Om Yentieng, Hun Sen's mouthpiece (Photo: RFA)14 April 2007
By Sok Serei
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
On Friday, the advisor to the Cambodian prime minister had reacted by rejecting the criticism leveled by Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights for Cambodia, who said that the decision to continue the jailing of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun underlines “continuing impunity” in the country. Hun Sen’s advisor, reacted by saying that Yash Ghai’s comment does not reflect the reality in Cambodia.
Om Yentieng, a high-ranking official working for Hun Sen and also the president of the Cambodian government Human Rights committee told RFA that: “In Khmer, we have a saying: if you have not look in detail yet, don’t make a sign with your eyebrows, because you are usually wrong. If there is no new proof, we believe that this case cannot force the court to take any decision as [Yash Ghai’s] declaration. As a country that abides by law, we must respect the court’s authority.”
General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), reacted by saying that the police authority and the MoI have thoroughly investigated the murder case of Chea Vichea, the former president of the Free Trade Union (FTU). They have concluded that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun are involved in this murder: “We showed the guns, the activities of the two accused, their confessions.”
The government officials are providing their reactions following the declaration made by Mr. Yash Ghai on Thursday. According to the International media, Mr. Yash Ghai declared that “to uphold the conviction of two men for the murder of a union leader, describing it as a ‘grave injustice’.” He also demanded for an independent investigation on the murder of Chea Vichea.
Mr. Yash Ghai’s declaration was made when the appeal court in Cambodia decided on Thursday to uphold the 20-year jail sentence on Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun. National and International human rights organizations claimed that the pair are not the real killers.
The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) issued a statement recently criticizing the appeal court’s decision as being unfair, politically biased, and lacks independence.
Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun were sentenced by the Phnom Penh municipal court to 20-year jail term on 01 August 2005 for the murder of Chea Vichea, the former FTU president, on 22 January 2004. The families of the pair have appealed the case during the sentencing.
The appeal hearing was held on Thursday. The appeal court decided to uphold the jail sentence.
Om Yentieng, a high-ranking official working for Hun Sen and also the president of the Cambodian government Human Rights committee told RFA that: “In Khmer, we have a saying: if you have not look in detail yet, don’t make a sign with your eyebrows, because you are usually wrong. If there is no new proof, we believe that this case cannot force the court to take any decision as [Yash Ghai’s] declaration. As a country that abides by law, we must respect the court’s authority.”
General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), reacted by saying that the police authority and the MoI have thoroughly investigated the murder case of Chea Vichea, the former president of the Free Trade Union (FTU). They have concluded that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun are involved in this murder: “We showed the guns, the activities of the two accused, their confessions.”
The government officials are providing their reactions following the declaration made by Mr. Yash Ghai on Thursday. According to the International media, Mr. Yash Ghai declared that “to uphold the conviction of two men for the murder of a union leader, describing it as a ‘grave injustice’.” He also demanded for an independent investigation on the murder of Chea Vichea.
Mr. Yash Ghai’s declaration was made when the appeal court in Cambodia decided on Thursday to uphold the 20-year jail sentence on Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun. National and International human rights organizations claimed that the pair are not the real killers.
The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) issued a statement recently criticizing the appeal court’s decision as being unfair, politically biased, and lacks independence.
Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun were sentenced by the Phnom Penh municipal court to 20-year jail term on 01 August 2005 for the murder of Chea Vichea, the former FTU president, on 22 January 2004. The families of the pair have appealed the case during the sentencing.
The appeal hearing was held on Thursday. The appeal court decided to uphold the jail sentence.
Wat to go, Om Yentieng! We love
ReplyDeleteyou! Don't let that corruped Kenyan
(Ghai) tell you what to do.
Long Live Srok Khmer
Oh, Ong Yuong Tieng, wasn't that you that phoned to scold former Judge Hing Thirith after the same judge had found no evidence ? You said: none of your business, it had been decided from the top, just send the two boys to Prey Sar ! Wasn't that you ? Only a yuon gringo who needs a brain surgery who who see a piece of truth. Have you found who shot Pov panhapich yet ?
ReplyDeleteAh Om Yin Tieng is one of corrupted person in Cambodia
ReplyDeleteAh Hun Sen is also the most corrupted person in Cambodia
Ah Hun Sen is the criminal against humanity in Cambodia
Ah Hun Sen will be hanged to die by Cambodia people
Get a lifes, boys! Stop embarrasse
ReplyDeleteyour stupid space-aged education,
will ya?
Wat to go, Ah Om Yentieng! We know Ah Om Yin Tieng is the corrupted person in Cambodia! Don't let that corruped Hun Sen (youn servant)tell you what to do.
ReplyDeleteLong Live Srok Khmer
Also Om Yentieng, next time the
ReplyDeletecorrupted Kenyan (Ghai) visits us,
may I host his stay in Prey Sor?
I am sure he will loved our gourmet
rat meats specialty, and I just
got a perfect loophole for his
stupid diplomatic immunity.
