‘The Accidental Terrorist’: a California Accountant’s Coup

Chor Sokunthea / Reuters

Chhun Yasith

What made an accountant from California try to overthrow the Cambodian government with grenades and anti-tank weapons? Former Newsweek editor Adam Piore tells the story of Yasith Chhun in 'The Accidental Terorist,' a new ebook single from The Atavist.

May 2, 2012

The Daily Beast

On the evening of February 12, 1999, a man made his way through the potholed streets near Phnom Penh’s sprawling Russian Market, a ramshackle conglomeration of tin-and-plastic-sheeted stalls, propped by up by flimsy wooden beams and stretching an entire city block. It was the height of the dry season, when the temperature settled just above 80 degrees and stayed there, a nice night to sit in one of the many open-air coffee shops or karaoke bars, order a cold can of Angkor beer for half a U.S. dollar, and croon along with the latest hits from neighboring Thailand. The man approached an establishment popular with Phnom Penh’s Vietnamese population, filled with molded-plastic chairs clustered around cramped tables, and threw a grenade into the café. The explosion that followed sent furniture and people flying through the air.

The next morning the incident appeared in all the local newspapers—a remarkable fact given that violence in the war-numbed capital was hardly rare, and no one had died in the attack. It was not unheard of for veterans to commit random acts of aggression, especially if they’d consumed excessive amounts of rice whiskey and lost a competition for a favored prostitute.

When two attackers lobbed another grenade into a karaoke bar in Phnom Penh on March 3, this time killing one person and injuring 17, a Ministry of Interior official dismissed it as a revenge attack, unrelated to politics. It seemed a particularly plausible explanation that night because, in a separate incident, a 31-year-old man was shot in the head when he refused to hand over a karaoke microphone to five “would-be singers, suspected to be members of the military.”

Chhun Yasith's case allowed Hun Xen to demonstrate — with an assist from a federal court in Los Angeles — that his reach now extends all the way to Long Beach

The Lonely War

The California accountant who tried to overthrow a foreign despot

May 05, 2011
By Eric Pape
Los Angeles Time (California, USA)

Yasith Chhun

Chhun in the heady days before the attack

The revolution’s HQ in Long Beach

Chhun plots the coup.

Chhun after the failed coup

Ultimately, the case has also allowed Cambodia's leader to demonstrate — with an assist from a federal court in Los Angeles — that his reach now extends all the way to Long Beach.

Long Beach accountant Yasith Chhun stood before Judge Dean D. Pregerson in a Los Angeles courtroom on June 22, 2010. The judge noted that the bespectacled Cambodian-American wasn't a "bad man," just someone who had the misfortune to be born in a place where terrible things were happening.

Still, Pregerson chose to sentence Chhun to life in prison for his pitiful attempt to overthrow the despotic government of Cambodia.

How does a judge condemn someone who isn't a bad guy to life behind bars? As Chhun's defense attorney Richard C. Callahan said, comparing Chhun's punishment with that given to criminals who committed far more serious crimes, "None of this makes any sense."

Indeed, many exiles living in the United States are being celebrated for trying to foment revolutions in their home countries of Libya, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere. But unlike those Americans, Chhun fell into one of those eddies of U.S. foreign policy that swirls with contradictions.

Local Cambodian Freedom Fighter gets jail for tax evasion

03/22/2011
From wire service reports

Cambodian Freedom Fighter Sentenced to Additional 37 Months for Tax Evasion

A self-appointed commander of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a Long Beach-based group formed to seize political control in the southeast Asian country, was sentenced Monday to a concurrent term of 37 months in prison for tax evasion.

Yasith Chhun, a 54-year-old United States citizen, was previously sentenced last June to a life term for conspiring to kill in a foreign country and other federal counts stemming from his 2008 conviction.

The same year, Chhun pleaded guilty to conspiring to file false tax returns and aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns. Chhun admitted operating an accounting service that filed false tax returns for numerous taxpayers, resulting in a loss of more than $400,000, according to court papers.

Before he was sentenced to the life term last summer, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson expressed some sympathy for the defendant, who told the judge he formed the 200-strong Cambodian Freedom Fighters partly to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

Geopolitics behind a Cambodian conviction

Jul 8, 2010
By Sebastian Strangio
Asia Times Online

PHNOM PENH - Early on November 24, 2000, about 70 gunmen slipped into the center of Cambodia's capital city. After drinking and singing traditional songs at a karaoke bar, one unit of men moved towards a series of government buildings armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades and B-40 rocket launchers.

