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| Shot Cambodian pop star evacuated to Bangkok as fans pray
PHNOM PENH, Oct 22 (AFP) - A Cambodian pop star with links to the royalist FUNCINPEC party was medically evacuated to a Bangkok hospital Wednesday as thousands of grieving fans prayed she would survive gun shot wounds to the face. The 24-year-old siren Touch Sunnich, known across Cambodia as the voice of FUNCINPEC, was evacuated under tight security with members of her family, said Prime Minister Hun Sen's advisor, Om Yentieng. Serious & personalized business, investment and technology intelligence for a serious advantage - BizVantage! "Our main and primary duty was to save her life and we have tried," he said. Police said four men on motorbikes opened fire on the singer and her mother Tuesday as they were getting into a car after leaving a flower shop. Touch Sunnich was shot in the head; her 62-year-old mother, Kim Sinon, was shot in the back and died. "She is being treated in the ICU (intensive care unit)," a spokesman for Bangkok's premier medical facility, the Bumrungrad Hospital, told AFP. "We cannot disclose her condition but she is still alive and being treated in the ICU and the doctor has allowed her family and friends to visit." In Phnom Penh, thousands of fans staged overnight candle-light vigils and the FUNCINPEC-controlled Ta Prum radio played Touch Sunnich's hits, including her rendition of the party's anthem, as dedications to the wounded star. "This is miserable, I and other people are upset and regret what has happened. It should not happen to a pop star. We can only pray that she survives, it's in God's hands," said fan Menh Sothyvann. King Norodom Sihanouk said in an interview published on his website that he was deeply saddened by the attack on Touch Sunnich who had entertained the monarch's guests, including heads of state, at the palace. "The infernal assassins killed her poor mother and did everything to destroy her beautiful face, to maximise her suffering, and then to make her die," the revered monarch said. Her's was the second high profile attack on a person linked to FUNCINPEC in less than a week. On Saturday a deputy editor of Ta Prum, Chou Chetharith, 37, was shot dead in broad daylight outside the station's headquarters in Phnom Penh, sparking international condemnation. Ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the two attacks could have been a politically motivated attempt to besmirch the government by blaming them for the shootings. "The attack was also aimed at showing that FUNCINPEC was under pressure from the CPP and done in order to incite royalist supporters to take revenge against the CPP," he said. Last week Hun Sen accused Ta Prum radio of insulting the CCP and warned FUNCINPEC to control its media outlets in order to avoid conflict while he attempted to form a new government after the July 27 polls. The CPP failed to win a two-thirds majority needed to rule outright at the polls, forcing it to seek a coalition partner. But FUNCINPEC and SRP have baulked, demanding a tripartite government without Hun Sen as premier, an idea dismissed by the CPP. Sihanouk appeared supportive of Hun Sen saying the prime minister's "enemies accuse him of being a dictator but there are dictators above the law who are never punished, gangsters and murderers who bring almost everyday misfortune to honourable and innocent people." bur-lh/rmj Cambodia-politics-crime
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