Reporter: Brendan Trembath
This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.
ELEANOR HALL: A former Cambodian police chief who has made abuse of power claims against the Cambodian Government is now facing his own deepening credibility problem.
Heng Peov has gone into hiding after trying to seek political asylum at the Australian High Commission in Singapore.
His lawyer said yesterday his client could prove his claims that he was asked to shoot dissidents. But the Cambodian Government says it is Mr Heng who has broken the law.
And long time observers of Cambodian politics say they are inclined to believe the Government, as Brendan Trembath reports.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The former Cambodian police chief Heng Peov says he cannot go back to Cambodia because he knows too much about the Government's involvement in corruption and other crimes.
His Australian lawyer David Chen has conceded he cannot back up the claims.
DAVID CHEN: But I believe his words. He told me that he has evidence and support for what he says, but the evidence unfortunately, of course, is in Cambodia.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Cambodian Government has hit back, alleging it is Mr Heng who has committed crimes.
(Sound of Khmer language news report)
BRENDAN TREMBATH: This Khmer language news report quotes a senior Cambodian police official who says Heng Peov is the subject of an arrest warrant. He is accused of murder and bribery.
So who do you believe: the man on the run or the Government he's fled from?
Well, for a start Heng Pouv's had a high post but a relatively low profile.
Tony Kevin was Australia's Ambassador to Cambodia from 1994 to 1997.
TONY KEVIN: The most famous Cambodian policeman of course is Police Chief Hok Lundi who Heng Pouv apparently worked for and worked closely with for the last seven years or so until they had a major falling out in recent months, which had led to Heng Pouv apparently being in fear of his life, as he claims, and fleeing from the country.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Mr Kevin is a now a visiting fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University.
He says Heng Pouv makes remarkable claims.
TONY KEVIN: By his own accounts this man seems to have been very closely involved in the most notorious unexplained killings that have taken place in Cambodia over the last seven or nine years.
I mention in particular the killing of the much loved actress and singer Piseth Peaklica and he tells a story there of romantic involvement with both Hok Lundi and Hun Sen and a jealous wife and subsequently the young lady's tragic unexplained murder.
He also tells the story of the shooting of Ho Sok, one of Prince Ranariddh's senior lieutenant in the trouble in 1997, by the men close to Hok Lundi.
He also tells of a drug smuggler, who is now a leading Cambodian industrialist. He tells the story of the bombing of Sam Rainsy human rights demonstration in 1997.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: But Tony Kevin has trouble accepting Heng Pouv's stories.
TONY KEVIN: Most of them are not new, most of them were street talk in Cambodia over many years, so the fact that this man worked in the police close to Hok Lundi, and the fact that he's got a great deal of information about these stories doesn't necessarily mean that what he says is true.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The former diplomat says there is a credibility gap.
TONY KEVIN: Well, I think this man has a bit of a credibility problem because by his own account many times he was worried about he was involved in and what he was doing, but he was always either threatened into silence or bought off with bribes or new cars.
I think if one was looking at the relative credibility of what is after all, a sovereign Government recognised by Australia, with which we have normal diplomatic dealings and the credibility of a malcontent police officer who has decided for whatever reason to blow the whistle, I tend, unless given strong evidence to the contrary, to believe the government rather than the man.
ELEANOR HALL: That's former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin ending that report from Brendan Trembath.
ELEANOR HALL: A former Cambodian police chief who has made abuse of power claims against the Cambodian Government is now facing his own deepening credibility problem.
Heng Peov has gone into hiding after trying to seek political asylum at the Australian High Commission in Singapore.
His lawyer said yesterday his client could prove his claims that he was asked to shoot dissidents. But the Cambodian Government says it is Mr Heng who has broken the law.
And long time observers of Cambodian politics say they are inclined to believe the Government, as Brendan Trembath reports.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The former Cambodian police chief Heng Peov says he cannot go back to Cambodia because he knows too much about the Government's involvement in corruption and other crimes.
