Man Arrested in Connection to SRP Killing

Relatives of the victim clean up his body before the funeral (Photo: Den Ayuthyea, RFA)

Kong Sotharnarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 03 June 2011

“It was politically motivated, and the Sam Rainsy Party will follow up closely and request that the authorities find the real murderers.”

Kandal provincial police have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of killing a popular opposition activist earlier this week.

Police say they arrested Lim Veasna, a father of two in Kien Svay district, Thursday evening with traces of blood on his clothes, and said they had suspected him because he belongs to a group of drug users.

They are still looking for two more suspects and are assuming a motive of robbery in the Wednesday killing of Ouk Chhan, 64, a Sam Rainsy Party activist and likely candidate commune council in 2012.

But Sam Rainsy Party officials said Friday they believe the true killer or killers remain at large.

Opposition activist shot and killed in Kampong Thom

18 December 2007
By Sav Yuth Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A Sam Rainsy Party activist in Prasat Sambo district, Kampong Thom province, claimed in the afternoon of Monday 17 December that one of the party members living in Kauk Srok village, Taing Krosao commune, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant.

Sok Kheng, the SRP working group chairman for the Prasat Sambo district, said that 47-year-old Kan Siem, a party supporter, was shot by an unknown assailant at about 4:30 AM on Monday, when she left her home to go cook for students at a nearby school.

SRP activists call this murder a political assassination.

Sok Kheng said: “They shot her three times, one bullet pierced her chest all the way to her back and hit her arm and broke it, her head was shattered (by a bullet) and they also shot her mouth, her lips are all torn into pieces.”

However, Phon Toch, the (CPP) Taing Krosao commune chief, came out to reject this fact immediately, saying that this was not a political killing, but that it was a revenge killing stemming from a land dispute, and he claimed that Kan Siem was not a SRP party member, but rather a CPP group leader instead.

Commune police all the way to the provincial police commissioner still cannot provide any clear explanation about this assassination.

Kim An, the deputy police commissioner of Kampong Thom province, said that he did not hear about this information yet and he also pushed (RFA) to go ask the Prasat Sambo police commissioner instead: “The shooting and killing took place in Prasat Sambo, go ask at Prasat Sambo.”

7 surviving family members of the victim expressed their concerns about their daily safety, claiming that in the past 7 years, 3 members of their family were shot and killed by unknown assailants, and no one knows why.

Thon Vy, the fifth daughter of the victim, said that all 8 of her family members are SRP card holders, and her father, her older brother, and her mother were successively shot and killed one after another.

Thon Vy said: “Three already died: my older brother, someone shot and killed him, my father was shot and killed in 1998.”

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said that this savage killing is due to political hatred, and he called on the authority to search for the assassins and bring them to face justice.

Sam Rainsy said: “This is a political violence because they saw that the SRP is becoming very popular, and more people are supporting the SRP.”

According to a SRP party official, since 1995 until 2007, 75 party members and activists were killed, and in the majority of the cases, the culprits were never found and brought to justice.

Opposition deceived by the investigation on the murder of opposition activist

04 August 2007
By Lim Pisith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Relatives of a SRP activist who was shot and killed in Svay Chek district, Banteay Meanchey province, and opposition party leaders are deceived by the tardiness in the police investigation to seek the murderer(s) of the victim and bring them to the court.

The reactions and concerns are expressed one week after Klik Un, the SRP vice-chairman in Ta Ben commune, Svay Chek district, Banteay Meanchey province, was shot and killed on the road by a group of armed men during the night of 27 July 2007. The killers did not take anything from the victim. The latter was shot after returning from a trip to purchase frogs with his son. The victim and his son were driving one motorcycle each. The police and military police released the three suspects they arrested on the night of the shooting.

Mrs Hean Thing, the victim’s wife, said that she was deceived when she learnt that the authority released three suspects driving a Smash motorcycle at the location of the incident during the night of her husband was shot. “The people who were driving a Smash motorcycle out of the incident place were arrested. I did not even see their faces yet but they were released back (by the police),” Hean Thing said.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said: “We are deceived when we see that the authority does not fully pay attention in this case which is also getting behind.”

Or Borin, the deputy commander of the Banteay Meanchey province military police, explained that the authorities, both the military police and the police, are working hard to investigate this case in order to arrest the killers. However, he said: “There were 2 victims, a father and a son. When the father was shot and fell down, the son laid low to observe these people (the shooters). Later, three boys were tied up, but the thieves fled. We are looking for the cause (of the killing), whether it is a revenge case or not, we did not find anything yet.”

Chan Kosal, the deputy police commissioner of the Banteay Meanchey province, said about the same thing: “They (the 3 persons arrested by the police?) are both victims and witnesses. They are important witnesses in this case because they saw exactly what happened when they were tied up.”

Nevertheless, the police and the military police could not provide any clue that could lead to the arrest of the culprits yet.

Sam Chankea, an investigator for the Adhoc organization based in Banteay meanchey province, insisted that whether the killing was motivated by politics, revenge, or failed armed robbery, the perpetrators must be arrested and sent to face justice according to the law in order to put to an end the lawlessness or the illegal release of the culprits.