B.C. aid worker robbed, left for dead in Cambodia [-Canadian embassy couldn't help? What a shame!]

Jiri Zivny, an aid worker in Cambodia, was robbed, beaten, stripped of his clothes, and left for dead on Jan. 9. (Courtesy of Monty Aldoff)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
CBC News (Canada)

A violent mugging in Cambodia has left a humanitarian worker from Kamloops, B.C., in a coma, fighting for his life.

Jiri Zivny had just withdrawn money from a bank machine in Phnom Penh on Friday shortly before he was assaulted, robbed, and left for dead on the street, his friend Monty Aldoff told CBC News on Tuesday.

The attack likely took place as Zivny was trying to drive off on his scooter.

"[He] went to the bank machine and was followed by bad people, attacked, beaten in the head, robbed and stripped of his clothes and left for dead in the ditch for hours," Aldoff said.

"The doctor said he was hit twice severely in the head so we suspect once while he was on the motorcycle and he crashed and then they jumped out and clubbed him again."

"We are trying to raise enough money to medevac him back to Canada."— Monty Aldoff

Zivny, now receiving treatment at a Phnom Penh hospital, was found by local police hours after the attack, Aldoff said.

Aldoff, Zivny and a few other aid workers began their humanitarian mission in southeast Asia in mid-November, delivering medical supplies to orphans on behalf of the International Humanitarian Hope Society.

Most of the group returned to B.C. over Christmas, except for Zivny and another worker who stayed on in Cambodia, Aldoff said.

Zivny was planning to work with the orphans for another month, Aldoff said, but his friends now want him home so he can receive better medical attention.

Serious head injuries

He suffered severe brain and head trauma injuries and is in serious condition, Aldoff said.

He said the Canadian Embassy in Cambodia has been contacted but an official said no help from the Canadian government was available at this point.

"We are trying to raise enough money to medevac him back to Canada," said Aldoff.

A trust fund has been set up in Zivny's name through the International Humanitarian Hope Society to raise money to pay for his return.

About $100,000 will be needed to bring him home once his condition improves.

Brave [Cambodian-American] Clerk Battles Robber

Jan 7, 2009
KIIITV News (Texas, USA)

She was closing up for the night, and ready to go home to her two young children when she was brutally attacked. A Flour Bluff convenience store clerk became the victim of a robber on Monday of this week. She's now speaking out about what happened.

The victim is from Cambodia. 34 year old Yin Kaing, who is a small woman, was closing up for the night when she was punched straight in the face. The beating was much more than a punch in the face, and that's why she's still hospitalized. She appears to be terribly dizzy, and she's unable to speak about the night of her attack with out crying.

Kaing says her children saw her yesterday and they cried. We visited her Wednesday in her hospital room. On Monday, she was brutally beaten and robbed.

Her husband says he was in Rockport when he received news his wife was seriously injured. Vily Long says he went 95 miles an hour all the way to the store where his wife was working for the first time on the night shift.

"I was so very nervous that night," said Long. "I couldn't recognize my wife's face. It was all swollen bad."

"He hit me you know very strong, and I fell down," said Kaing who says she had keys to the store in her hands. She would surrender those keys, but she says the attack didn't end there.

"He kicked me with feet. He didn't stop."

The man police say attacked Kaing is 18 year old Wesley Lavender. He was arrested the night of the attack.

Struggling with English as their second language, the family asked attorney John Perry to come in and help communicate their needs. The family believes had it not been for a customer, the beating would have continued.

"That customer interrupted him," said Perry. "He (Lavender) ran outside the store dropped his cell phone got into the car, or ran is what I understand and then they called 911, so he didn't even make up with anything except for a set of keys."

The night police arrested Lavender they say he confessed to the attack, officers say he had bloody clothes, bloody knuckles and the keys to the convenience store.

For now the tears are still there, and while husband, Vily Long's English might be broken, his worried face you can read. He believes his wife might have been killed had a customer not scared his wife's attacker away.