Friday, April 30, 2010

Who Was Chea Vichea and Why Does He Matter? Ask Filmmaker Bradley Cox


Chea Vichea's declaration

April 29, 2010
Jim Luce
Huffington Post


In my own special screening, director Bradley Cox recently showed me his 55-minute film Who Killed Chea Vichea? in his office in Manhattan. Bradley is now in Southeast Asia. Chea Vichea was the president of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) until his assassination on Chinese New Year in January 2004. Vichea was shot in the head and chest early in the morning while reading a newspaper at a kiosk in Phnom Penh.

I had interviewed Cambodian Parliament Member Mu Sochua -- the Cory Aquino or Aung San Suu Kyi of Cambodia, for The Huffington Post in March before she returned to Phnom Penh (story). She had told me, "The day I joined the opposition party was the day the leader of the workers' movement -- Chea Vichea -- was assassinated. He was the founder of the opposition in Cambodia."

Chea Vichea was assassinated in broad daylight. Brad Cox arrived just minutes after he was gunned down, and his footage makes for some of the most powerful moments of the film.

Local police struggle to maintain order as journalists and frenzied onlookers surrounded the fallen union leader, his blood spilled over a copy of that day's newspaper. Images from the funeral that followed of Buddhist priests crying as they watch the procession pass are haunting.

The government arrested two men and imprisoned them for their supposed crime. They were both soon judged innocent. The government did not like that judicial decision and the judge was immediately removed from his position at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. His decision to drop charges was subsequently overturned in June 2004.

The Cambodian union leader Chea Vichea in 2003, one year before he was killed.
From "Who Killed Chea Vichea? Copyright 2009 Loud Mouth Films.

The two men were found guilty after a trial where no witnesses testified against the accused and no forensic evidence was brought to court. Both individuals were sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $5,000 compensation each to the family of the victim. Vichea's family turned down the compensation, stating that they did not believe the two convicted were the real murderers.

The documentary of his life and death, Who Killed Chea Vichea?, premiered March 27 at the Frederick Film Festival in Maryland. The film, released by Loud Mouth Films in Philadelphia and Bangkok, is a gripping account of a corrupt government's campaign to hold onto power at any cost, and the quiet resistance of a people facing overwhelming odds. Filmed over five years, and following events as they happened, Who Killed Chea Vichea? was produced by Rich Garella and Jeffrey Saunders with an original score by Gil Talmi.

I interviewed film producer Rich Garella about their deeply moving film:
To me the core of this movie is that it unmasks a dictatorship. Unlike Burma, for example, Cambodia enjoys a lot of foreign aid from Western countries, who are basically being played against China by the Cambodian regime.

The tacit arrangement is that the Western donors agree to play along with the pretense that Cambodia is a 'fledgling democracy' and that Cambodia is constantly making incremental progress on human rights, corruption reduction, election quality and so forth -- even though there is never any detectable change for the better in these areas.

And if they don't play along, and actually demand some accountability, well, Cambodia can just get the same amount of aid from China, no strings attached.

It can also be viewed as a hostage situation, where (Cambodian Prime Minister) Hun Sen says to the West: Don't demand anything that threatens my power or I can make Cambodia into Burma II, and you don't want that. You don't want another intractable problem with a China-backed surrogate and you don't want the poor people of Cambodia to suffer even more than they do.

So Who Killed Chea Vichea? takes one example, out of many, to show that the Cambodian regime really has no limits on its ability to carry out any kind of atrocity, obscuring it only with the flimsiest veil of legitimacy. It's one of the few times, and probably the only time in the case of Cambodia, where a film follows a single emblematic event like this from start to finish, as it unfolds. And thereby gives viewers outside the country a front-row seat to the actual mechanics of this kind of soft dictatorship.

By focusing on a single key case we bring the story down to the human level, which is necessary because the power that the Cambodian regime wields works on the human level -- it's personal fear that limits what Cambodian people can do. They know that the regime has the power of life and death over each and every one of them. This is what the regime intends to illustrate by killing such a well-known and loved person as Chea Vichea: We can kill anyone, at any time, with complete impunity, whether our Western sponsors like it or not... so watch your step.

One aspect of this that we hope to reveal to viewers in these sponsoring countries, including the U.S., is that the apparent incompetence of the authorities in covering their tracks actually serves an important function for them. They don't actually want the people of Cambodia to think anything other than that the authorities had Vichea killed. They need the people to know that it was a political assassination that came from the top, or it wouldn't serve its purpose.