After seizing control of the city's railway station, they sprayed bullets at the Ministry of Defense and Council of Ministers and lobbed a grenade as a nearby gas station. The Cambodian military engaged the attackers in a firefight, scarring many nearby buildings with bullet holes. They quelled the ragtag militia, leaving eight dead and around 14 wounded, after an hour of fighting.

In the wake of the attack, an obscure group calling itself the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF) took credit for the violence. The group's ethnic Khmer leader, Chhun Yasith, a Long Beach, California-based accountant, at the time made no attempt to hide his intent to overthrow the government of Hun Sen, Cambodia's long-serving prime minister. Despite the failure of the "coup" attempt, Yasith boasted that he would continue working to topple the "tyrannical" regime by force. "Next time," he told a journalist in 2004, "we will attack the whole country."

The 53-year-old Yasith's threat came to an abrupt legal end last month, when a US district court judge sentenced him to life in prison for his role in the attempted coup. In a hearing at the court on June 22, prosecutors said the CFF was ordered to carry out "popcorn" attacks on soft targets such as karaoke bars and nightclubs before launching the all-out assault to overthrow the government on November 24. The CFF leader was charged with violating the US Neutrality Act, a 200-year-old law banning military operations against nations with which the US is at peace.

A tearful Yasith told the court he felt he had to do something for his native country and that he formed a rebel militia to avenge the murder of his father by the communist Khmer Rouge. "I've been punished because I failed, that I'm not good enough to overthrow that government," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying. Chhun Yasith's attorney, Richard Callahan Jr, said he would appeal the sentence.

Cambodian officials welcomed the sentence, describing the November 2000 coup attempt as a "clear terrorist act". "We applaud the decision taken by the US government to prosecute Chhun Yasith," Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters after signing an agreement with Japan for the construction of a new bridge across the Mekong River. "We welcome the elimination of terrorism and not just terrorism in Cambodia and the US, but in all regions where it threatens people's security."

The decision comes at a time of warming US-Cambodian relations after years of open antagonism and follows on a similar court action against another California-based group that threatened to overthrow by arms Laos' communist regime. President Barack Obama has initiated policies to counter-balance China's rising commercial influence in the region, including last year's reclassification of Cambodia and Laos as no longer Marxist-Leninist states that opened the legal way for US Ex-Im Bank loans and financing.

Later this year, the US is scheduled to hold its first joint military exercises with Cambodia, in an operation to be known as Angkor Sentinel. Earlier, the two sides enhanced security-related cooperation after high-profile terror suspects were found to have traveled freely in Cambodia.

Accountant cum rebel

Some have long questioned whether the CFF had the capacity to carry out the attack on its own. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, the president of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), charged that Hun Sen orchestrated the "coup" as a pretext to crack down on government critics. He told the Phnom Penh Post in December 2000 that the reaction to the coup had "killed many birds with one stone".

About 200 people were detained in the 12 days following the attacks, many without warrants as required by Cambodian law, US rights lobby Human Rights Watch reported in December. Yasith was tried in absentia in Phnom Penh in June 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Richard Kiri Kim, a fellow US citizen who directed the CFF forces in Phnom Penh, was captured following the attack and remains in prison on a life term.

Rainsy described Yasith, a member of the SRP until he was thrown out for misusing party funds in mid-1998, as a man too taken with wine and women to orchestrate a coup. "He didn't have enough money to pay for his airport tax or his last hotel bill," Rainsy was quoted as saying. "He is not a serious guy."

Indeed, Yasith was an unlikely armed militia leader. A Time magazine article from 2001 described him as "a doughy, chino-clad little man", while a reporter for The New York Times said he looked "more like a bowling pin than a warrior". But the bespectacled Yasith, who arrived in the US as a refugee from Cambodia in 1982 and lost family members to the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, harbored a steely resolve to overthrow Hun Sen's government.

In October 1998, a year after bloody factional fighting saw Hun Sen vanquish many of his opponents in the royalist Funcinpec party, Yasith traveled to the Thai-Cambodian border where he joined with anti-government dissidents and founded the CFF. The group's aim: to liberate Cambodia from "communist dictators and Vietnamese puppets".

After the failure of the 2000 coup attempt, Yasith boasted that he would continue working to topple the government by force and that non-violent political action would not succeed against Cambodia's authoritarian regime. He held fundraisers - some aboard the Queen Mary, the former cruise ship moored in Long Beach, California - where attendees vowed to overthrow Hun Sen's government by force and pledged tens of thousands of dollars towards the cause.

