CAMBODIA: 2006 Country Report on Terrorism

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 002209 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, and S/CT--Rhonda Shore E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER ASEC PREL CB SUBJECT: CAMBODIA: 2006 Country Report on Terrorism REF: SECSTATE 175925 ¶1. (U) Cambodia's ability to investigate potential terrorist activities is limited by a lack of training and resources. An absence of comprehensive domestic legislation to combat terrorism also hinders the ability to arrest and prosecute terrorists. However, Cambodia's political leadership demonstrated a strong commitment to take aggressive legal action against terrorists. The government also has made effective use of its existing one-page law on terrorism, as evidenced by the conviction in late December 2004 of three persons for aiding Jemaah Islamiya (JI) terrorists who planned to detonate a car bomb at a Western embassy in Phnom Penh, each of whom was sentenced to life in prison. ¶2. (U) To help bolster its counterterrorism capabilities, the Cambodian Government in 2005 established the National Counterterrorism Committee (NCTC),a policy-level decision-making body chaired by the Prime Minister that directly addresses the government domestic and international counterterrorism responsibilities. The NCTC held its first session in August 2005. In 2006, various officials were identified to take positions in the NCTC and an office is now in place. The Cambodian government is working on a budget for the group. The Australian military conducted a conference with the NCTC in August 2006 and intends to do a tabletop exercise with the NCTC at an unspecified date in the future. ¶3. (U) Conditions in Cambodia, such as massive poverty, high unemployment, a poor education system, and disaffected elements within the Cham Muslim population, which make up between 3% and 5% of the population, could make the country vulnerable to terrorists and terrorist influence in the future. In 2006, Post has received reports of the growing influence of Wahhabis in Cambodia. Though the majority of Wahhabi practitioners is located in Takeo province, reports indicate that it is spreading from its base. There are no indications that specific terrorist groups currently operate in Cambodia; however, porous borders and endemic corruption could make the country vulnerable to a terrorist presence. ¶4. (U) The Cambodian Government has fully cooperated with U.S. counterterrorism efforts on many levels, despite its limited resources. In April 2005, the government participated in the first-ever U.S. Pacific Command-led multinational interagency counterterrorism survey. The survey was conducted to develop methods to assist the Cambodian authorities in improving their overall counterterrorism capacity. The team made recommendations to various elements responsible for counterterrorism at the tactical, operational, and national levels. The U.S. Department of Defense has been conducting training in Cambodia of a military unit since ¶2006. ¶5. (U) The Cambodian Government also cooperates with a number of other governments on counterterrorism issues. The Singaporean government has conducted short counterterrorism courses in Cambodia. In addition to assistance on the NCTC, the Australian government is helping Cambodia draft a new counterterrorism law; the draft law is being reviewed by the relevant legislative committee and is expected to be adopted by the national legislature in April 2007. The Australian and U.K. governments jointly sponsored a National Seminar on Counter-Terrorism in April 2006 to help train the Cambodian military and police. The Malaysian government cooperates with the Cambodian government on Malaysia-specific cases. The Cambodian government has signed a bilateral agreement with India that came into force in December 2005 providing cooperation in fighting terrorism, exchanging information and intelligence on the activities of any terrorist group and its associates, and identifying and exchanging information on terrorist financing sources. As ASEAN Chair from July 2002 to June 2003, Cambodia took the lead in coordinating ASEAN statements on terrorism, such as the Joint ASEAN-EU Declaration on Cooperation to Combat Terrorism and the relevant text in the Chairman's Statement of the Tenth ASEAN Regional Forum. ¶6. (U) In December 2006, following the visit of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, the Cambodian government announced that a Sri Lankan military intelligence official will work with police and defense officials on intelligence matters. This announcement follows Prime Minister Hun Sen's assurance to his Sri Lankan counterpart that the Tamil Tiger rebels will not receive arms smuggled from Cambodia, though the RGC has acknowledged this likely happened in the past. Post believes that the Cambodian government is better able to control suspect arms shipments and that fewer weapons exist in Cambodia that could be exported abroad. Cambodia has destroyed 200,000 small arms over the last several years with E.U. assistance, and with U.S. assistance destroyed its stockpile of man-portable anti-aircraft missiles (MANPADS). ¶7. (U) In December 2006, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced PHNOM PENH 00002209 002 OF 002 four men to 18 months in prison for possession and transportation of two Armbrust rocket launchers by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Three of the four men are in custody but the whereabouts of the fourth individual, who is a colonel in the Cambodian military, are unknown. ¶8. (U) The government installed, with U.S. assistance, computerized border control systems at Phnom Penh and Siem Riep airports and the land border crossing of Poipet and Koh Kong. The Cambodian government cooperated fully with U.S. requests to monitor terrorists and terrorist entities listed as supporters of terrorist financing. ¶9. (U) No known foreign terrorist groups or organizations currently operate in Cambodia. In October 2006, Cambodian authorities arrested six Cambodian nationals for plotting to plant explosives during Phnom Penh's annual Water Festival. The Cambodian government does not believe that they are linked to any international terrorist group. The men are currently in pre-trial detention charged with attempted terrorism. ¶10. (U) The Cambodian government believes that the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF),which carried out an armed attack in November 2000 that killed eight people, are still capable of carrying out attacks in Cambodia. The leader of this group was arrested in California in 2005. The Cambodian government is working with the FBI to bring the leader of the CFF to trial in the U.S. ¶11. (U) The Point of contact for this report is Political/Economic officer Gaurav Bansal. Email: bansalg@state.gov. Phone number: 855-23-728-118. MUSSOMELI