The foreign viewers should realize that the purpose of the cover-up (the framing of the two suspects) is a show that is staged only for the benefit the foreigners at home -- and it's impossible for anyone in Cambodia, including the diplomats from those foreign countries -- not to know the truth.

So in a way, we hope that the film can be a kind of key for viewers, that having seen this, they can have a better understanding not only of the situation in Cambodia but that it will help them interpret events in other countries that receive aid or trade benefits.

And of course, we tried to provide it in a way that is dramatic on a human level, to make it a true investigative thriller that pulls them into an unfamiliar world and gives them, as I mentioned, a front-row seat.
Monks precede dignitaries in funeral march for assassinated union leader Chea Vichea.
From "Who Killed Chea Vichea? Copyright 2009 Loud Mouth Films.

The story continues to be told. This week, The Phnom Penh Post published Delving Into An Old Murder, by James O'Toole and Meas Sokchea:
Vichea spent the morning playing with his daughter, studying his Khmer-English dictionary and plucking his moustache before deciding to leave his Phnom Penh home and pick up a copy of the day's newspaper.

"I watched him from the balcony as he left," Chea Vichea's wife, Chea Kimny, tells director Bradley Cox. "I got up and went to the kitchen. Suddenly, I felt like something kicked me in the chest."

Cox travelled to Cambodia to cover the contentious 2003 elections, and stayed to pursue the story of Chea Vichea's murder. In a one-hour film screened for the Post on Wednesday, he draws on interviews with witnesses and public figures to document the investigation of what has become one of the Kingdom's most infamous political killings in recent years.

"This is not a tale - it is a true story," Chea Mony said. "This film just wants to inform other countries, particularly free, democratic countries, that we can have no confidence in the Cambodian justice system."

In its early moments, Who Killed Chea Vichea? contains footage from an interview with its titular figure. With his slight build and nasal voice, he does not make for an intimidating presence, but his resolve is clear as he describes the history of death threats against him.

"I think they want to kill me because of my experience in the past," Chea Vichea says, adding: "I'm not afraid. If I'm afraid, it's like I die."
Evidence on display during police press conference.
From "Who Killed Chea Vichea? Copyright 2009 Loud Mouth Films.

The film's director Brad Cox is perhaps best suited to answer the question, Who was Chea Vichea and why does he matter? When I met with Brad in New York, he told me:
"Hero" is perhaps the most overused word in the English language, and to be honest, I don't know if I ever met an honest-to-goodness hero in the flesh until I met Chea Vichea.

Imagine a country where you can be arrested for simply displeasing the powers that be. Imagine a country where standing up for your rights can get you killed. This is Cambodia. To get by, most people keep their heads down and their mouths shut. Vichea did the opposite.

He stood up for the hundreds of thousands of garment workers who wanted nothing more than to be treated fairly and to receive a living wage. For his troubles, he was beaten, threatened and arrested countless times.

And when his life was threatened and the police urged him to leave the country, he refused to be intimidated. He stood his ground, because as he told me "If I leave, who will look after the people?"

Heroes are people who go forward despite being fully aware of the dangers that lie ahead. In this regard, Chea Vichea was the real deal.
The Free Trade Union of which Chea Vichea was president traditionally holds a big march on Labor Day -- May 1 -- that attracts thousands of people. They may try to have a public screening of the film this May 1 in the park in Phnom Penh across from where Vichea was killed. If so, it would be a landmark event in Cambodia. I believe the authorities will sadly intervene.

Director Bradley Cox with producers Jeffrey Saunders and Rich Garella.
From "Who Killed Chea Vichea? Copyright 2009 Loud Mouth Films.

Director Bradley Cox has lived in Cambodia for almost five years. He captured the story of Chea Vichea's murder as it unfolded on the streets and in the courtrooms of Cambodia. He previously made the documentary Cambodia: Anatomy of an Election, was a co-founder of Bhutan's first film school, has worked as a screenwriter and director in Los Angeles and has won numerous film festival awards.

Producer Rich Garella lived in Cambodia for most of 1995 - 2003. He was managing editor of The Cambodia Daily, and later worked as press secretary for Cambodia's main opposition party. He co-wrote and produced Polygraph for MoveOn.org's Bush in 30 Seconds project in 2004; the ad was broadcast nationally. With Eric Pape, he wrote A Tragedy of No Importance, about the 1997 grenade attack against the Cambodian opposition.

Producer Jeffrey Saunders is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and founder of CinemaCapital, an independent production and distribution company based in New York City. His films have been selected at international festivals including the Berlin Film Festival, IDFA, SWSX and Thessaloniki, and acquired by broadcasters including Sundance, ARTE, TF1, ZDF and SBS. His feature film Goal Dreams was selected as one of the top ten "Movies that Matter" by Amnesty International in 2006.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Khmer Trakaulrungruang, Australia

King Jayavarman VII ruled Cambodia for 30 years....

