Knowledge is power!Don't let the Phnom Penh regime prevent you from learning about the facts:
Click here to view "The Plastic Killers" online
Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
24 September 2007
The word impunity is used so frequently in Phnom Penh that it has lost a lot of its meaning. But a new film examining the murder of union leader Chea Vichea aims to infuse the word with meaning, and emotion, once again.
Near the beginning of the film, "The Plastic Killers," just-arrested Born Samnang and Sok Samoeun shout out their innocence.
"I don't know anything about this," cries Sok Samoeun to a room full of journalists. "I will not betray myself."
"They are high ranking officials," says Born Samnang. "They can do anything they want. They can turn white to black."
"They've done bad things to me," Sok Samoeun continues. "I was nowhere near Wat Lanka that day. If I did [it], let the earth swallow me."
The two were arrested just days after for the killing of union leader Chea Vichea, a charismatic activist who could organize large demonstrations in the interest of Cambodia's oft-abused laborers. He was shot dead on a Thursday morning in 2004 at a market near Lanka pagoda.
In later scenes, the two men appear calmer. But "The Plastic Killers" spends much time echoing these cries of innocence.
American documentarian Bradley Cox told VOA Khmer from Bangkok recently he made "The Plastic Killers" to show the world what most people in Cambodia already know.
"Everyone in the country believes that these two guys—Born Samnang and Sok Samoeun—didn't kill Chea Vichea, and the only person who maybe does believe it in the entire country is Judge Kong Seth, who convicted the two guys," he said.
Both men had 20-year prison sentences upheld in a court hearing in April, in what rights groups called a travesty of justice.
Kong Seth has maintained the ruling was just.
Now, authorities say they want to ban the film in Cambodia.
Some copies of "The Plastic Killers" have been confiscated, Khim Sarith, secretary of state for the Ministry of Culture, told VOA Khmer, because it was not approved for distribution.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the film should be censured for its graphic nature.
It shows footage of Chea Vichea moments after his murder, shot through the chest, bleeding on the sidewalk, surrounded by uniformed and plainclothes police.
Cox said he wasn't surprised the authorities want to ban "The Plastic Killers."
The film points to something larger and more sinister in Cambodia: the ability of the police to rig a case and the inability of the courts to withstand them.
"It says pretty clearly that the police framed these two guys," he said. "I present their alibis in the movie, which seem quite clear, and to any normal person would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were not involved in the killing… And yet the police lied to the media and they fabricated evidence and they found witnesses to make a consistent story which allowed them to be convicted."
The film is an indictment of Cambodia's judiciary at a time when the country is trying to start trials for former Khmer Rouge leaders.
It is an indictment too of donor countries that choose to believe Cambodia is a democracy, Cox said.
"If you look at the way things work day today in Cambodia, it's much closer to a dictatorship," he said. "It's not a democracy. And the courts are controlled by the government and the police."
Cox said he hoped the film would demonstrate Cambodia's absence of justice to people who have not lived there.
"They watch this thing and are horrified," he said. "They're not used to seeing this kind of impunity. I think that's shocking to people outside the country; for the people inside the country, this is an everyday thing, this surprises nobody."
Near the beginning of the film, "The Plastic Killers," just-arrested Born Samnang and Sok Samoeun shout out their innocence.
"I don't know anything about this," cries Sok Samoeun to a room full of journalists. "I will not betray myself."
"They are high ranking officials," says Born Samnang. "They can do anything they want. They can turn white to black."
"They've done bad things to me," Sok Samoeun continues. "I was nowhere near Wat Lanka that day. If I did [it], let the earth swallow me."
The two were arrested just days after for the killing of union leader Chea Vichea, a charismatic activist who could organize large demonstrations in the interest of Cambodia's oft-abused laborers. He was shot dead on a Thursday morning in 2004 at a market near Lanka pagoda.
In later scenes, the two men appear calmer. But "The Plastic Killers" spends much time echoing these cries of innocence.
American documentarian Bradley Cox told VOA Khmer from Bangkok recently he made "The Plastic Killers" to show the world what most people in Cambodia already know.
"Everyone in the country believes that these two guys—Born Samnang and Sok Samoeun—didn't kill Chea Vichea, and the only person who maybe does believe it in the entire country is Judge Kong Seth, who convicted the two guys," he said.
Both men had 20-year prison sentences upheld in a court hearing in April, in what rights groups called a travesty of justice.
Kong Seth has maintained the ruling was just.
Now, authorities say they want to ban the film in Cambodia.
Some copies of "The Plastic Killers" have been confiscated, Khim Sarith, secretary of state for the Ministry of Culture, told VOA Khmer, because it was not approved for distribution.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the film should be censured for its graphic nature.
It shows footage of Chea Vichea moments after his murder, shot through the chest, bleeding on the sidewalk, surrounded by uniformed and plainclothes police.
