Cambodia, FBI Wraps Up Post Blast Training

By Soy Sophea

The U.S. legal attaché and representatives from the Cambodian Government have attended a closing ceremony for the Post Blast Crime Scene School at the 70th Brigade’s headquarters located on National Road No.3 about 15 kilometers from Phnom Penh.

Men Sam An, Director of the National Counterterrorism Bureau in the Ministry of the Interior said the Bureau’s training programs will produce 50 counterterrorism police officers with the ability to confront any terrorist threat to national security.

“This process has been much like learning how to drive. We have the car, but the car itself isn’t going to teach how to drive safely” Sam An told reporters after the closing ceremony on May 15.
The Director said that the training will help firm up Cambodia’s response to terrorism and thanked the FBI. He pointed to the recent arrest of terrorists in the case of the explosive devices found at the Cambodia-Vietnam statue and the Ministry of De-antiterrorism operation.

Laro Tan, the legal attaché from the American Embassy, told reporters that the training covered both theoretical and practical approaches to counterterrorism. “It has been a useful exchange experience between the two countries,” Tan said.

“In the past U.S. prosecutors have been unable to obtain solid convictions due in part to the mishandling of evidence and intelligence at the scene of the crime”, according to a U.S. Embassy statement obtained by The Cambodia Weekly on May 15.

The statement continued “This training initiative provided participants with evidence and intelligence gathering techniques which will better meet the standards of the U.S. courts and allow them to better assist U.S. prosecutors.”

“It is also another sign of the increasing cooperation between the law enforcement services of the United States and Cambodia as we work to maintain security in the region,” the statement said.
The Post Blast Crime Scene School was designed to instruct Cambodian investigators to properly process a crime scene involving bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Representatives from the Cambodian National Police (CNP), National Counterterrorism
Committee (NCTC) and the National Counterterrorism Special Forces (NCTSF) participated in the five day course.