Cambodian authorities arrest 2 suspected of planting homemade bombs

''Two suspects were arrested yesterday, and now we are filing the case to the court,'' Chhay Sinarith, director of the Police General Information Department, said.

He said the suspects, identified as Son Than, 42, a motorcycle taxi driver, and Kim Toeun, 52, a construction worker, claim to belong to the Kampuchea Krom Front, which they say wants to ''liberate Kampuchea Krom from Vietnam.''

Kampuchea Krom, once one part of Cambodia, was ceded to Vietnam in 1949 and since then organizations and communities based there and abroad have accused Vietnam of mistreating Khmers in the region.

The Kampuchea Krom Front is, however, ''small and is not harmful to the country and the people of Cambodia,'' Chhay Sinarith said. ''They were intending to destroy the Statue of Friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam.''

One of three homemade bombs packed with TNT in buckets exploded at the statue at about 5:20 a.m. Sunday, slightly damaging it.

Two other bombs were defused.

The statue, built in 1989, is several hundred meters away from Cambodia's Royal Palace.

After the 1998 general election, opposition protesters who accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being too close to Vietnam attacked the statue with axes and gasoline, destroying part of it.

It was later restored.//Kyodo