The country achieved.... " Khmer Empire" of rich in culure as it is the heart Cambodia's society today and also represented all southeast asian's culture in gengeral, the kingdom was flourished with plenty of food, Healthcare/Hospitals and land for people to cultivate rice and PEACE..!!!!


Under Dictator Hen Sen's Regime running the country for 30 years... =

Injustice Society, Poverty, Khmers people and their children are becoming ignorant, No health care and no jobs and poor education, land grabbing and Khmer are losing their ancestral farm lands..

HUN SEN ISN'T QUALIFIED TO RUN CAMBODIA FOR THIS MODERN WORLD, ECONOMICALLY POLITICALLY..!!!!!

Khmer said...

គ្មានអ្នកណាក្រៅពីអាជើងល្អណោះទេ នៅស្រុកខ្មែរមាននរណាទៀត គឺមានតែមួយនិង គឺអាភ្នែកខ្វាក់

Anonymous said...

why people are always complaining here. why not debate civilly about a term limit law once and for all to avoid or prevent this kind of political tenure? it's not like it's something new here, this kind of power tenure existed in cambodia for time immemorial, unless people wake up and reform the system with the amendment of term limit law for official position. otherwise, why continue to bother to complain, whine, or bitch about it like a pathological liar here! maybe they are all alike! who to say this or that about anyone here or there or everywhere, really! wake up people, don't be so naive or ignorant, ok!

Anonymous said...

term limit law in very important for cambodia to debate if we were to set the country's future in the right direction, really! it will solve many of the power greedy issue in our country once and for all. i know, it is unheard of this concept before in the entire history of cambodia, but of course, it is good to reform in this sense, you know. otherwise, they are all alike, so stop bitching already, ok! i think any one leader of cambodia who sacrafice and lead this reform for term limit will forever be known in the history cambodia and be loved by the very people and country they are working for. trust me, people will remember good things or great achievement a good leader did for the country. take king jayavarman 7th for example, he will always be remembered as cambodia's greatest king forevr. why? think about it! his achievements were unmatched, perhaps his reforms, etc... so, leaders should think smartly about this, ok! all it takes is a shift or reform in gov't by someone with great vision, great idea, great mind, godly way, etc... cambodia deserves better, really!

Anonymous said...

CRIMINAL and other acts can not be substructed each other, you commited crime you must be judged, even you're PM.
If a country doesn't work like that, it's a Republic of BANANA,
Republic of monkeys, thives or bandits.

Anonymous said...

agree, term limit law for official position is necessary for the good future of our cambodia. this way, no foreign like french, youn, siem,or whoever, can install or put a person in power without respect to our the term limit law, etc... wake up, it is a good reform to look into debate and understanding the term limit law and its inevitable must have. it is national interest to have this law once and for all in cambodia so to prevent any future illegitimate puppet type of gov't or leader etc... if we love our country, by all mean look into debating this reform law, really! if not, don't expect the bad karma or bad tradition to stop and people's suffering will continue to no end. i hope leaders are enlightened and look seriously into having this law for the sake of the country, not personal greed.

Anonymous said...

HUN SEN'S REGIME MUST ACCOUNTABLE FOR ASSASSINATION OF CHEA VICHEA. SHAME! SHAME! THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T FIND A KILLER AT ALL BUT KEEP LETTING THE KILLER COMMITTED MORE CRIME AGAINST THE INNOCENT PEOPLES DAY TODAY BASIS. IN MY OPINION THE KILLER MUST BE ASSOCIATED WITH PM HUN SEN IF THEY CAN'T OR BE ABLE TO CATCH A KILLER.

Anonymous said...

Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime

Members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kaing Kek Iev
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...

Committed:
Tortures
Brutality
Executions
Massacres
Mass Murder
Genocide
Atrocities
Crimes Against Humanity
Starvations
Slavery
Force Labour
Overwork to Death
Human Abuses
Persecution
Unlawful Detention


Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime

Members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...

Committed:
Attempted Murders
Attempted Murder on Chea Vichea
Attempted Assassinations
Attempted Assassination on Sam Rainsy
Assassinations
Assassinated Journalists
Assassinated Political Opponents
Assassinated Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Assassinated over 80 members of Sam Rainsy Party.

