Khim Sambor’s killing: Police focus the investigation on his son [-When all else fail, accuse somebody else instead!]

21 August 2008
Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the original article in French

After believing that the father, an opposition journalist, was the target of the killers, the police are now wondering if the son was not the target instead.

In spite of the FBI help, Cambodian police have a hard time advancing their investigation.

“Up to now, we focused our research on the father, but now, we have more reasons to believe that the son was the target of this double murder,” said Touch Naroth, the Phnom Penh police commissioner.

While the election campaign was in full swing last 11 July, 47-year-old Khim Sambor, a journalist for the opposition Moneaksekar Khmer daily newspaper, and his 21-year-old son was killed in the middle of the street while they were leaving the Olympic Stadium.

Slain Cambodian journalist's son dies in hospital

Sat, 12 Jul 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - The teenage son of a slain Cambodian opposition party journalist has died in hospital from gunshot wounds, police said Saturday, after he and his father were attacked in an apparent assassination attempt just weeks before national elections. Khim Sambo, 47, a senior scribe for the Khmer-language Moneakseka Khmer daily, was pronounced dead at the scene and his son, Sarin Thida, 19, died later in hospital after Friday evening's attack.

Police said the pair was returning from exercising at the capital's busy Olympic Stadium when two men on a motorbike approached and fired five rounds from a K-59 pistol at close range.

Khim Sambo, initially named by police at the scene as Khim Sam Ol, worked for the pro-Sam Rainsy paper for 11 years but his beat remained unclear as Cambodian journalists habitually use pseudonyms.

A board member for the powerful Club of Cambodian Journalists, which has condemned the killings, said Sambo was previously an associate of slain journalists Thun Bun Ly and Nuon Chan.

Both of those men were also working for pro-Sam Rainsy publications when they were shot dead in 1996 and 1994 respectively.

However, despite recent controversy surrounding Sambo's paper, whose editor Dam Sith was last month charged with defamation against a senior government minister and jailed for a week, police urged caution in attributing political blame for the murders.

Cambodia is scheduled to hold national elections on July 27 and the pre-election period has historically been fraught with violence, but police said it was also a popular time to act on personal disputes in the hope politics would be blamed.

Information Minister and former journalist Khieu Kanharith attended a service for Sambo and his son Saturday morning.

The "culprits cannot be forgiven and must be found": Another one of Khieu Kanharith's empty promises

Cambodian opposition newspaper journalist and son killed in drive-by shooting

Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A journalist working for a pro-opposition Cambodian newspaper and his son were killed in a drive-by shooting in the capital, police said Saturday.

Khem Sambo, 47, reported on corruption and other social ills under the rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen for the anti-government newspaper Moneaseka Khmer.

He was riding a motorcycle with his 21-year-old son on Friday when they were each shot twice by a man who was also riding a motorcycle, Phnom Penh police Chief Yim Simony said. They died later in a hospital.

"At this stage we do not have any leads yet about the motive. We are collecting evidence and witnesses who could help us in searching for the attackers," Yim Simony said.

Moneaseka Khmer editor Dam Sith called the attack "the gravest threat" to his newspaper, which is affiliated with Cambodia's main opposition Sam Rainsy Party.

"We strongly condemn the killing and urge authorities to find the culprits and punish them," said Oum Sarin, president of the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists.

Cambodian authorities have not arrested those responsible for the killing of journalists in the past, he said.

Khem Sambo's killing was the first of a Cambodian journalist this year, Oum Sarin said, adding that the incident is "creating a climate of fear" among journalists.

The killing was a "vicious" act that seriously threatens freedom of the press and affects the climate for campaigning ahead of July 27 national elections, the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, a coalition of 21 private groups, said in a statement.

It said it suspected the killings were linked to the many articles Khem Sambo wrote about issues such as illegal logging, illegal fishing deals and land grabbing that involved powerful government officials.

Khieu Kanharith, Cambodia's information minister, said the "culprits cannot be forgiven and must be found."

The assassination of Mr Khim Sambor is a political threat

Phnom Penh, 12 July 2008
Source: SRP

"The assassination of Mr Khim Sambor is a political threat"

After receiving the news that Mr Khim Sambor, a journalist for the Moneaksekar Khmer newspaper, and his son were tragically shot to death on the afternoon of 11 July 2008, the Sam Rainsy Party members of Parliament and officials of the SRP express grief and pity for their unfortunate deaths.

When one who dares to write or argue against those with absolute power is assassinated, the perpetrators behind the killing are never found nor tried according to the law. This clearly demonstrates the nature of those in power. SRP members of Parliament urge all members of the Cambodian nation to come together with the SRP in order to find and punish the killers of these patriots as soon as possible. By voting for the SRP, it can be ensured that an SRP government will find the murderers and bring them to justice as soon as possible. SRP members of Parliament also urge the International Community and both local and international electoral observers to unite and push for the investigation of the assassinations of many Cambodian patriots such as Mr. Chea Vichea, leader of the Cambodian workers' trade union, Mr. Om Rasadi, former member of Parliament, as well as countless numbers of journalists, political activists and others in order to bring their killers to justice.

SRP members of parliament also ask for the protection of Mr. Oum Sara, the information officer of the SRP, who faced an assassination attempt on 6 July 2008, and the protection of journalists and political activists from all opposition parties from being assassinated in the future.

SRP Members of Parliament

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