When 32-year-old Jason Wootton moved to Cambodia with the intent of
settling down for a few years, he could never have imagined experiencing
something so horrifying that his family would plead with him to leave
after only four months.
But on Wednesday, the Welshman was the victim of a seemingly random
brick attack in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Keng Kang 1 commune. There was no
clear motive, and his outlook on life in Phnom Penh has altered
drastically.
Mr. Wootton was walking along Street 294 at the intersection of
Norodom Boulevard with his dog on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. when two young
men on a motorbike drove up to him, and the man on the back smashed a
large lump of concrete into his face.
The blow was delivered with such force that the skin on Mr. Wootton’s
forehead was torn through to his skull and blood began gushing from the
wound.
“It was the most blood I’ve ever seen, and the hardest I’ve ever been hit,” said Mr. Wootton, who is also an avid rugby player.
A nearby security guard ran over to help and took him to the Royal
Rattanak Hospital in Tuol Kok district, where he received 25 stitches.
He also suffered a concussion.
“I’m staggered,” he said on Friday, as he came to terms with the
attack that has left the left side of his face extremely swollen and
bandaged up. “It could have been attempted murder—I could be dead. I
nearly lost my eye.”
Mr. Wootton, who moved to Cambodia four months ago to set up a
business, is obviously shaken from the experience, and hopes it is not a
harbinger of future attacks.
In 2010, a spate of similar attacks, in which foreigners were bricked
from passing SUVs and trucks, forced authorities to dispatch police
along the riverside, where most of the attacks happened. The U.S.
Embassy at the time issued a warning to tourists to be aware. The son of
a high-ranking government official was believed to have been behind the
attacks, which dissipated by the end of the year.
After two years of relative quiet for such attacks, Mr. Wootton said
he could not imagine why he was targeted. The attack seemed random to
him, because his assailants drove off immediately and made no attempt to
steal anything.
According to Chamkar Mon district police chief Uch Sokhon, there have been no similar attacks reported in the area.
“I have not heard of any similar attacks in my district,” he said.
“But if [Mr. Wootton] files a complaint to the police, we will
investigate the case.”
(Additional reporting by Kaing Menghun)
1 comment:
There are some secret Yuon/Vietnamese agents who are CPP high ranking Government (such as Khiev Kanharith, Hor Five (Nam) Hong, Sok An, etc.) who are behind the attacks. Those F**king Yuon/Vietnamese pigs know what are doing to create the problems. Those F**king Vietnamese/Yuon gooks should have been all killed by now, but they are luckily alive.
We can get rid of CPP Yuon/Vietnamese Ranking Officials in Phnom Penh in the dark if we want to. Because they tried to ruin the reputations of Khmer/Cambodian people and nation.
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