The CFF - like similar radical anti-communist Vietnamese and ethnic Hmong groups - was the most radical manifestation of the latent anti-communism underpinning America's Indochinese diaspora. Carl Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Sydney, has described the CFF as "a fringe group nurtured in the hot house of anti-communist emigre life in the United States". He added, "I do not think the CFF has much support among the Cambodian diaspora in the US."

Congressional allies

But the relationship between Yasith and the US government, which notably did not arrest him until 2005, was at one stage cosier. In a 2004 New York Times profile of the CFF, then journalist Joshua Kurlantzick argued that the tacit support of conservative American congressmen and the George W Bush administration's pursuit of regime change in Iraq and Afghanistan provided "political cover" for the CFF's activities. "The Bush administration's stand on regime change in rogue nations has created a moment in which the murky, often secretive advocacy of insurgency abroad has suddenly gained credence," Kurlantzick wrote.

The group was also helped by the open advocacy of "regime change" in Cambodia by prominent members of the US government. In June 2003, Kentucky's Senator Mitch McConnell and two colleagues introduced the Cambodia Democracy and Accountability Act to the House of Representatives, a law that promised the resumption of full foreign assistance to Cambodia providing that Hun Sen was "no longer in power".

Words of support from Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher - who told Kurlantzick that the US should "evaluate the chances of any type of armed resistance" against Hun Sen - also provided implicit sanction for the CFF's activities. "Now that the White House has embraced the idea of regime change in Iraq and other rogue nations, the Cambodia hawks are getting a hearing, and the CFF remains free to plot in Long Beach," Kurlantzick concluded.

Yasith's arrest in 2005, however, marked a policy shift and an end to the relative impunity enjoyed by California-based Indochinese rebel groups. Although many such organizations, including anti-communist Vietnamese groups, "skirted the classification of terrorist" in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, warming relations between Phnom Penh and Washington caused a waning US tolerance for the CFF.

As the two countries gradually put their Cold War enmities behind them, Cambodia's cooperation in the US's global "war on terror" could easily be linked to Cambodian "terrorist" groups operating in the US. "No doubt there were pressures going both ways: Cambodian cooperation for US action against the CFF," Thayer said.

As US relations have warmed with communist Laos, US law enforcement has also taken a conspicuous hard turn against Hmong exiles who fought alongside the US during the Vietnam War.

In June 2007, the Department of Justice arrested nine ethnic Hmong exiles and a retired US colonel for planning the so-called "Operation Tarnished Eagle", an alleged armed plan to overthrow Laos' communist regime.

Although the charges against General Vang Pao, the Hmong's former insurgent leader and still widely respected among the Hmong diaspora, were dismissed the following year, the former US soldier and 11 Hmong still face charges. On June 24 this year, a grand jury in Sacramento, California, handed down an updated indictment alleging the group attempted to "acquire and furnish military arms, munitions, material, personnel, and money to insurgents in Laos to conduct military operations against the government of Laos".

In sentencing Yasith last month, District Court Judge Dean Pregerson gave a good indication of changing US government attitudes towards Indochinese rebel groups. "I don't think Mr Chhun is an evil human being," he said of the defendant. "I think he's had a tragic life - and had the misfortune of being born in a place where terrible things were happening."

He also said that for organizations advocating violence against America's new Southeast Asian allies there would no longer be lenience. "I do not want to be the person who does not say to all those groups that, if you conspire against the US, that the US will tolerate or be lenient to you."

Sebastian Strangio is a reporter for the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia.

PM hints that SRP had role in failed coup

Friday, 25 June 2010
Sebastian Strangio and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen has accused opposition members of involvement in an abortive coup carried out by the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF) in November 2000, two days after the mastermind of the operation was sentenced by a US court.

On Tuesday, a federal court in Los Angeles sentenced CFF head Chhun Yasith, a 53-year-old Long Beach accountant, to life imprisonment without chance of parole for his role in the attempted coup.

Speaking at the inauguration of the capital’s first overpass Thursday, the premier linked the opposition Sam Rainsy Party to the plot.

“The US recognises that Chhun Yasith committed terrorism in Cambodia, and some of the members of the SRP joined that activity,” he said.

He added that SRP president Sam Rainsy had repeatedly petitioned him for the pardon of party members detained in connection with the violence.

“Terrorists were taken in as members by the political party, [and] they were jailed, but were asked to be pardoned,” he said.

Chhun Yasith, a former SRP member who formed the CFF in Thailand in October 1998, openly sought the overthrow of Hun Sen’s government.

On November 24, 2000, a ragtag group of CFF members, armed with AK-47s, grenades and B-40 rockets, attacked several government buildings. Eight people were killed and at least 14 wounded in the attacks.

