By David Gollust
State Department
17 April 2007
Posted on Voice of America
The State Department Tuesday defended a decision granting a U.S. visa to Cambodia's national police chief, Hok Lundy, despite charges linking him to political violence and other crimes. A major human rights group is urging that the visa be rescinded. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
Officials here are suggesting there was a vigorous debate among U.S. agencies about whether to grant the visa to the controversial Cambodian police official.
But the State Department says there were compelling reasons for allowing Lundy to attend a Washington counter-terrorism meeting this week hosted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The FBI last year awarded Lundy a medal for his cooperation with the U.S.-led war on international terrorism. However, he has in the past been accused of involvement in political violence and other illegal activity in Cambodia, including trafficking in persons.
At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials understood the seriousness of the allegations against Lundy but that an inter-agency review of his case turned up no legal grounds for excluding him, and that the process came down to a policy decision:
"I know there are a lot of allegations, and I'm not trying to discount those allegations,” he said. “The key here is that there is no, in the review of the visa application, there was no legal bar to his being granted a visa, and that in that process there are certain standards that have to be met in terms of information. That is really the best I can offer you."
McCormack acknowledged that Lundy was once refused a U.S. visa over allegations he was involved in a human trafficking case in 2004.
The spokesman declined to elaborate on what he said were the compelling reasons for the decision to grant the visa this time.
A senior State Department official later said there had been a pretty healthy internal debate within the U.S. government on the issue, and in the end it was decided it was in the U.S. national interest to allow the visit.
The monitoring group Human Rights Watch issued a statement Tuesday urging that the visa be rescinded. It said Lundy was being allowed to attend a U.S. anti-terrorism event even though he had been implicated in an act of political violence 10 years ago classified by the United States itself as a terrorist act.
The group said Lundy was part of a conspiracy to carry out a 1997 grenade attack aimed at Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy that killed 16 people and wounded more than 100 others.
Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Sophie Richardson told VOA her organization cannot fathom how a Cambodian figure linked to terrorism can be allowed to visit the United States:
"The visa should be revoked for a couple of different reasons, not least Hok Lundy's track record of being implicated in serious violations of human rights,” he noted. “And we are particularly concerned that he's been invited to the U.S. to participate in bilateral discussions with the FBI about counter terrorism cooperation when one of the most serious abuses in which Hok Lundy was implicated was designated by the FBI itself as a terrorist act."
A written statement by Human Rights Watch said Lundy commanded troops supporting the then co-Prime Minister Hun Sen in a July 1997 coup that were involved in extra-judicial killings, and has also been implicated in drug trafficking.
The New York-based group said instead of playing host to the Cambodian police chief, the FBI should be investigating him. It said there is no one in Cambodia aside from his boss, Hun Sen, who has shown more contempt for the law than Hok Lundy.
Officials here are suggesting there was a vigorous debate among U.S. agencies about whether to grant the visa to the controversial Cambodian police official.
But the State Department says there were compelling reasons for allowing Lundy to attend a Washington counter-terrorism meeting this week hosted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The FBI last year awarded Lundy a medal for his cooperation with the U.S.-led war on international terrorism. However, he has in the past been accused of involvement in political violence and other illegal activity in Cambodia, including trafficking in persons.
At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials understood the seriousness of the allegations against Lundy but that an inter-agency review of his case turned up no legal grounds for excluding him, and that the process came down to a policy decision:
"I know there are a lot of allegations, and I'm not trying to discount those allegations,” he said. “The key here is that there is no, in the review of the visa application, there was no legal bar to his being granted a visa, and that in that process there are certain standards that have to be met in terms of information. That is really the best I can offer you."
McCormack acknowledged that Lundy was once refused a U.S. visa over allegations he was involved in a human trafficking case in 2004.
The spokesman declined to elaborate on what he said were the compelling reasons for the decision to grant the visa this time.
A senior State Department official later said there had been a pretty healthy internal debate within the U.S. government on the issue, and in the end it was decided it was in the U.S. national interest to allow the visit.
The monitoring group Human Rights Watch issued a statement Tuesday urging that the visa be rescinded. It said Lundy was being allowed to attend a U.S. anti-terrorism event even though he had been implicated in an act of political violence 10 years ago classified by the United States itself as a terrorist act.
The group said Lundy was part of a conspiracy to carry out a 1997 grenade attack aimed at Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy that killed 16 people and wounded more than 100 others.
Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Sophie Richardson told VOA her organization cannot fathom how a Cambodian figure linked to terrorism can be allowed to visit the United States:
"The visa should be revoked for a couple of different reasons, not least Hok Lundy's track record of being implicated in serious violations of human rights,” he noted. “And we are particularly concerned that he's been invited to the U.S. to participate in bilateral discussions with the FBI about counter terrorism cooperation when one of the most serious abuses in which Hok Lundy was implicated was designated by the FBI itself as a terrorist act."
