Sunday, 17 October 2010

Flash floods kill four in Cambodia

Floods have hit many parts of Cambodia in recent days


via CAAI

PHNOM PENH — Four Cambodians including a four-year-old boy have been swept to their deaths in flash flooding in recent days as heavy rains battered the country, officials said Saturday.

Three men drowned in different provinces, while a child disappeared during flooding in the Phnom Penh area and is presumed dead, the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said.

"The floods hit many parts of Cambodia, but at the moment they have subsided," said Keo Vy of NCDM. "We are on very high alert about flooding."

Bad weather also forced officials at Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal to temporarily relocate high-profile Khmer Rouge leaders currently awaiting trial for crimes including genocide during the "Killing Fields" era.

A court spokesman said Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea had been taken to a new building at an undisclosed location.

Former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, who was sentenced in July to 30 years imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity, was also among those moved.

Keo Vy said the deaths are the first due to flooding in Cambodia this year. He said 43 people were killed when typhoon Ketsana hit the country last year.

Thousands were affected by the storms and floods engulfed large swathes of Siem Reap province, home to the temples of Angkor Wat.

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