A step ahead for acid victims

Mom Kunthear and Brooke Lewis

Phnom Penh Post

THE visits had been going on for months before Oun Thy, 21, decided to take action. Two or three times a week, her brother-in-law, Kaing Punnara, would drop in on Vong Sina, a 22-year-old waitress who worked at a karaoke bar in Takeo province’s Kirivong district. Though Vong Sina says the encounters were not romantic, Oun Thy would later tell police that they had enraged her family.

And so, on the night of December 17, Oun Thy – who was riding on the back of a motorbike driven by an unidentified masked man – pulled up in front of Vong Sina and three other women and poured a litre of acid over them.

Vong Sina sustained severe burns on the left side of her face, but it was her cousin, Vong Sreyly, who suffered the worst – she is still unable to leave the hospital ward where she is being treated for injuries to her face. The two other women suffered relatively mild burns, but both will be scarred for life.

On Thursday, Vong Sina sat in the Takeo provincial court as a judge announced that Oun Thy had been found guilty of “causing bodily harm” and sentenced her to four years in prison. Vong Sina was awarded 8 million riels (US$1,916) in compensation, and Soeun Srey Vann, who was also in the group of four, was awarded 4 million riels.

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