Cambodia tightens security check at airports

Prime Minister Hun Sen had given an order to tighten the security check at all the airports in the kingdom in order to combat any form of terrorist acts, illegal import and export of weapons, smuggling of drugs, and trans-national crimes, government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told Xinhua on Monday.

"we have already strengthened the security and safety (at all the airports in order to meet international management standard). We need to have good security for all our people," he said.

The prime minister instructed all airport staff members to focus on high-ranking government officials and diplomats, said the spokesman, adding that anyone who wanted to escape check of luggage needed to have permission letter from Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Diplomats' luggage must have special stamp or logo from their embassies for easy identification, he said.

For the luggage without such stamp or logo, airport staff members could ask the owners to explain what was inside, he said.

"(After necessary inquiry,) if they still have suspicion over the packages, they can check them upon approval and in presence of the diplomatic owners," he added.

Ambassadors' packages also have to be X-rayed just as other passengers' belongings, but for the cases or bag that they took with themselves, there would be no checks, he said.

The government had requested all the embassies to Cambodia to send samples of their embassy stamps and logos to Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to facilitate the passage of their staff members' packages at the airports, he added.

Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesman Khiev Sopheak told Xinhua by phone that the tightened check at the airports mainly aimed to deal with illegal acts.

"Prevention is better than cure," he said.

In early November, he said, six people were arrested for masterminding terrorist acts during the Water Festival and several others were still at large, which posed an ever urgent challenge for the government to cope with.

Source: Xinhua