IRI President Calls for FBI Investigation into Grenade Attack

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2004

The President of the International Republican Institute (IRI), George Folsom, today called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to complete its investigation into the March 30, 1997 grenade attack in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which injured IRI then-employee Ron Abney. Mr. Folsom also urged the FBI to make the results of its investigation public.

The grenade attack on a peaceful rally of the opposition Khmer National Party killed 19 people and injured more than 100, including Mr. Abney. The FBI investigated the attack but never completed its investigation or released its report publicly.

"Ron Abney deserves to know who ordered and carried out the attack," said George Folsom. "The Cambodian people also deserve to know. Justice in this case is long overdue."

According to an October 1999 staff report to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, members of Prime Minister Hun Sen's bodyguards participated in planning and executing the March 30, 1997 attack. The report also concluded that Hun Sen "must have known and approved of the attack."

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