Opposition leader Sam Rainsy lights candles during a ceremony marking 12 years since the March 30, 1997, grenade attack. (Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON)Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Written by Sebastian Strangio and Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post
HUNDREDS turned out for a commemoration Monday marking the 12th anniversary of the 1997 grenade attack that left at least 16 dead and more than 100 injured during a peaceful opposition rally in Phnom Penh.
During a two-hour ceremony held at the commemorative stupa marking the site of the attack near the former National Assembly, participants lit incense and laid wreaths next to photos of 13 of those killed, while lawmakers and victims' relatives issued calls for fresh investigations into the still-unsolved case.
SRP President Sam Rainsy, who was injured and whose bodyguard was killed during the 1997 rally, slammed the government for its inaction but expressed hopes that investigations conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation would succeed where it had failed.
"The criminals must not be hidden by the powerful," he told the crowd. "I believe the Obama administration has clear principles of justice [and] we hope that the US can send the people behind the grenade attack to jail."
Ly Nary, who lost her journalist son Chet Doung Daravuth in the attacks, appealed to the government to continue its investigations and said she looked forward to seeing the attackers in the dock.
"We should take [such] impunity away from our society," she said in a speech.
"We have waited for 30 years to see leaders of the Khmer Rouge face trial, so we will continue to wait [for progress on the grenade attack]."
But Peo Heng, 62, whose daughter Yung Soknov and niece Yung Srey were killed in 1997 after joining the rally to demand higher wages for garment workers, was less confident time would reveal the perpetrators of the attack.
"Twelve years on, there remains no justice," she told the Post. "My daughter and niece did nothing wrong. They just participated in the rally to call for an independent court and demand a salary rise."
On March 30, 1997, four grenades were thrown into the crowd at a rally held by the opposition Khmer Nation Party, killing and injuring scores of bystanders.
While the results of a subsequent FBI investigation of the incident have never been made public, Sam Rainsy said a copy of the report leaked to Washington Post reporters pointed to the involvement of Brigade 70, Prime Minister Hun Sen's personal bodyguard unit.
He expressed confidence that while the Cambodian government had not managed to find the killers, a new era of international legal norms could bring the country's entrenched impunity to an abrupt end.
"The President of Sudan, who is currently in power, is afraid to leave his country, and he will be arrested if he visits any European countries," he told journalists after the ceremony, referring to the leader's recent indictment by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
"This trend will come to Cambodia."
Sustained impunity
Other observers who spoke with the Post agreed the government had demonstrated no clear commitment to the case.
"I think the fact that 12 years have passed since the grenade attacks and the government has yet to launch an independent investigation or make a single arrest is a clear indication that impunity continues to plague Cambodia," said Sarah Colm, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Colm added that some of the figures suspected of involvement in the attacks, including the head of Brigade 70, had since been promoted by the government, describing the appointments as a "slap in the face" for the victims.
"Rather than going after the perpetrators of political violence or human rights abuses, some of the very [military] units and people alleged to have been involved in the attacks are this year being promoted," she said.
While the trials of senior Khmer Rouge figure Duch, which reconvened Monday, was a vital step in the erosion of the Kingdom's culture of impunity, Colm said it was vital that ongoing violence and intimidation was also "promptly and fairly" addressed.
"These more recent crimes are not isolated incidents," she said.
SRP spokesman Yim Sovann agreed, saying the party would continue holding an annual commemoration on March 30 until the attack's "perpetrators and masterminds" were brought to justice.
"There is no political will or commitment to conduct a serious investigation," he said.
"With the assassinations of political opponents or union leaders, they always make up another story to cover up the truth."
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment Monday but told the Post last week that the government was still conducting investigations with the help of the FBI, and that three suspects had so far been identified in connection with the attacks.
"As long as we can wait, we will try to shine a light on the perpetrators," he said.
However, US embassy sources said the FBI had closed its case and was "not able to reach a conclusion" as to the perpetrators of the attacks.
