Journalist reports death threat

Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

A JOURNALIST for the Sam Rainsy Party-aligned Khmer Machas Srok newspaper alleged on Tuesday that bodyguards working for Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) officials had threatened to kill him.

Boay Roeuy, 40, who has worked for the paper since 1994, said he was at his home in Dangkor district’s Krang Thnong commune on Tuesday when a bodyguard whom he could identify only as “Sna” and several other men turned up at his door with a handgun and began shouting for him to come outside.

Boay Roeuy said that neighbours later told him that the men work as bodyguards for CPP officials.

He added that he fears for his safety because the bodyguard known as “Sna” lives in a house across the street from his own.

“If I would have gone outside my house they would have shot at me,” he said.

Boay Roeuy said he had informed the rights group Licadho of the incident and submitted a complaint to Mak Mi, the Krang Thnong commune police chief.

Mak Mi said on Tuesday that he had received Boay Roeuy’s complaint on April 20, but that no action had yet been taken.

“It doesn’t look like a case of intimidation or a death threat against the journalist,” he said, adding that during Khmer New Year it is normal for villagers to play loud music, shout in the streets and drink beer.

Dam Sith returns back to Cambodia, denies he fled

Dam Sith at his return from the US (Photo: Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

20 August 2008
By A.L.G. and L.D. Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the original article in French

The Sam Rainsy Party, to which Dam Sith, the editor-in-chief of the Moneakseka Khmer newspaper, belongs to, announced earlier the latter’s exile to the US for political reasons.

In fact, Dam Sith did not leave on exile to the US, and he returned back to Phnom Penh following a tour of several US cities at the invitation of SRP activists, Dam Sith told Cambodge Soir Hebdo.

“I was invited by SRP activists living in the US, then I took a few days of vacation before returning back to Cambodia,” Dam Sith added.

On Monday 18 August, Mu Sochua, SRP deputy-Secretary general, announced to the Mekong Times that Dam Sith fled to the US “because his life was in danger.”

“His journalist career is threatened because one of his colleagues was killed and the authorities did not find the perpetrators,” Mu Sochua declared while referring to Khim Sambor’s assassination on 11 July.

SRP MP Son Chhay also revealed that Dam Sith obtained a visa for the US before the election with the support of the opposition party.

Dam Sith visiting the US

Dam Sith (R) at his release from jail (Photo: Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

Formerly Jailed Editor Exits Cambodia

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
15 August 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Dam Sith, the opposition newspaper editor who was jailed for a week in June, has left Cambodia temporarily, but not due to security concerns, officials said Friday.

Dam Sith left for the US last week at the invitation of opposition supporters there, Sam Rainsy Party Secretary-General Eng Chhay Ieng said.

He did not leave out of fear or intimidation, and he plans to return "soon," Eng Chhay Ieng said.

Dam Sith was jailed June 8 following an article he published in Moneaksekar Khmer that quoted opposition leader Sam Rainsy accusing Foreign Minister Hor Namhong of collusion with the Khmer Rouge.

Moneaksekar Khmer reporter Khim Sambor was killed a month after Dam Sith was jailed, on July 11, two weeks ahead of national elections.

Dam Sith had been editing the newspaper from the safety of his home since Khim Sambor's killing, which remains unsolved.