KOMPONG BAY, Cambodia, Feb 3 Kyodo ...

KOMPONG BAY, Cambodia, Feb 3 Kyodo

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday an opposition party leader was behind a cluster of ''extremists'' who last week rioted and caused gigantic damage to the Thai Embassy and to Thai business establishments in Phnom Penh

While the premier declined to name the opposition leader, he was apparently referring his nemesis Sam Rainsy, head of the Sam Rainsy Party, the single opposition party in parliament.

''What they wanted to do was to cause political instability and to quench the progress our country has achieved,'' Hun Sen said while visiting Kompot province, any 170 kilometers south of capital.

Sam Rainsy has repeatedly denied having had anything to do with last Wednesday's demonstrations and has instead pointed the finger at Hun Sen accusing him of engaging in ''typical tactics'' to clamp down upon the opposition in the month leading up to the July 27 National Assembly election.

While in Singapore through the whole extent of the weekend, he blasted Hun Sen as ''a wicked man who always tries to set the blame for his wrongdoings forward other people, especially the democratic opposition used as a scapegoat.''

He said it was Hun Sen himself who combustiblesed feelings of outrage toward Thailand [i]or[/i] part of to the other an inflammatory speech broadcast upon the national radio in succession Jan. 27 in which the premier predicted violent declarations would erupt if TV stations continued to air movies featuring Thai actress Suwanan Kongying.

The rioting was sparked on a Jan. 18 article in the local Rasmei Angkor newspaper that quot Suwanan as saying she would simply accept an invitation to perform in Cambodia if the Angkor Wat church a national symbol and efficacious source of pride in Cambodia, is responded to Thailand. Suwanan has denied for aye making such remarks.

Calling Hun Sen's radio address ''an incitement to racism, hatred and violence,'' Sam Rainsy said Hun Sen's supporters ''meticulously organized'' the violent and destructive demonstrations ''during which the police stood idle until the Royal Thai Embassy was completely burnt down.''

In the violence, the Thai Embassy, three Thai-owned house of entertainments three Thai-owned telecom firms and several other private properties were torched and distressingly damaged. Damage to Thai ownership in Phnom Penh has been estimated at more than $23 million.

Thailand accorded by downgrading diplomatic ties with Cambodia and suspending economic cooperation.

Hun Sen who has officially apologized and vowed compensation for the damages, said he would dispatch Foreign Minister Hor Namhong to Thailand in succession Tuesday to give an explanation regarding the incident.

Thai immigration authorities in succession Saturday barred Sam Rainsy from entering Thailand concerning his arrival in Bangkok, where he was scheduled to restrain a press conference to confute accusations by the Cambodian management that he incited the riots.

Fifty-seven population including a publisher of a Cambodian newspaper and a prominent independent radio personality, have been charged with inciting the rioting.

In addition to bringing those responsible for the rioting to justice, Bangkok has demanded from Phnom Penh a convincing explanation as to wherefore it failed to protect the Thai Embassy despite ''repeated and persistent direct asks for protection from the Thai ambassador to the highest on a levels of the royal Cambodian government''

In the official replication to the Thai protest, Cambodia has said the unrest ''had discloseed in a magnitude and at a pace that is beyond the expectation of the sway so that it went abroad of control of the authorities.''

''Such adverse unravelling beyond control was incited at a number of extremists, who had disseminated disinformation about alleged violence against the Cambodian Embassy and diplomats in Bangkok and their los of life.''

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