A written statement by Human Rights Watch said Lundy commanded troops supporting the then co-Prime Minister Hun Sen in a July 1997 coup that were involved in extra-judicial killings, and has also been implicated in drug trafficking.
The New York-based group said instead of playing host to the Cambodian police chief, the FBI should be investigating him. It said there is no one in Cambodia aside from his boss, Hun Sen, who has shown more contempt for the law than Hok Lundy.
11 comments:
Hok Lundy's real name is Nguyen Van Son. The Vietnamese are very bad people, they have been presence in Cambodia since the French Colony. The Vietnamese can speak Khmer fluently and they act like Khmers.
I don't like the Vietnamese, and now the Vietnamese are being cursed by the Khmers, because I think the Vietnamese and Pol Pot both killed Khmer people.
"The Vietnamese Curse" is slowly coming.
Oh well!
Rainsy or shine, Uncle SAM will have his way!!!!
The whole wide world is bowing toward AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave anyway!!!!ahahhaha
I want to see who is next!!!!
12:07, why is the Vietnamese bad,
what exactly did they do?
As for the Vietnamese and Pol Pot
both killed Khmer, are you sure
it wasn't Ah Khmer-Yuons framing
them. I mean Ah Khmer-Yuons is an
expert in framing people. You
don't need to go far to learn about
that. We got a couple of them here
doing it now and then.
Hok Lundy, he is really Vienamese 100%. He is the big boss of crime in Cambodia. I know him very well, when I worked in Cambodia. In 1992 was demonstration organized by students of faculty of medicine in Phnom-Penh counter-attack the regime Hun Sen, at that period Hok Lundy was governor of Phnom-Penh and asked to captuyre the students and open their abdomen and look how big was their liver to have the strenght to manifest. Since I left the gocvernment.... This is only a small example of their horrible mentality.
Hun Sen has used democracy as a joke to fool foreign aids. And USA, the world biggest democracy Nation has not committed to their goal. They have put their self interest before anything. Therefore since, USA has declared war against terrorism, Cambodian democracy system have dropped completely because USA government have to work with terrorist leaders such as Hun Sen and Hok Lundy for their own goal and allowed Cambodian democrates to suffer. What a shame !!!!!
1:33pm, there is nothing good about the Vietnamese, they are bad rotten cheaters and liars.
You were born from the cheaters and liars, you see nothing.
Encroaching and robbing Cambodian land, and those million sent by Hanoi including this Vietnamese actor Hok Lundy (Nguyen Van Son), how many Khmers this Vietnamese Terrorist(s) killed?
Oh you accused the Indigenous people as framers? Tell yourself and tell each other to make you all feel better, we see already what the Vietnamese did/do to Cambodia.
The Vietnamese Curse is slowly coming.
This time Lundy got a medal, next
time Phd. Eat your heart out Ah
Khmer-US!!!
I hope Lundy has better luck than General Noriaga of Panama. He too got medal from the US than one day the US change its mind and invaded, captured, and now Noriaga is in jail in Miami.
Folks, please heed the comment from the U.S. State Department and to ensure that we're not misconstrued its context:
It is remarkably and deceptively simple to grasp the fact that the U.S. is not interested in hearsay or speculation with respect to these heinous crimes or egregious complicity, which (presumably) perpetrated by Lt. Gen. Lundy (the Cambodia National Police). However, it is critically paramount that the accuser (s) must produce credible evidence prior to seeking litigation against Hok Lundy. Moreover, the U.S. is not interested in his (Lundy) past crimes or complicity or egregious disservice to his country. What the U.S. interests in is the "U.S. national interest" thus to collaborate with the Cambodian government to conceivably forestall another cataclysmic event (like 9/11).
Furthermore, please try to understand that the U.S. understands all these heinous and unfathomable crimes that were perpetrated by the Cambodian government high-ranking officials; also, the U.S. understands there is a political civil is going on in Cambodia (as you're reading this). The U.S. can only tolerate and afford for political civil war, but not another country civil, because the $13 billion UN-established (imposed) democracy was exorbitantly expensive for the world community. Rest assured, should anyone in Cambodia has an ambition to start another civil war in the impoverished country, the U.S. or the UN will not be as generous as they used to be, with the exception of China. Please understand that the china will gladly help Cambodia in exchange for a new Chinese province.
Hun sen is afraid of hok lundy. This is a coward because Hok Lundy is the man sent from vietnam to keep hun in line, that's why he has control of the police. Hok use to be pot maker back in the days. Now he's a national police? what a joke cambodia has become. Hok Lundy is and Bun Rany are actually lovers. Hun Sen children are Hok Lundy bastard child. Just look at them really closely and you'll agree with me.
10:21, are you talking about the
US who saw WMD in Iraq?
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