A Brief Biography of Gen. Hok Lundy - part two

Radio Free Asia
By Chea Makara
17th November, 2008
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

National Police Commissioner, Gen. Hok Lundy (pictured), has died in a helicopter crash on Sunday the 9th of November, 2008.

In mid August 2006, former Phnom Penh Police commissioner, Gen. Heng Pov, said in a public statement that Gen. Hok Lundy was behind the grenade attack on the headquarter of the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party of Mr. Son Sann on the 30th of September, 1995 which killed more than ten people and the grenade attacks on the Sam Rainsy Party demonstration (on 30th March, 1997) in front of the national Assembly which killed more than 20 people and wounded more than 140 people.

Gen. Heng Pov further accused Gen. Hok Lundy of involving in the execution-style killing of former Secretary of State of the Ministry of Interior Ho Sok on the 7th of July, 1997, the killing of actress Pisith Pilika (1999), the killing of ex-Member of Parliament Om Rodsady on the 18th of February, 2003, the killing of union leader Chea Vichea on the 22nd of January, 2004 and the attempted murder of the editor-in-chief of Koh Santepheap newspaper, Mr. Thong Uy Pang, on the 8th of June, 1998.

In response to the accusations that Gen. Hok Lundy was involved in human trafficking, the extra-judicial killings of some officials and many cases of human right abuses, Mr. Cheam Yeap said that not all of the accusations are true and due to the prolonged investigations of those murder cases which made him prone to the accusations.

Mr. Cheam Yeap said: “But if we look at the unsolved cases and cases that have not been brought to justice, the cases that needed 10 to 15 years to solve, there are not many of them left. But in our capacity as the leader we must remind our subordinates or monitor our subordinates to complete their works as soon as can be done.”

President of the investigating team of the human right organisation Licadho, Mr. Ny Chakriya, said that Gen. Hok Lundy has left some achievements, such as the prevention of terrorist acts and maintaining public orders. However, Mr. Ny Chakriya said that Gen. Hok Lundy has not taken actions against those police officers who were involved in the trafficking of humans and human right abuses.

Mr. Ny Chakriya said: “He has left some achievements in the areas of maintaining the stability, safety, security, in the protection of both the people and foreign embassies such as the US embassy. We did not see terrorist acts being committed against foreign embassies like what we’ve seen had happened in other countries. But at the same time, we’ve seen some shortcomings such as we’ve seen some police officers are still engaged in human right abuses such as involved in the tortures and causing bodily harm to the people as well as toward the weak people and these police officers were never been punished. This is the negative aspect during his tenure as the National Police Commissioner.”

Mr. Ny Chakriya added that his human right organisation has investigated the accusations that Gen. Hok Lundy was involved in the killings of Mr. Ho Sok, actress Pisith Pilika and union leader Chea Vichea, but up until now there is no evidence to suggest that the accusations levelled against him are true.

Mr. Ny Chakriya said: “They are the cases which we have also investigated but we have yet to find any evidences linking Gen. Hok Lundy to those acts, so I cannot say that Gen. Hok Lundy was behind all those acts...”

President of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, Mr. Ou Virak, said that during the time of Gen. Hok Lundy serving as Police Commissioner, there are more than 10 cases of politically-motivated extra-judicial killings and that there are many cases of killings of actresses.

Mr. Ou Virak said that, the police knew all about those cases and the police were involved in (the killings/abuses) those cases and they have never found justice for the victims.

Mr. Ou virak said: “There are many cases (of murders) that we know are related to politics, such as Chea Vichea’s murder, the murder of a judge, the grenade attacks. All of these were politically-motivated attacks which have not been solved yet. There are many more cases such as the murder of journalist Khim Sambo and other journalists. At least the police knew something, knew who committed the crimes and they have not acted to punish those criminals or to simply just find justice for the families of the victims. I have seen there are many more new cases, such as the razor blade attacks on DJ Ano who was severely wounded and have died at such a young age and the shootings of many singers whom the police knew as having (romantically) involved with powerful people. These cases are not difficult to investigate, if the police has the will to do it. I believe that the police knew who committed those crimes. But I just ask a question: has the police, in the past, ever fulfilled their duties or not? The answers, I am sure, are that they have never fulfilled their duties and if ones knew (about the crimes) and they did not try to find justice, it means that they are complicit in those crimes as well.”

Mr Ou Virak added that the national police force, led by Gen. Hok Lundy, did not help in maintaining social orders. He said: “For many years, children of powerful people have engaged in gun-fires against each other in the middle of Phnom Penh City and there are policemen and high-ranking officials who are bringing guns with them to the clubs/pubs and the discotheques which sometimes led to shootings which have caused injuries to each other or they have caused injuries to the employees of the places. These are threats against traders and especially they are threats against the people who are doing their normal works to feed their families.”

Please not that Gen. Hok Lundy’s body was taken out of his house in a funeral procession at 7am on the 15th of November, 2008 and was buried at 3pm afternoon on the same day in Bavet village, Bavet commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province.// End/Return to part one click here.