"We extend our sympathies to the families of the victims of the attack and note with regret that the perpetrators of the attack have not been brought to justice," embassy spokesman John Johnson said by email.
"The victims and their families deserve justice, and we urge the Cambodian government to make every effort to solve this case."
During a two-hour ceremony held at the commemorative stupa marking the site of the attack near the former National Assembly, participants lit incense and laid wreaths next to photos of 13 of those killed, while lawmakers and victims' relatives issued calls for fresh investigations into the still-unsolved case.
SRP President Sam Rainsy, who was injured and whose bodyguard was killed during the 1997 rally, slammed the government for its inaction but expressed hopes that investigations conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation would succeed where it had failed.
"The criminals must not be hidden by the powerful," he told the crowd. "I believe the Obama administration has clear principles of justice [and] we hope that the US can send the people behind the grenade attack to jail."
Ly Nary, who lost her journalist son Chet Doung Daravuth in the attacks, appealed to the government to continue its investigations and said she looked forward to seeing the attackers in the dock.
"We should take [such] impunity away from our society," she said in a speech.
"We have waited for 30 years to see leaders of the Khmer Rouge face trial, so we will continue to wait [for progress on the grenade attack]."
But Peo Heng, 62, whose daughter Yung Soknov and niece Yung Srey were killed in 1997 after joining the rally to demand higher wages for garment workers, was less confident time would reveal the perpetrators of the attack.
"Twelve years on, there remains no justice," she told the Post. "My daughter and niece did nothing wrong. They just participated in the rally to call for an independent court and demand a salary rise."
On March 30, 1997, four grenades were thrown into the crowd at a rally held by the opposition Khmer Nation Party, killing and injuring scores of bystanders.
While the results of a subsequent FBI investigation of the incident have never been made public, Sam Rainsy said a copy of the report leaked to Washington Post reporters pointed to the involvement of Brigade 70, Prime Minister Hun Sen's personal bodyguard unit.
He expressed confidence that while the Cambodian government had not managed to find the killers, a new era of international legal norms could bring the country's entrenched impunity to an abrupt end.
"The President of Sudan, who is currently in power, is afraid to leave his country, and he will be arrested if he visits any European countries," he told journalists after the ceremony, referring to the leader's recent indictment by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
"This trend will come to Cambodia."
Sustained impunity
Other observers who spoke with the Post agreed the government had demonstrated no clear commitment to the case.
"I think the fact that 12 years have passed since the grenade attacks and the government has yet to launch an independent investigation or make a single arrest is a clear indication that impunity continues to plague Cambodia," said Sarah Colm, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Colm added that some of the figures suspected of involvement in the attacks, including the head of Brigade 70, had since been promoted by the government, describing the appointments as a "slap in the face" for the victims.
"Rather than going after the perpetrators of political violence or human rights abuses, some of the very [military] units and people alleged to have been involved in the attacks are this year being promoted," she said.
While the trials of senior Khmer Rouge figure Duch, which reconvened Monday, was a vital step in the erosion of the Kingdom's culture of impunity, Colm said it was vital that ongoing violence and intimidation was also "promptly and fairly" addressed.
"These more recent crimes are not isolated incidents," she said.
SRP spokesman Yim Sovann agreed, saying the party would continue holding an annual commemoration on March 30 until the attack's "perpetrators and masterminds" were brought to justice.
"There is no political will or commitment to conduct a serious investigation," he said.
"With the assassinations of political opponents or union leaders, they always make up another story to cover up the truth."
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment Monday but told the Post last week that the government was still conducting investigations with the help of the FBI, and that three suspects had so far been identified in connection with the attacks.
"As long as we can wait, we will try to shine a light on the perpetrators," he said.
However, US embassy sources said the FBI had closed its case and was "not able to reach a conclusion" as to the perpetrators of the attacks.
"We extend our sympathies to the families of the victims of the attack and note with regret that the perpetrators of the attack have not been brought to justice," embassy spokesman John Johnson said by email.
"The victims and their families deserve justice, and we urge the Cambodian government to make every effort to solve this case."