Cox said he wasn't surprised the authorities want to ban "The Plastic Killers."
The film points to something larger and more sinister in Cambodia: the ability of the police to rig a case and the inability of the courts to withstand them.
"It says pretty clearly that the police framed these two guys," he said. "I present their alibis in the movie, which seem quite clear, and to any normal person would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were not involved in the killing… And yet the police lied to the media and they fabricated evidence and they found witnesses to make a consistent story which allowed them to be convicted."
The film is an indictment of Cambodia's judiciary at a time when the country is trying to start trials for former Khmer Rouge leaders.
It is an indictment too of donor countries that choose to believe Cambodia is a democracy, Cox said.
"If you look at the way things work day today in Cambodia, it's much closer to a dictatorship," he said. "It's not a democracy. And the courts are controlled by the government and the police."
Cox said he hoped the film would demonstrate Cambodia's absence of justice to people who have not lived there.
"They watch this thing and are horrified," he said. "They're not used to seeing this kind of impunity. I think that's shocking to people outside the country; for the people inside the country, this is an everyday thing, this surprises nobody."
12 comments:
Thanks for mr cox to put this whole work out for us khmer.
Hun sen, is the triator the cambodian nation. He will get what is coming for him. When that day come, there will be no mercy for him.
The Vietcong never left Cambodia and AH HUN SEN dictator is the Vietcong puppet!
King Sihanouk realizes that he can't get a fair justice as long as the Khmer Rouge trial takes place in Cambodia under Vietcong puppet government!
Move the Khmer Rouge trial out of Cambodia now!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's right, Vietcongs/Vietminhs will be here forever to keep an eye on your idiots. They are not going to let you destroy the region no more. You got that?
while the stupid idiotz backed vietcong govt is still in cambodia and controlling everything. And banding these kind of media from khmer people. Somebody do the honor and favor and put this kind of stuff back up. The video was made in cambodia, it will stay in cambodia and every else around the world.
somebody and everybody, please make it avialable to everybody and every khmer people in the country and out-side the country.
Evil( vietcong, thaicong ) and traitors can't win.
Poor khmer have the support of the international community. So, let use the support. So we won't be slave to vietcong and thaicong no longer.
Let uses the law, and enforce the law to win over the evil/ dump ass oppressor.
1.7 millions dead during pol pot due to many elements not only pol pot alone. let stand up and not let our 1.7 khmer who was killed down.
KHMER PEOPLE LET EDUCATE EACH OTHER. LETS PASS ALONG THESE KIND OF WEBSITE TO ALL OUR KHMER PEOPLE YOUNG AND OLD.
PLEASE EMAIL THIS SITE TO ALL KHMER AND NON-KHMER YOU KNOW.
WE CAN START TO MAKE CHANGE FROM SUPPORTING EACH OTHER.
SO PLEASE LET START WITH THIS EMAIL
I LIKE THIS SITE AND FEW OTHER.
LOL, do you know who owned most ISP, here? We can censored any propaganda you have, dude.
To 9:23AM! Vietcong sympathizer!
It is too late now for the Vietcong to stop Khmer Nationalism!
The Vietcong puppet government in Cambodia will be dismantling piece by piece! It is going to take sometime but it can be done to uproot this one mighty Vietcong puppet government!
The day will come when God condemn all of you Vietcong oppressors to hell!
Thanks Cox, Be God with you and finish this important movie for Cambodian Justice.
11:03, all I can say is harrr-harrr-harrr-reeee-harrr-harrr!
To 12:19PM!
I hope you laugh with confident! Now you know why the Vietcong leaders kept coming to Cambodia to remind their Vietcong puppets and bitches that the Vietcong want a friendly and brotherly tie!
When everything is said and done all the Vietcong puppets and bitches are living in fear and see life run before their eyes and they know that their turn will come and when the time come and I will have the last laugh! Ahahahah
No more ground gives to the Vietcong oppressor!
Dude, you must be on crack or something. Who gave any ground to Vietcong? We lease it to them, yes, but that is only because they (vietcong) are just good in business, and we are lucky to have them as our neighbor to help us develop our country, since you guys with westerner PhD are cripple and retarded.
To 7:06PM!
What? The Vietcong are good at what? The fucken Vietcong are good in shady corrupted monkey business with AH HUN SEN Vietcong puppet government?
Oh well! Since you said it! It seems that for any Cambodian people do business in Cambodia and they must join the CPP clan or else they will be shut out from lucrative business deal!
It is you who is on crack and alcohol with extended beer belly fool! Thank to a fool like you AH HUN SEN will always give the Vietcong the best business deal and the rest of Cambodian people can live on scraps! Tell me where have you been in life since you praise the Vietcong so much? Ahahha! Keep on praising the Vietcong mother fucker because you are lower than dirt!
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