Cambodia ban on Iraq death videos

Mainstream media has only shown parts of the hostage videos

Cambodia has banned the sale of widely available video CDs depicting the apparent execution of hostages in Iraq.

Minister of Culture Sisowath Panara said the violent images were not fit to be shown in a nation still healing after more than 30 years of conflict.

Recordings of the hostage deaths have flooded street markets in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, in the last month.

Police are investigating the origin of the video CDs and have promised to punish anyone caught selling them.

The price of the recordings is about 3,000 riel, or less than $1.

A government spokesman said the footage of the killings could have a bad effect on younger Cambodians, who had not lived through the Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for killing and torturing hundreds of thousands of people.

Hundreds of people have been taken hostage in Iraq, many of them foreigners.

Videos appearing to show them pleading for their lives or being executed have been released by insurgents to advance their cause.