An elite police force was back at work Wednesday with new uniforms and doubled salaries, helping to control street clashes in Phnom Penh.
All 60 members of the Flying Tigers will receive an extra 50,000 riel a month and new uniforms, said Chea Sophara, the capital’s deputy governor. The extra pay is to promote discipline and discourage the specially trained force from robbing people to add to their government pay, he said.
Members of the unit had earned between 45,000 and 60,000 riel a month, he said.
The decision to send them again to the streets was made Monday in a meeting between Chea Sophara and Neth Sovoeun, the Phnom Penh police commissioner, Chea Sophara said. Three weeks’ worth of tension between the municipality and the National Police over the fate of the team was resolved, he claimed.
Chea Sophara locked up the Flying Tigers’ motorcycles last month and asked that they be removed from the city’s police stations. Chea Sophara blamed squad members for a crime wave against foreigners. Hok Lundy, director-general of the National Police, denied the charges.
