PHNOM PENH, 2 June 2003 — Cambodia said yesterday nearly all of the 28 Islamic teachers and their families due to be kicked out in a crackdown on militancy had already left of their own accord.
Interior Ministry information chief Sok Phal said 44 people — teachers, their wives and children — had flown out of the country.
The remaining three deportees would be leaving as soon as their air tickets were sorted out.
“They should be leaving today or tomorrow,” he told Reuters.
The teachers are mostly from Thailand, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan.
The predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation last week shut down the Om Al-Qura Islamic school and charged three of its teachers — two Thais and an Egyptian — with suspected links to the militant group, Jemaah Islamiah.
The United States and some Asian countries believe the group has ties with Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
Although authorities said on Thursday they did not have any evidence linking the school’s other teachers to militancy, they were no longer welcome in the country and had 72 hours to leave, a deadline which expired on Saturday morning.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed the crackdown was ordered on the basis of intelligence operations with the United States, which has long been concerned at Cambodia’s growing number of Islamic schools, mostly funded from the Middle East.
With US Secretary of State Colin Powell due in Phnom Penh later this month for a regional security summit, the authorities are not letting down their guard and hinted at more arrests and closures to follow.
“We are continuing our investigations,” Sok Phal said.
Deeply impoverished Cambodia is home to a few hundred thousand ethnic Cham Muslims and has hitherto been free of Islamic extremism which has hit other countries in the region.
However, its notoriously porous borders and poor law enforcement have led many security analysts to say it could be an attractive hiding place for militant cells.
