Supporters of the outlawed Cambodian Freedom Fighters rebel movement have been blamed for graffiti attacks in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon and Daun Penh districts in the early hours of Friday morning.
The CFF acronym and the first letter in the Khmer alphabet were spray-painted dozens of times on the walls surrounding the French Embassy, the CPP-owned Apsara TV and radio station, Wat Lanka, Wat Mohamontrei, and Boeng Keng Kong High School.
Municipal police and Interior Ministry officials said they had no suspects and that there was no cause for concern.
“This group cannot do anything besides this sort of action,” Uch Sokhon, deputy chief of police in Chamkar Mon district, said Friday.
“They are trying to stir up the situation,” Uch Sokhon said.
Leaflets in support of the CFF were distributed throughout Phnom Penh in the weeks prior to the November 2000 rebel attack on the capital when some 60 lightly-armed, and apparently drunk, men attacked the Ministry of Defense and other government installations.
During hours of gun battles and grenade explosions, several CFF rebels were killed and around a dozen police officers injured.
Municipal Police Commissioner Heng Pov declined to comment.
It remains unclear who was behind the graffiti and what the spray-painted letters beneath the acronym mean, said Municipal Police Deputy Chief Hy Prou.
“A common Khmer person cannot understand its meaning,” Hy Prou said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said on Friday that it was “impossible” for the CFF to pose any threat.
Khieu Sopheak also said that the Cambodian government is still demanding the prosecution of CFF leader, Chhun Yasith, who works as an accountant in Long Beach, California.
People living near buildings hit by the graffiti said they did not see anything. By Friday evening all the pro-CFF graffiti had been painted over.
