into strengthening the Israeli position and further mistreatment of Arabs in the Mideast.
Members of Cambodia’s ethnic Cham Muslim minority also said they deplored the US-led action, which was likely to have strong repercussion inside the country’s—until recently—apolitical Islamic followers.
Ismael Osman, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Cults and Religion and a member of the Cham community, said on Thursday he opposed the US attack on Iraq.
“This is not pressure on the whole of Islam, but Bush taking a personal stance to attack Iraq arbitrarily, without listening to the UN,” Ismael Osman said.
“Why does the US, as the father of democracy in the world, become so useless?…. Why does the US superpower use its power to do this to Iraq? Where is democracy? he said.
Ismael Osman said he supported the US efforts to stomp out terrorism and he did not support Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, but declaring war without UN consent was wrong.
“The US is war greedy…. Mr Bush is an idiot,” he said, adding that the UN solved Cambodia’s problems peacefully.
Ismael Osman said his opinions were his individual beliefs and he was not speaking for Cambodia’s Cham community, which being under the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia will remain outside the politics of the war.
However, a senior member of the Cham community said that feelings were already running high in the build-up to the invasion and now that bombs are starting to drop, many Chams will naturally be upset.
But, opposition to the war expressed in private by Cambodia’s Islamic community is unlikely to manifest in any public form of protest, he said.
“They don’t like the US attack, but they’ll stay quiet. They won’t protest,” said the Cham official who has been worried by recent efforts from overseas to politicize Cambodia’s Islamic community.
Returning from overseas on Thursday, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia regretted the US did not find a peaceful solution.
“Cambodia is sorry that the political resolution was not found to avoid war. War will surely kill innocent people,” Hor Namhong told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport.
Cambodian security forces were put on high alert in Phnom Penh on Monday night ahead of the invasion countdown and fears of a possible terrorist backlash in the region.
Prime Minister Hun Sen also declared for the first time that Cambodia could be targeted by terrorists.
(Additional reporting by Thet Sambath and Kevin Doyle)
