Teen latest victim of acid attack

A 19-year-old Cambodian woman was doused with acid while riding in a rickshaw in Phnom Penh, the latest in a wave of such attacks in recent years, police said today.

An unidentified man on a motorbike allegedly poured acid from a plastic container on Suos Dany as she rode throughout the capital on Thursday night at about 8pm (1am Irish time), district police chief Phan Phaeng said.

She was taken to a hospital where she remains in serious condition. Her face was disfigured in the attack.

Human rights workers say there have been more than 25 Cambodian women attacked with acid in the past three years. The attacks, carried out mostly by women seeking vengeance against their husbands’ mistresses, are intended to strip the victims of their beauty.

Sous Dany, who worked for an electrical appliance sales company, told the Khmer-language daily Koh Santepheap, or Island of Peace, that she had a romance earlier this year with a two-star military general but did not know why she was targeted.

She said she also had a relationship with a government official while working as a cashier at a golf course, but stopped seeing the man when his wife ‘‘politely asked’’ her to end the affair.

Cambodian men frequently take up mistresses or ‘‘second wives.’’ Many impoverished women in Cambodia are willing to consort with wealthier men in return for money or gifts.

The brutal revenge attacks became commonplace in Cambodia in 1999 following the highly publicised case of a top official’s wife who assaulted her husband’s 17-year-old mistress with acid.

The victim, Tat Somarina, was a young model and karaoke video star when she began an affair with Svay Sitha, an undersecretary of state at the Council of Ministers.

A Phnom Penh court issued a warrant for the arrest of his wife, Khourn Sophal, but police have never enforced it. Tat Somarina continues to recover in the United States with the aid of a charitable organisation.