Prime Minister Hun Sen Thursday urged security forces to reduce the number of increasingly brutal crimes and other offenses taking place across Cambodia.
“The activity of offenses in Cambodian society really fell in 2008, if compared to 2007, but it has not dropped enough,” Hun Sen said, speaking at the closing of an annual meeting of the Ministry of Interior. “So we must try to do all our best to reduce crime and offenses to the maximum in the upcoming period.”
The character of crime had become “more brutal,” Hun Sen told the gathered police and other officials, without elaborating.
“All crimes and offenses make the people concerned in their communities,” he said. “The source of the crime and offenses are young gangsters, illegal gangs, all kinds of betting games, illegal drug use and pornography.”
Reported crime dropped 23 percent in 2008 compared the year before, from 3,732 to 2,881, the Ministry of Interior announced Wednesday.