8 comments:
ah kwak Hun Sen did the killing.
Same old stories:
expecting corrupt officials to make corruption law.
- demanding the attacker to investigate the attack.
i think this is a gesture of democracy in cambodia. of course, people everywhere had to struggle for democracy and freedom, not just in cambodia. look in china, a man faced an army tank in a death defying challenge; in thailand which has the world's numerous coup d'etat since its name change and even in the USA, dr. martin luther king jr had to lead a million man to washingtion in the 1960s to demand equality for all. so, cambodia too is caught in the middle of struggling. freedom is not free, my dear. someone has to demand it and it may be chaotic at the moment, but when the dust settled or the murky water cleared up, then good things resulted from it all. please be patient and keep making demands in s peaceful way like gandhi was preaching. yes, do learn from the wise of the past, present, etc... god bless cambodia.
Hun Xen was the killer!!!
Hok Lundy was too!!!
I cannot find any point to re-address this killing anyoe because Mr Sam Ransy has already withdrawn his court case in the USA and also he has made his apology to Hun Sen to allow his return to Cambodia during his last term of member of parliament. Offcourse we can still mark the memory but we have lost all the legal fight already. I was surprised by his apology. He should to stand firm. Areak Prey
The deal has never been closed on this grenade attack on innocent khmer people in 1997...investigation must continue to bring those who are responsible for the attack. Khmer people know that the killing was probably carried out by someone in the cpp, and thi individual has escaped justice more than 12 years. The only way to find justice for the victims is by calling upon khmer people to stand up and fight back the current cambodian government. In the 1990s the khmer resistance forces defeated hun sen army and the viets had to withdraw from cambodia after suffering heavy loss. I am forever thankful to the khmer resistance forces who sacrificed their lives in liberating cambodia from the communist regime.
Socretes says, "In the world of knowlegde,the idea of good appears last of all. It is only seen with an effort". Cambodian people need to sacrifice for our dignity, democracy,justice, and freedom. It is not allowed Hun Sen(A KOUN ARTH POUCH, CHouy Kdeth Youn)to brutilize poeple.
Sam Ransy has sacrificed alot to our nation.
May God condemn Hun Sen and its partners.
It is clear this gruesome incident in 1997 could not have taken place without the connivance of or direct order from figures in the highest echelons of the CPP regime.
Terror and violence are convenient tools employed by a minority to protect their power base and preserve their political survival, and the propensity to engage or reliance on violence is a dimension and consequence of a deeply insecure psyche which in turn can be attributed to two factors: firstly, this minority has not achieved political office by democratic will or legitimate means; the PRK, we know, was installed ‘in power’ as a result of the vacuum created by the sudden collapse of the KR regime. There had been no room for democratic representation or political pluralism between 1979 and 1992, and up to now, some would point out, there has been no genuine interest in democratisation except token gestures and hence an opportunity to modernise the polity and rebuilt a broken nation and subsequently to earn the trust of the Khmer people as well as that craved legitimacy has been lost.
Secondly, the transformation of the political terrain wrought by the UN sponsored settlement of 1992/1993 has meant that the CPP no longer had the advantage of isolating or exiling its opponents to territorial fringes where it could easily contain and silence by simply barricading them off the rest of the population.
Rainsy himself among others had reason to believe (even prior to the grenade attack) that the regime feared politically motivated civil groups more than it did armed opposition like the KR at the time. But some people, remembering the KR’s past atrocities, missed his point.
Certainly, Hun Sen and his Vietnamese advisors would have been aware of the potent images and symbolism of popular will that could gradually come to form in the minds of the repressed masses through acts of demonstration of any sort, be it peaceful or otherwise – it only requires a single spark to ignite a prairie fire.
Such were the dynamics that led to the bloodbath taking place on that day in 1997 that saw peaceful men and women ruthlessly cut to pieces just yards from the steps of the National Assembly; that symbol of political consensus and what civilised humanity aspire to. The message was clear: with or without legitimacy, the regime will not tolerate any attempt to bring it down by either the front or back door.
MP
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