Cambodia joined world leaders in condemning the assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, calling it a terrorists' act of cowardice.
Hun Sen told reporters Friday at the inauguration of a hospital in Phnom Penh that Bhutto's death is a serious blow to Pakistan. He appealed to all Pakistani political parties and supporters to be patient and refrain from violence.
"The problem in Pakistan is a serious one," Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, told reporters. “The world and Cambodia condemn this act of cowardice; we appeal for the criminals to be prosecuted.”
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide bomber attack Thursday while leaving a campaign rally for her party in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad. Pakistani police told world media that the suicide bomber shots her shortly before detonating explosives and blowing himself up.
Former Minister of Women's Affairs and Sam Rainsy Party deputy secretary-general Mu Sochua said Ms. Bhutto’s death is an important loss for Pakistan.
"As a woman politician, and one who respects democracy principles, I am not only shocked, but regrets the loss of life due to a cruel act on a woman who dares to be a Pakistan prime minister candidate,” she said. “I think the whole world should strongly condemn the violence used on Ms. Bhutto's life."
Ms. Bhutto was buried Friday afternoon next to her father, also a former prime minister of Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of mourners surrounded the graveyard near her family's home in Sindh province, in southern Pakistan.