kandal province – Kork Pov sobbed as the strains of traditional music from a nearby wedding floated through her sister’s home in Kandal Stung district’s Thmar Spean commune on Sunday morning.
The music, she said through her tears, reminded her of the song that was playing May 7, the night her 14-year-old son was stabbed and beaten to death.
He was caught in the midst of a brawl between two rival groups of young gangsters at a wedding party.
Kol Borey, a grade three student at Wat Champa Khsach primary school, is one of several victims of a recent spate of gang violence in Kandal province that police said has terrified villagers.
“My son’s legs and arms were broken, his body was stabbed violently and his head was broken, too,” Kork Pov said. The 37-year-old mother paused often to wipe her tears with a krama.
“He was murdered by gangsters,” she said.
Kol Borey’s father, Tuon Kol, 36, said he found his son’s body face-down on the side of a small road, blood pooling around him.
“It was unbelievable because he was a gentle man and never hurt anyone,” the farmer said. “I feel terrible…especially because the offenders have not yet been arrested.”
The fighting that led to Kol Borey’s death erupted after dancers stepped on each others’ feet at the wedding party, provincial Deputy Police Chief Nou Bunthoeun said earlier this month. Police are looking for three suspects.
Gangs have long caused trouble in the province, but until recently, rarely has gang violence resulted in deaths, said Maing Pich, police chief of Kandal’s Kien Svay district.
In a separate incident Yin Someth, 25, was stabbed to death during his niece’s wedding celebration in Yoath Bath village in Kandal’s Kien Svay district. Police and witnesses said Yin Someth was killed on May 8 as he tried to intervene in a fight between a local gang and a second gang of young men from Phnom Penh that also erupted on the dance floor.
“His face was broken and it was hard to identify. His neck was almost cut off from his head,” said Yin Someth’s sister Yin Vanthoeung.
“I never thought that the day
of my daughter’s wedding
would also be the day of my younger brother’s death,” she said, adding that the instigators of the brawl were guests at the wedding party.
Maing Pich said five Phnom Penh men in their early 20s were arrested after the killing and are awaiting trial at the provincial jail.
“Young people today are far different from young people 10 years ago,” said 39-year-old Meach Meun, Yin Someth’s brother-in-law. “We used to resolve matters and forgive [each other], but gangsters now fight to put an end to their issues.”
