Attack spurs call for acid laws

Phnom Penh Post 20/01/2010

LOCAL rights groups are renewing calls for authorities to regulate the sale of acid in the Kingdom, in the wake of another violent attack that has left a man with serious injuries to his face.

Police have identified the most recent victim as Yun Sarun, 33, who was doused with acid on Monday as he was sleeping. Investigators have accused the victim’s wife of pouring the corrosive liquid over her husband’s face in a fit of jealous rage.

“His wife was very angry with her husband because he loved another woman,” said Khat Khuntith, an officer with the Boeung Kak II commune police.

Yun Sarun was being treated for serious injuries to his face and upper body at Preah Kossamak hospital Tuesday.

“The acid was poured onto his face, and it flowed until it reached his waist. It looks like a burn from a fire,” Khat Khuntith said. “Both his eyes and his mouth are swollen … but he can open his eyes and see everyone around him.”

The policeman questioned how the victim’s attacker was able to buy so much acid, which, in concentrated form, can eat through human skin, muscle and bones.

“I wonder why the acid-seller sold acid to the buyer without asking what she planned to use that acid for,” Khat Khuntith said. “I have often seen people buying acid, but not for their motors or machinery.”

Regulate acid: groups

This week’s attack prompted further outcry from rights groups that have long decried the ease with which people are able to purchase acid in the Kingdom.

“Cambodia has to create a law to control the use of acid,” said Am Sam Ath, senior monitor with the rights group Licadho, who warned that incidences of acid attacks will only increase in the absence of policy changes.

But Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the importance of acid in people’s daily lives – for use in car or motorcycle batteries, for example – makes it difficult to manage.

“It is difficult to create a law to control the use of acid,” he said. “We cannot ask buyers what they are buying the acid for.”

The attack on Yun Sarun added to the recent spate of reported acid attacks, which appear to have increased dramatically in recent months.

The Cambodian Acid Survivor’s Charity counted at least five such attacks nationwide in December alone – a figure that represents roughly half of the attacks the group had tallied for the entire year up until that point.

30 injured in Hong Kong acid attack

News Com Au 10/01/2010

THIRTY people have been injured by corrosive liquid hurled in one of Hong Kong's favourite tourist spots, the sixth such attack reported in just over a year.

Among the injured were several foreign tourists, according to broadcaster RTHK.

Police received reports at around 9:30pm last night (local time) that a bottle of corrosive liquid had been thrown in the Temple Street night market in Yau Ma Tei district, a lively shopping area that hosts hawkers, fortune-tellers and nightclubs, a spokesman said.

The 19 men and 11 women injured had been sent to hospital, the spokesman said.

A large team of police and firemen had been despatched to the scene but no arrests had been made, he said.

There have been five previous acid attacks in Hong Kong since late 2008. Three took place in densely populated Mong Kok, another shopping quarter neighbouring Yau Ma Tei.

Last month six people were injured when a bottle of acid was hurled down a street in Causeway Bay, another shopping hub which was packed with people celebrating the Hong Kong football team's victory over Japan in the East Asian Games final.

Despite repeated appeals to the public for information about the culprit, or culprits, no one has been charged. The police said it was unclear whether the cases were connected.

Teen starlet victim of acid attack in capital

Phnom Penh Post: 16/12/2009

TWO assailants on a motorcycle doused a 16-year-old talent-show winner with half a litre of acid on Tuesday morning – the second such incident in Phnom Penh in less than a week – leading to a fresh call to regulate the its sale in Cambodia.

Hang Srey Leak, 16, was at a hairdresser’s salon on Street 84 in Daun Penh district when two people pulled up on a motorcycle and poured acid over her body, district police said.

She is being treated at Calmette Hospital for burns on her face, back and leg, police said, although her condition is not thought to be serious.

Ziad Samman, of the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity, said 10 acid attacks had been reported to the organisation so far this year. He called on the government to prevent further attacks by introducing strict guidelines for the sale of acid.

“One possible way to prevent attacks is to stop them before they start,” he said. “One of the reasons that help contribute to acid attacks is because it’s so readily accessible. One of the things worth looking into is a regulation of acid, so it would make people selling acid more accountable.”

But Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the authorities found it “too difficult” to control the use of acid in the Kingdom. “It is impossible to ask sellers to tell their customers to get a prescription to buy acid,” he said. “What we must do is arrest the perpetrators.”