As a Khmer national I dissociate myself from any criticism that has an aspect of racial discrimination.
ReplyDeleteLAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Mr. Lao don`t bother, many on here use racial and anger to express themselves.
ReplyDeleteCC, California
Moeurl minn teun chiak kom nhiak chenhchoeurm,is that what this stooge said to Yash Ghai?
ReplyDeleteWell that goes both ways for him and his lackey court too.
Phorm khnong tuk kong sa-oy,Tien Tin Viet learn this" chrok phtias sbov kom ngoeuy meurl maik"
PLEASE HELP HUN SEN TO CULTURE HIS LANGUAGE SINCE YOU ARE GOOD AT HIM, NO NEED TO RUN TO HONG KONG AND CALIF. PEOPLE ARE BARBARIC, DON'T DISCUSS WITH THEM IN THIS FORUM.
ReplyDeleteThis fool asshole is not a real Khmer, just look at his whole name: Om is half Khmer I guess, but Yen Tieng is 110% mix Yuon. So whoever support this bastard, I say Fuck you & Go To Hell this Khmer New Year.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised by Om Yin Tieng's reaction.He is one of those Hun Sen's Buttock cleaners.
ReplyDeleteLaws in Cambodia are just toilet papers. They favor only the Rich the Maffiosis and the powerful.
Please sleep quietly after hiding the real criminals and putting in jails the innocent people.
It is the KR and the CPP's culture!
And how many of your people have
ReplyDeletepure khmer name?
What is so bad about Om Yentieng's
ReplyDeletereaction? What would you like to
hear him saying, 10:38?
I does not matter what name or blood you have. Stop being racist. What matters is Integrity and Allegiance to the people and the Country. For Om Yin Teang I doubt he is honest and defends poor peple.He just denfends his Master and the powerful.
ReplyDeleteThis is the culture of the Phnom Penh government to target person instead of issue. The reaction has never replied to the issue but diverted to something else. He will hang himself when he is given enough string.
ReplyDeleteMr. 9:52
ReplyDeleteReally? Using race and anger to express oneself! This has a bit of nazi flavour.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
This animal should go to hell !!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Cambodia government officials are just a bunch of child rapist and a fucking Youn. Those mother fucker are just screwing Cambodia more and more while hun sen enjoy holding dick. Fuck the Om. Sick and tired of all these mother fuckers.
ReplyDeleteSo what damages have that done to
ReplyDeleteCambodia?
What is goes around comes around. Just waite for your turn CPP elits....
ReplyDeleteNew name Om "Ong Young Tieng" Meaning killing his own self to serve his master VC.
ReplyDeleteHmm ... sounds like something that
ReplyDeleteyou will soon be doing oversea if
not done already.
Please let's not call one another "animal". Hitler and the Nazis in Germany called the Jews "subhumans" which is very close to animals, and killed 6 millions of them. In Los Angeles California, there is a Museum of Tolerance which is also the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The exhibition in that museum shows Hitler's extermination of the Jews in Germany, commonly called the Holocaust, and also racial hatred and punishment of its authors in America. Hundreds of students visit that museum every day. Simon Wiesenthal was a surviving victim of the Holocaust and devoted his life to tracing nazi officers to get them arrested and tried for their crimes.
ReplyDeleteIt is for fellow Cambodians well worth visiting that museum. Perhaps it would an idea to build the same museum in Cambodia to show the history of the Khmer Rouge genocide and promote tolerance.
LAO Mong Hay,Hong Kong
KR massacre museum in Long Beach?
ReplyDeleteHmm ... that sounds like a great
idea, Dr. Lao, and I know exactly
where to find the bones and
skeletons too! Mua hahahaha ....
Dr. Lao Mong Hay, I am very sad with a person who has never understand about the reality of painful and injustice such as in Cambodia. I think a person who has never understand or sad about the paintful of Cambodian people during the Khmer Rouge regime is mean that this kind of person could be a Khmer Rouge soldier who had killed a lot of people in the genocide regime.
ReplyDeleteActually, there are alot of ex-khmer rouge soldiers living in America now aday because during the Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia there were many ex-khmer rouge soldiers and also the innocence people. That's why, these people have never understanding about the sadness, painfulness, injustice at all, becasue they used to be the killers too
ReplyDeleteMr.4:17PM
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure whether all our current rulers had lived through the Khmer Rouge regime and had personally experienced its brutality. Some of them had been cooperating and working with the Khmer Rouge, or had lived in or fled to Vietnam or other countries and had not undergone the same suffering as the Cambodian people. But this lack of such personal experience does not discredit what they have been saying about the Khmer Rouge regime and their condemnation of and fight against that regime.
Just ask Samdech Hun Sen, Samdech Chea Sim, Samdech Heng Samrin, etc... how much and how long the Khmer Rouge had been torturing them. I would very much like to read the accounts of their suffering under the Khmer Rouge. Really I do. Our August King Sihanouk wrote an account of his life under the Khmer Rouge "Prisoner of the Khmer Rouge", and I have read it. Some ordinary fellow Cambodians have also written the accounts of their respectiove experiences under the Khmer Rouge and I have read some of their books, not all.
