Mystery over Hok Lundy’s chopper crash

Hok Lundy (in blue uniform) standing next to his boss and in-law Hun Xen (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Hok Lundy crashed helicopter (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

19 August 2010
By Tim Ravy
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Soch and Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

The person who was imbued with extreme power, a ruthless man whom everybody are scared of, a drug dealer whose name appeared on the US government blacklist, a leader of a successful coup d’état, a man who knew the in and out of the assassinations of countless politicians, journalists and actresses, that person was no other than the defunct General Hok Lundy. His death was a tragedy for his family and for those who use to reap profit from him, however, for the victims who suffered under his hands, Hok Lundy’s death is a wish that they have prayed for.

Following the 54th anniversary of Cambodia’s independence on 09 November 2008, 4-golden-star general Hok Lundy climbed on his personal helicopter with General Sok Sa’em, the deputy army chief of staff heading to Svay Rieng province, but a few hours later, it was reported that Hok Lundy’s helicopter crashed after lightning struck it. Nobody in the helicopter survived, two pilots also counted among the dead. The helicopter broke into pieces, and the body remains were no longer complete, i.e. all that were left were bits and pieces of flesh and bones that were spread and mixed up all over.

Investigating cops from the ministry of Interior (MoI) were dispatched to the spot in the middle of the night to check on this accident. The MoI cops indicated that the helicopter crashed from lightning strike, and not from sabotage. The announcement of this hypothesis calmed down the emotion reigning among many people.

Villagers living near the crash scene claimed that during that evening, they heard a loud explosion noise in the air that was very unusual, then they saw the helicopter flying above the trees falling down and exploded one more time. The villagers all went to look at the helicopter which exploded into pieces all over the place and smoke was bellowing out. Some of villagers tried to find money and jewelry among the debris because they didn’t know it was Hok Lundy’s body. It was not until the cops and the local authority arrived to look at the situation for the anarchy on the scene to stop.

General Sok Sa’em was a Svay Rieng native, he used to be the army commander for Kratie province for more than 10 years. During the 1997 coup d’état, he took his soldiers from Kratie and set them up in a beltway located between Phnom Penh Thmei and Tuol Kok, i.e. from the Traloak Bek area to the national TV antenna. The goal of the beltway was to prevent Nhek Bun Chhay’s Funcinpec army from entering Phnom Penh, and it was also a beltway to protect the houses of top government officials in Tuol Kok as well. It was after the success of the coup that he was promoted to deputy army chief of staff.

General Hok Lundy who was of Viet descent, was the former Phnom Penh city governor whose hands were covered with blood for ordering the crackdown of students in 1992. He was transferred to Svay Rieng to occupy the position of provincial governor before Hun Xen promoted him to the national police commissioner in 1994. Hun Xen and Hok Lundy met in Vietnam prior to 1979 and later the pair became in-laws. In 1997, Hok Lundy became the coup leader by ordering the killing of several dozens of high-ranking Funcinpec army officers, including General Ho Sok, the secretary of state at the minister of Interior who was arrested [and later shot and killed]. General Heng Pov, the former Phnom Penh police commissioner who was also a blood enemy of Hok Lundy, unmasked him, saying that Hok Lundy was involved with numerous crimes. Brad Adams, the director of Human Rights Watch for Asia, claimed that after Hun Xen, Hok Lundy was the most fearful man in Cambodia.

There was no surprise in Brad Adams’ assertion because even local human rights organizations, opposition officials, labor union officials, as well as those around Hok Lundy clearly knew about this fact. Furthermore, the US government even blacklisted him for his involvement in human and drug trafficking in 2004, and the US even canceled his visa for a visit to the US.

A reliable source indicated that Hok Lundy was the one who openly allowed Thai fishing boats to illegally come into Cambodian waters. The large casinos in Phnom Penh and along the border were all under Hok Lundy’s protection because the casino owners paid him each month several tens of thousands of dollars. Casino workers confirmed that Hok Lundy would show up in the casinos very often at night time. He was gambling with rich Chinese tycoons and in one evening he could lose up to $1 million, he also owed the casinos and sometime he would pay them back, but sometime, he wouldn’t. Hok Lundy’s action displeased the top CPP leaders, but when he died, several people were overjoyed, including Sar Kheng, the minister of Interior. For that occasion, Sar Kheng even had his gray hair dyed all black.

Immediately after the helicopter explosion, a group of US students and professors from a polytechnic institute in California conducted a scientific experiment. They used a small helicopter loaded with passengers, then they subjected it to artificial lightning, but the helicopter engine did not have a short circuit, nor did it explode from lightning and thunder. Based on the experiment above, it can be concluded that the helicopter carrying Hok Lundy could not explode from lightning, unlike what the Cambodian police claimed, but it was most likely subjected to a bomb explosion.

The hypothesis advanced by the US researchers seemed to be reliable because when one travel by plane at night time, planes have to cross rains, thunders and lightning, but the plane never met any danger. Furthermore, if the helicopter engine had a short circuit and fell down, then it wouldn’t fall into bits and pieces like this, and the passenger bodies would not be broken into pieces like this either because the helicopter was flying at a low altitude.

There are two possible suspicions: (1) there were an explosion from the grenades the two generals took with them, and (2) there was a planned sabotage. Analysts claimed that the explosion from grenade that they took with them could be plausible because nearby villagers heard the explosion in mid-air and the plane fell immediately afterward, that was why the bodies were torn apart into small unrecognizable pieces. Nevertheless, the planned sabotage hypothesis is also credible because Hok Lundy was not the only person in Cambodia who can plan a sabotage attack [like the 1997 coup], there are others who also have this ability and they are his enemies or the enemies of his boss, and they have the ability to end the life of this “ferocious tiger” as well. Hok Lundy’s own boss could also be the one who decided to end his life because this tiger is getting more ferocious, he no longer listened to his bosses and his ill reputation was spreading both inside and outside the country, in particular from his drug and human trafficking activities, etc… Therefore, a secret plan was concocted to save the face of the government and the ruling CPP party.

The two hypotheses above are more plausible than the claim made by the Cambodian police which blamed the accident on the weather condition. It is suspected that the on-scene investigators have found bomb pieces, but this truth was hidden from the public. Nevertheless, a ferocious terrorist leader whose hands are sullied with blood of several dozens of victims had left this world already, this is a wakeup call for all the current leaders who are involved in misdeeds, telling them to return to the right path in order to avoid Hok Lundy’s fate.