Original report from Phnom Penh
17 December 2007
An elderly woman accused of witchcraft was shot to death Monday in Kampong Thom province, police said.
Kan Siem, 49, was killed by an unknown assailant as she traveled to a school to prepare meals for the children, police said.
Phauk Ly, acting deputy police chief of Prasat Sambo district, said the woman was shot in the head and arm.
"We don't know for sure if she knew witchcraft or not," he said, declining to comment further in an ongoing investigation.
Ros Sino, a Sam Rainsy Party activist in Kampong Thom, said witchcraft could have been a motive, adding that Kan Siem's husband was killed five years ago.
She had apparently presaged her own death the night before, telling her children Sunday she would be murdered, Ros Sino said.
"In turn, her offspring told me about it, saying someone wanted to kill her," Ros Sino said.
Thi Try, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said the murder of a wife and husband with no arrests was a worry to innocent people and a sign of a culture of impunity.
Kan Siem, 49, was killed by an unknown assailant as she traveled to a school to prepare meals for the children, police said.
Phauk Ly, acting deputy police chief of Prasat Sambo district, said the woman was shot in the head and arm.
"We don't know for sure if she knew witchcraft or not," he said, declining to comment further in an ongoing investigation.
Ros Sino, a Sam Rainsy Party activist in Kampong Thom, said witchcraft could have been a motive, adding that Kan Siem's husband was killed five years ago.
She had apparently presaged her own death the night before, telling her children Sunday she would be murdered, Ros Sino said.
"In turn, her offspring told me about it, saying someone wanted to kill her," Ros Sino said.
Thi Try, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said the murder of a wife and husband with no arrests was a worry to innocent people and a sign of a culture of impunity.
4 comments:
why don't we wake up against this absurd paranoia and reason before taking harsh actions!
If she is a witch why would she go to school helping cook for the children and helping her community!
Even if she is a witch, that is her right to practice her belief, no one has the right to take her and husband away from their children!
This superstition is getting much of our best people away. How sad.
Hun Sen leadership is more brutal than Khmer Rouge and Burma.
But Hun Sen always brag himself and his government as is better than Khmer Rouge.
In reality: Khmer Rouge is considered as a hell on earth, but Hun Sen regime is considered as ANIMAL on earth.
CPP's members have always liked to compare the different between HELL KINGDOM and ANIMAL KINGDOM.
For you, KI-ests, which one is better than between these two kingdoms?
Do you prefer to escape from these two kingdoms and live in HUMAN kingdom or not?
KY
Why are you saying that message here? It doesn't follow.
She belongs to Sam Rainsy Party. It is very common practice for AH HUN SEN thuggish authorities to kill the opposition member party by accused them as witch, an act of robbery, personal family dispute...
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