Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen led an emotional memorial ceremony yesterday at the site of a bridge stampede in the capital that killed almost 350 people in the worst national tragedy for decades.
Hun Sen, dressed in black, wiped away a tear and burnt incense at a small altar erected at the foot of the narrow bridge, now cleared of the shoes, clothing and plastic bottles that were a grim reminder of Monday’s disaster.
Officials said throngs of revelers celebrating the nation’s annual water festival apparently panicked as rumors rippled through the crowds that the bridge to an island in Phnom Penh was about to give way.
PHOTO: EPA
The death toll was revised down to 347 from 456 because some victims had been mistakenly included twice, the Social Affairs Ministry said. Of those who perished, 221 were women. Hospitals reported 395 people were injured.
At the memorial ceremony, Hun Sen’s wife, Bun Rany, stood at her husband’s side and openly cried as a military band played a somber tune. Other government officials, including Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and National Assembly President Heng Samrin, also paid their respects.
The women wore white shirts, a color of mourning in Cambodia.
Flags were flying at half-mast at government buildings across the capital, while many schools were closed and dozens of uniformed school children carrying flowers attended the early morning service.
Afterwards, streams of people, including foreigners, lined up to lay out fruit, rice and water — sustenance for the spirits of the dead — at the altar.
King Sihamoni did not attend the event, but his father, Norodom Sihanouk, the former monarch who is still highly revered by Cambodians, sent out a public letter of condolence from Beijing, where he is receiving medical treatment.
The message, which appeared in full on the front page of a local newspaper, said the event had filled him and his wife “with very profound sadness.”
Initial findings from a probe into the stampede released on Wednesday suggested a combination of factors was to blame.
“The deaths happened because the bridge was overcrowded and there was panic that the bridge was collapsing because it is hung by cables and it was swaying,” said Prum Sokha, who heads a panel investigating the tragedy.
The government has admitted it overlooked issues of crowd control, but says a private firm was in charge of security on the island and bridge where the disaster unfolded.
Phnom Penh’s police chief Touch Naruth estimated that at least 7,000 people were on the 8m wide, 100m long bridge when the stampede happened.
“It’s unfortunate, but even if we had had tens of thousands of policemen, we would still not have been able to help them because they were stuck on the bridge,” he said.
More than 4,000 police officers were deployed during the festival and thousands of other security personnel were on guard, he said.
Funerals and cremations have been taking place across the country as distressed relatives and survivors searched for answers.
“I was stamped on for an hour but I didn’t see any police coming to save me before I jumped into the water,” said Nol Socheata, an 18-year-old student.
Hun Sen has described the disaster as Cambodia’s worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge’s 1975 to 1979 reign of terror. He said a memorial stupa would be built “to commemorate the souls of the people who lost their lives ... and to remember the serious tragedy for the nation and the Cambodian people.”
Festivalgoers had been crossing the bridge to reach an island hosting concerts and food stalls when the stampede began.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia