King despairs for Cambodia after murder of pop star

King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia expressed despair for his country yesterday after the shooting of a young pop star. Reacting to the assault by unidentified gunmen on Touch Sunich, King Sihanouk spoke of an increasing number of attacks on public figures recently and said: "Our country has become, alas, a country with neither faith nor law."

Touch Sunich, 24, was shot twice in the face on Tuesday in Phnom Penh. Her mother was killed in the daylight attack.

"Yesterday, the infernal assassins killed her poor mama and did all to destroy her beautiful face, to make her suffer to the maximum and then to die," the King said in a statement published on his website.

Hundreds of fans were keeping vigil while Touch Sunich remained in a critical condition. Bullets pierced her face and damaged her spine. She was flown to a hospital in the Thai capital, Bangkok, where she is in an intensive care unit.

The two women are the latest victims of street violence in the Cambodian capital. The murder on Saturday of an opposition radio journalist, Chuor Chetharith, just four days after he was warned to tone down criticism of the government, has already sparked calls for an independent inquiry into the revival of political death squads.

Hun Sen, the Prime Minister, has ordered the armed forces to tighten security at foreign embassies and to protect journalists and performers. He described the shootings as politically motivated, and said they were intended to discredit his administration.

Mu Sochua, the spokesperson for the opposition royalist party, Funcinpec, said: "I cannot say whether it is politically motivated. I can say that during the July election campaign Touch sang all of our songs. She is a precious gem."

Chuor, the deputy editor of Ta Prom, aradio station funded by Funcinpec, was shot in the neck at point-blank range by two masked gunmen on a motorbike as he left his car, which was parked opposite the radio studio, on Saturday. The Ta Prom staff had been expressly cautioned by Hun Sen to "monitor its programmes" more carefully after broadcasting a scathing critique of the Prime Minister.

Touch Sunich, who is known as "the voice of Funcinpec", was attacked just as the party called a press conference to protest against the death of another female activist, Dos Hut.

Funcinpec claims a police officer loyal to Hun Sen's party, the Cambodian People's Party, shot Dos Hut in annoyance because she played Ta Prom radio too loudly.

The King suspended talks aimed at forming a new coalition government, which had been scheduled to begin this week. He had been intent on breaking the political deadlock over the composition of a new government. The Cambodian People's Party won an outright majority in July, but failed to muster the two-thirds majority of seats required to rule in its own right, and has since been seeking a partner.

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party and Funcinpec have so far refused to join forces with the Prime Minister. Instead, they have formed an alliance aimed at establishing a tripartite government without Hun Sen as leader. The former Khmer Rouge soldier has been in power since 1985.

A report by Human Rights Watch has criticised the Cambodian government for "failure to prosecute civilian and military authorities for killing and torture", as well as "the excessive use of lethal force and misuse of weapons by law enforcement officials".