His Australian lawyer David Chen has conceded he cannot back up the claims.
DAVID CHEN: But I believe his words. He told me that he has evidence and support for what he says, but the evidence unfortunately, of course, is in Cambodia.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Cambodian Government has hit back, alleging it is Mr Heng who has committed crimes.
(Sound of Khmer language news report)
BRENDAN TREMBATH: This Khmer language news report quotes a senior Cambodian police official who says Heng Peov is the subject of an arrest warrant. He is accused of murder and bribery.
So who do you believe: the man on the run or the Government he's fled from?
Well, for a start Heng Pouv's had a high post but a relatively low profile.
Tony Kevin was Australia's Ambassador to Cambodia from 1994 to 1997.
TONY KEVIN: The most famous Cambodian policeman of course is Police Chief Hok Lundi who Heng Pouv apparently worked for and worked closely with for the last seven years or so until they had a major falling out in recent months, which had led to Heng Pouv apparently being in fear of his life, as he claims, and fleeing from the country.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Mr Kevin is a now a visiting fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University.
He says Heng Pouv makes remarkable claims.
TONY KEVIN: By his own accounts this man seems to have been very closely involved in the most notorious unexplained killings that have taken place in Cambodia over the last seven or nine years.
I mention in particular the killing of the much loved actress and singer Piseth Peaklica and he tells a story there of romantic involvement with both Hok Lundi and Hun Sen and a jealous wife and subsequently the young lady's tragic unexplained murder.
He also tells the story of the shooting of Ho Sok, one of Prince Ranariddh's senior lieutenant in the trouble in 1997, by the men close to Hok Lundi.
He also tells of a drug smuggler, who is now a leading Cambodian industrialist. He tells the story of the bombing of Sam Rainsy human rights demonstration in 1997.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: But Tony Kevin has trouble accepting Heng Pouv's stories.
TONY KEVIN: Most of them are not new, most of them were street talk in Cambodia over many years, so the fact that this man worked in the police close to Hok Lundi, and the fact that he's got a great deal of information about these stories doesn't necessarily mean that what he says is true.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: The former diplomat says there is a credibility gap.
TONY KEVIN: Well, I think this man has a bit of a credibility problem because by his own account many times he was worried about he was involved in and what he was doing, but he was always either threatened into silence or bought off with bribes or new cars.
I think if one was looking at the relative credibility of what is after all, a sovereign Government recognised by Australia, with which we have normal diplomatic dealings and the credibility of a malcontent police officer who has decided for whatever reason to blow the whistle, I tend, unless given strong evidence to the contrary, to believe the government rather than the man.
ELEANOR HALL: That's former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin ending that report from Brendan Trembath.
5 comments:
And the victim are the children of the killing field!
Can the world help us (Cambodian)stand on our own feet? - take the gun out of expolpot and the Viet or help arm us to fight one last change for our real freedom?
Or you all are sucker too??????????
This is look like a job for FBI or a living Sherlock Holmes detective out there. Pardon me,may I make a suggestion, Heng Pov should volunteer to have polygraph test done. This one of the creditable options to check his truth and honest. So stand up and fight like a man. Raise your right hand, promise to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. You may have a seat and proceed with polygraph. You got that!!!
who is a fraud will find out soon?
It look like very hard to have justice from anyone. Since 1992, Hun Sen has bribed all foreign diplomates to support him by given lot of diamonds to their wife. Anyone has arrived in Cambodia will be corrupted like Hun Sen regime because of temptation of all kind of briberies. As Hun Sen has said, take a diamond or a bullet? For a poor Cambodian he will say, you take a sac of rice or a bullet to your head? Cambodias must have to suffer if waiting to hear a good judement from a foreigner. Noone is good as a GOD to tell the true.
Tony Kevin is not the best person to comment about this case. Here in Australia he has been a complete, unapologetic apologist for Hun Sen & Co. He is always siding with the Cambodian government and against human rights workers.
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