2003 Phnom Penh Riots - Cause of The Riots

Cause of The Riots

The January 2003 riots were prompted by an article in the Cambodian Rasmei Angkor (Light of Angkor) newspaper on January 18. The article alleged that a Thai actress, Suvanant Kongying, had said that Cambodia had stolen Angkor, and that she would not appear in Cambodia until it was returned to Thailand. The newspaper’s editor gave the source for the story as a group of Khmer nationalists who said they had seen the actress on television. No evidence to support the newspaper’s claim has ever emerged, and it seems that the report was either fabricated or arose from a misunderstanding of what Suvanan’s character had said. It has also been suggested that the report was an attempt by a rival firm to discredit the actress, who was inter alia the “face” of a cosmetics company.

The report was picked up by Khmer radio and print media, and copies of the Rasmei Angkor article were distributed in schools. On January 27, the Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen repeated the allegations, and said that Suvanant was “not worth a few blades of grass near the temple”. On January 28, the Cambodian government then banned all Thai television programmes in the country.