Impunity is the rule for Cham Prasidh’s bodyguards

Cham Prasidh’s bodyguards accused of violence

08 October 2009
By Zakariya
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata and Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

6 bodyguards protecting Cham Prasidh, the minister of Commerce, are accused of using violence and beating up one young man until he passed out, and seriously injuring two others.

A woman from Chak Chrouk village, Samrong Krom commune, Dangkao district, Phnom Penh city, indicated on 08 October that she is accusing a group of 6 Cham Prasidh’s bodyguards of beating up her children until one of them passed out and two others were seriously injured. However, the authority did not resolve this problem for her.

Korng Sikhem, the mother of the victims, indicated that 62 families in the village witnessed the scene on the spot, and they affixed their thumbprints on a complaint sent to the police chief in Samrong Krom commune and the commune chief. However, the pair did not resolve this case for her.

Korng Sikhem said: “There were a lot of them, they were all armed, they fired shots in the air, my son collected two bullet shells. Their shots sound like thunders, my son passed out on the ground, my daughter cried, hugged her brother and yelled, then the villagers helped fetch my son. We sent [copies of the] complaint to the commune and the police station. Each one of them told me: ‘If you are an egg, don’t knock on the rock’ and that I should be scared of them because I am very poor and I am in dire need.”

On Sunday 04 October, factory workers were disputing each others near Cham Prasidh’s house which is located near Korng Sikhem’s house also. At that time, her sons and her daughter went to look at the dispute, but when they returned back home, a group of [Cham Prasidh’s] bodyguards used violence on two of her children, one is 18-year-old and the other 20-year-old. They both passed out immediately, at that time, a 30-year-old niece of Korng Sikhem went to prevent the bodyguards from beating, but they instead turned and beat her also.

Touch Phoeun, the Samrong Krom commune chief, declined to comment on this case, and he told us to question the police chief instead.

Im Kak, the Samrong Krom station police chief, declined to clarify this case also, and he replied that he is only a minor official and he does not dare talk about this case. He directed us to talk to higher level officials.

On 08 October, RFA could not reach Cham Prasidh’s bodyguards who were accused of using violence by the villagers.

The Chak Chrouk deputy-village chief, who declined to provide his name, said that, on the day of incident, he, just like the other villagers, saw Cham Prasidh’s bodyguards using violence against Korng Sikhem’s sons and niece at about 6PM on 04 October. “They (Cham Pasidh’s bodyguards) beat them, and they also fired shots. People panicked and they came out to see, it was on a Sunday and there were a lot of factory workers and a lot of people like me who came to see. The bodyguards were chasing [the victims] and they yelled: ‘Thieves, thieves!’”

Korng Sikhem said that she did not want anything, she only wants the authority to provide justice according to the law, and that the guilty party pays for the hospital expenses for her sons who were seriously injured.

Chan Soveth, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights group, indicated that the authority should send this case to the higher levels so that it can be dealt with legally. He said that the bodyguards’ action constitutes a violation of human rights and the law, and the perpetrators, regardless of their ranks, must be sentenced according to the criminal law.