I personally did and has continued to do feel guilty as I was living in peace and security abroad when my parents, brothers and sisters, my mother in law, my brothers and sisters, my teachers, my friends, classmates and all other fellow Cambodians were suffering, starving and dying. I lost two brothers, my mother in law, and almost all brothers and sisters in law. I don't still know where one of my brothers had died, but I've learned that he had been chained in prison and fed with animal feed before he died. It is still very agonising when I have not been able to find where and when exactly he and the other relatives mentioned above had died and had been buried. What dates do I have to commemorate their death? Where are their remains or their tombs or cemeteries?
Very sadly yours,
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Yes, I too have lost 90% of
ReplyDeleterelatives and family between the
B52s and the KR, but crying about
forever is not a way to defeat
them. We must channel some of our
energy to ensure that this event
will never happened again to future
generations. Do you think that is
easy. First of all, everything
is initiated by the Royalists. How
does one going to prevent that from
happening again without violating
anyone right? Get the picture?
Dr Hay,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about the personal KR expereinces of many current leaders. I am sure most of they didn't feel the pain. Heng Samrin lost one brother at s-21, heng Samkai. The rest, I belive, feel no pain. That is why they don't care about the KR trial.
Money and power make them release from pain. But don't forget that there is a hell, the hell will wait for these bloody people
ReplyDeleteWrong 8:25, we want to trial the
ReplyDeletesnakes when it was alive, not when
it's dead and useless.
10.02 am, that is why impunity is pervasive throughout Kghmer society -ill and wrong never get fixed.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what you are
ReplyDeletetelling me, 6:54. Would you mind
help me understand you message.
Are you saying the tribunal will
prevent the spreading of wrong
doing? If so, I don't agree. This
is a perfect crime, and it can
be done again. Let us summarized
the steps:
1) abuse the hell out of people to
keep them from retaliate against
you.
2) at the same time, suck all their
wealth until it is completely dry,
or until no one will want to help poor slop.
3) that is it. What is the UN
going to do? Not much as usual,
by the time they get to you, you
will be too old to care about
dying, hehehe.
It is beyond my belief to see people like can't differentiate between justice and injustice. That is why Khmer people have been living in misery. Killers, abuswers of human rights are never brought to justice. In proper justice system it doesn't mattwer how long the crime was committed the culprits can't escape it, even on a death bed.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to say that - but that is not Cambodia ? If you think so or something along the line, don't respond, go live with Khmer vicxtims and see them cry in their hearts.
Bullshits, criminals and muderers
ReplyDeleteare running lose everywhere, not
to mention your stupid justice
system let them out to rape and
victimized innocent people
deliberately. Who are you trying
to kid, brah?
Mr.6:06AM,
ReplyDeleteI understand what you can't believe after reading the following piece of the teaching of Buddha which I'd like share with you and other commentators.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
"7. If an important minister of a king neglects his duties, works for his own profit, accepts bribes, it will cause the rapid decay of public morals. Other people will cheat each other, a strong man will attack a less powerful one, a noble will mistreat a commoner, a wealthy man will take advantage of the poor, there will be no justice for any one, mischief will abound and troubles will multiply. Under such circumstances faithful ministers will retire from public service, wise men will keep silent from fear of complications, and only flatterers will hold government positions, and they will use their political power to enrich themselves with no thought for the sufferings of the people. Under such conditions the power of the government becomes ineffective for good and its righteous policies fall in ruins. Such unjust officials are thieves of the people's happiness, and are worse than thieves because they defraud both ruler and people and are the cause of the nation's troubles. The king should root out such ministers and punish them severely. But even in a country which is ruled by a good king and by just laws, there is another form of disloyalty that is even more to be dreaded, the disloyalty of sons to their parents. There are sons who give themselves up to love of wife and children and who forget the grace of the parents who nursed them and cared for them during many years. They neglect their parents, rob their parents of their possessions, and neglect their teaching. Such sons are to be counted among the worst criminals in a country. And why? Because they are disloyal to their parents whose love has been very great and has continued for many years, a love that could not be repaid if the sons honored them and treated them kindly throughout their life. Those who are unfaithful to rulers and unfaithful to parents should be punished as the worst of criminals. And also, in a country which is ruled by a good king and by just laws, there is another form of disloyalty that is even worse than these, disloyalty to religious teachers. There are people in every country who give themselves up to selfish enjoyments, entirely forgetting the three treasures - Buddha, Dharma and the Brotherhood. Such people destroy their country's sanctuaries, burn the sacred scriptures, persecute the teachers of righteousness, and violate all the sacred teachings of Buddha. Such people are a country's worst enemies. And why? Because they destroy the spiritual faith of a nation, which is its foundation and the source of its virtues and prosperity. Such people by ruining the faith of others are digging their own graves. All other sins may be counted light in comparison with these three disloyalties. Those who are thus disloyal should be punished most severely."