"But as of today, over eighty members of my party have been assassinated. Countless others have been injured, arrested, jailed, or forced to go into hiding or into exile."
Sam Rainsy LIC 31 October 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
  
Executions
Executed over 100 members of FUNCINPEC Party
Murders
Murdered 3 Leaders of the Free Trade Union 
Murdered Chea Vichea
Murdered Ros Sovannareth
Murdered Hy Vuthy
Murdered Journalists
Murdered Khim Sambo
Murdered Khim Sambo's son 
Murdered members of Sam Rainsy Party.
Murdered activists of Sam Rainsy Party
Murdered Innocent Men
Murdered Innocent Women
Murdered Innocent Children
Killed Innocent Khmer Peoples.
Extrajudicial Execution
Grenade Attack
Terrorism
Drive by Shooting
Brutalities
Police Brutality Against Monks
Police Brutality Against Evictees
Tortures
Intimidations
Death Threats
Threatening
Human Abductions
Human Abuses
Human Rights Abuses
Human Trafficking
Drugs Trafficking
Under Age Child Sex
Corruptions
Bribery
Embezzlement
Treason
Border Encroachment, allow Vietnam to encroaching into Cambodia.
Signed away our territories to Vietnam; Koh Tral, almost half of our ocean territory oil field and others.  
Illegal Arrest
Illegal Mass Evictions
Illegal Land Grabbing
Illegal Firearms
Illegal Logging
Illegal Deforestation

Illegally use of remote detonation bomb on Sokha Helicopter, while Hok Lundy and other military officials were on board.

Lightning strike many airplanes, but did not fall from the sky.  Lightning strike out side of airplane and discharge electricity to ground. 
Source:  Lightning, Discovery Channel

Illegally Sold State Properties
Illegally Removed Parliamentary Immunity of Parliament Members
Plunder National Resources
Acid Attacks
Turn Cambodia into a Lawless Country.
Oppression
Injustice
Steal Votes
Bring Foreigners from Veitnam to vote in Cambodia for Cambodian People's Party.
Use Dead people's names to vote for Cambodian People's Party.
Disqualified potential Sam Rainsy Party's voters. 
Abuse the Court as a tools for CPP to send political opponents and journalists to jail.
Abuse of Power
Abuse the Laws
Abuse the National Election Committee
Abuse the National Assembly
Violate the Laws
Violate the Constitution
Violate the Paris Accords
Impunity
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Death in custody.

Under the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime, no criminals that has been committed crimes against journalists, political opponents, leaders of the Free Trade Union, innocent men, women and children have ever been brought to justice. 

Anonymous said...

FUCK HUN SEN,, HE MUST GO DIE WITH THE TAI KING NOW ..... TAI LAND AND AH FUCKING HUN SEN AND AH ABHIST IS NO GOOD BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCK YOU CPP SUCK MY MOTHER FUCKING REAL KHMER DICK BITCHES


CPP COWARD PUNKASS PUSSYS......THE REAL CAMBODIANS ARE THE PEOPLE OF CAMBODIA NOT THE GOVERMENT GAY ASS CPP

Anonymous said...

This film should be watched by all Unionized and Noneunionized work force in America. Imagine, the same story happens in United States.

Anonymous said...

ONLY IN SCAMBODIAN WHERE A MAN CAN BE ASSASSINATED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT AND GET AWAY SCOTT FREE.
WE CAN SAFELY SAY THAT IT'S PROBABLY THE FIRST RESPONDER THAT CAME TO HIS AID......THE OFFICER. But then again, what do I know.

AKhmerican

Anonymous said...

even in america , crime scene like this took a long time to investigate. they have to put out rewards for eyewitness to come forward, etc... have you ever watch america's most wanted tv show? well, cambodia needs one khmer version like that to tell the whole nation to turn in the culprit or the perpetrators without fear, of course, with real evidence as they don't buy into rumor or heresay, either, you know! cambodia still have a lot to learn from america. i think america have everything cambodia needs and want. just study from america, ok!

Anonymous said...

Khmer Trakaulrungruang, Australia

KING JAYAVARMAN RULED CAMBODIA FOR 30 YEARS...
THE COUNTRY ACCHIEVED................

................... " KHMER EMPIRE "!!!!!!!!!........................



UNDER FUCKING HUN SEN'S REGIME RUNNING THE COUNTRY FOR 30 YEARS .... THE COUNTRY AHCIEVED....

................." BANANA EMPIRE " ...........................

Anonymous said...

I will go watch this movie when it is released. A job well done and you came through, Brad Cox.

Anonymous said...

If someone come up with a fancy reward for who killed Chea Vichea, then there might be a real answer.