Homeland Security

DATE=03/31/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CAMBODIA/MISSILES (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-314620

BYLINE=PATRICK FALBY

DATELINE=PHNOM PENH

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Eighty surface-to-air missiles of Cambodia's remaining stocks were destroyed in a public ceremony. U-S and Cambodian officials say the action ensures the missiles will not fall into the hands of terrorists. Patrick Falby reports from Phnom Penh.

TEXT: Smoke burst into the sky as the HALO Trust, a charity that removes the debris of war, detonated 80 rockets buried in a rice field. The ceremony was held at a military post some 60 kilometers west of Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Minister of Defense, General Tea Banh, announced that ordnance experts would destroy all two hundred and 33 Soviet-made portable "Strela-2" missiles by April 2. He told a crowd of three hundred that Cambodia had no interest in keeping weapons left over from its civil war because they did not promote development and were no longer useful for protection.

In February, the U-S donated more than two hundred thousand dollars to help destroy the weapons. U-S ambassador to Cambodia Charles Ray says the missiles could have been dangerous if they fell into the hands of terrorists.

He says Cambodia is the first Asian country to take responsible steps to protect itself from terrorist acts by destroying weapons.

General Tea Banh says that in the past five years, the government has scrapped more than one hundred and 20 thousand small arms remaining from its civil war that ended in 1998. Civilians, however, still have ready access to a wide variety of weapons.

In addition, weapons from Cambodia are thought to arm rebel groups around Asia such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and militants in Indonesia's Aceh province.

The missile destruction deal came after rumors circulated last year that Islamic extremists smuggled missiles from Cambodia into Thailand as part of a plan to attack a Pacific summit in Bangkok that included President Bush. (Signed)

NEB/HK/PF/MH