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Unquestionably, the most bizarre recent event was the near-suicide attack on government buildings in late November 2000 by a group called the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF). It continued to have repercussions throughout 2001. The attack had its own peculiar transnational dimensions, since CFF is led by Cambodian-Americans in California.
Early on the morning of 24 November, a group of fifty armed men filed out of Phnom Penh's central train station and, using assault weapons, grenades, and rocket launchers, led an attack on the nearby Council of Ministers building, apparently intending to continue on to the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence. Simultaneously, there were rocket attacks at military headquarters on the outskirts of the city. The attackers wore T-shirts with the CFF logo and saffron-coloured headbands, one with the inscription, "The father comes to help the children because the children are sad." The totally unrealistic, ragtag attack was put down within two hours, with seven insurgents dead and eleven government forces wounded.15
Responsibility was immediately claimed by the CFF, who said in public statements, "It was not terrorism. It was a real attempt to oust the government." Military police arrested a Cambodian-American, Richard Kiri Kim, as he attempted to board a plane in Siem Reap for Thailand. He admitted directing the attacks.
Media attention soon focused on Chhun Yasith, the founder of CFF, based in Long Beach, California. Chhun Yasith was a former SRP member, but says that following the 1998 elections he left the party and organized CFF to overthrow the government. According to a CFF website, the organization was founded in a Thai town near the Cambodian border in October 1998. Since 1999, it has been officially registered by the State of California as a political organization. Chhun Yasith, the wealthy owner of an accounting firm and a Seventh...