Phnom Penh - Cambodian military officials Friday unveiled
decreased gun-related crime rates, saying the government's strict
weapons control policy had led to the drop which they claimed
benefitted not only Cambodia but the entire region.
Officials from the Defence Ministry hosted the conference and
released figures from the Working Group on Weapons Reduction which
recorded 866 shooting related crimes in Cambodia in 2006, down from
921 in 2005.
Most shootings recorded were the result of robberies or personal
disputes, often business related, and only seven per cent of victims
were aged under 18, with around 80 per cent of victims males, the
report stated.
'These figures show the impact of the government's stance on arms
control and the success of our security and public order measures,'
the working group said in a statement.
The Ministry of Defence director of the weapons control
department, General Cham Kim Seng, told reporters the results proved
Cambodia's commitment to adhering to an international convention of
arms control and that it was no longer a source of illegal weapons,
either at home or abroad.
'So far Cambodia has destroyed 200,000 weapons. So far Cambodia
already has law and control. This not only solves the problem of
weapons in our own country, but in the region and internationally,'
General Seng said.
Cambodia has been at peace for only a decade after 30 years of
civil war which left it with a surplus of small arms and other
weapons. In recent years the country has been linked to arms trading
to a number of rebel and terrorist groups including the Tamil Tigers
in Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister Hun Sen last year publicly admitted that some
Cambodian elements had previously illegally supplied weapons to the
Tamil Tigers in the past but said that weapons trade from the country
had been stopped.
The report came just days after Hun Sen angrily rebutted reported
claims from a Thai official that Cambodia's ethnic Cham Muslim
minority had been aiding Muslim rebels in Thailand's restive south.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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