Despite Chhun Yasith’s one-time association with the SRP, party lawmaker Son Chhay said Wednesday that he was expelled from the party long before the CFF was formed. “We learnt he was using the party for his own interests,” he said.

SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said Thursday that some party members were involved in the attacks, but have long since been expelled from the party.

“Anybody involved in any illegal acts are no longer SRP members,” he said. “We don’t support violence. We condemn violence.”

In April, the families of five men imprisoned in connection with the attacks appealed for a Royal amnesty, a request that was seconded by eight SRP lawmakers the week after. Yim Sovann said it was believed the CFF members were duped into taking part in the attack.

“Based on all the facts, we decided to appeal for an amnesty for the people who were cheated by the movement,” he said.

Mr. Hun Xen: Who was behind the 30 March 1997 terrorist grenade attack against peaceful demonstrators in front of the NA?

Cambodia's terrorist-in-chief?

Hun Sen Links US ‘Freedom Fighter’ to Opposition, Terrorism

Chun Sakada & Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh and Washington Thursday, 24 June 2010

“The United States government regards the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters as a terrorist leader who was sentenced to life in prison.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday extolled Cambodia’s cooperation with the US in the life sentence of the leader of a failed anti-government movement, as he sought to link the 2000 attack with the opposition and terrorism.

Chhun Yasith, the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a US court on Tuesday, following his 2005 arrest and 2008 trial.

He was convicted of “conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act by engaging in a military expedition against a nation with whom the United States is at peace and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction in a foreign country,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement.

Chhun Yasith, 53, who is a naturalized US citizen and was an accountant in Long Beach, allegedly orchestrated an attack involving about 50 armed men, who shot at police and government buildings in Phnom Penh one night in November 2000.

The attack failed in short order, and four of the assailants were killed in ensuing shoot-outs with security forces that also wounded 14 people. Around 100 people were arrested in a sweep following the ill-fated attack, though many were later released.

The Cambodian courts eventually sentenced 18 CFF members to prison terms ranging from five years to life. The group was branded a terrorist organization at about the time the US was grappling with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In a public speech Thursday, Hun Sen again called the Cambodian Freedom Fighters a terrorist group that had help from the opposition party, and he praised the US for its sentencing of Chhun Yasith.

“The United States government regards the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters as a terrorist leader who was sentenced to life in prison,” Hun Sen said.

“There are some members of the Sam Rainsy Party who joined the terrorist act, and when His Excellency Sam Rainsy met with me, he would always ask me to pardon members of the Sam Rainsy Party who joined to fight in the Cambodian Freedom Fights,” Hun Sen said.

SRP lawmakers in April requested the release of 12 party members now serving time for the attack.

SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said some of the opposition supporters had been duped by the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, “because they had a low education, little information, confusion and lots of CFF tricks.”

In California Wednesday, Chhun Yashith’s wife, Pich Sros, called the sentencing “unjust,” and his lawyer, Richard Callahan, said he would appeal it.

Where is the news on Chhun Yasith?

An Anonymous Reader wrote:

Hey KI, Do you know now American Justis judge Chhun Yasith to whole life jail. Why not you post this news on you web. Why you not said any more??? do you think American Jurical System are fair or not???? if Cambodia Justis judge like this you will say more.... Haaaaaaa

----------
Dear Sir/Madam,

In case you missed, the news on Chhun Yasith was first posted on KI-Media here, and later here.

Is the US judicial system fair? Not according to our personal opinion.

Should we say more? KI-Media Readers have commented plenty on this sentence, if you care to read them after the post on Mr. Chhun Yasith's news.

Personally, we believe that injustice should be denounced wherever they take place, in Cambodia or in the US. Don't you agree?

Thank you!

KI-Media team

Calif. man in attempted Cambodian coup gets prison

Chhun Yasith

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
AP

LOS ANGELES — A California accountant was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in Los Angeles for orchestrating a failed attempt to overthrow the Cambodian government in 2000.

Yasith Chhun, 53, of Long Beach, was found guilty in 2008 of three counts of conspiracy and one count of engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

Chhun, a naturalized U.S. citizen who fled Cambodia as a refugee in 1982, grew frustrated with the lack of free elections under what he viewed as the oppressive regime of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former member of the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot, said Chhun's attorney, Richard Callahan.

"He saw Hun Sen as on an even par with Pol Pot," Callahan said.

Chhun also wanted to avenge the death of his father, who was beheaded by Khmer Rouge soldiers as Chhun looked on.

Chhun was found guilty after a two-week trial, during which prosecutors said he had planned "Operation Volcano" to Sen's government.

"We're here because a jury found that the defendant deliberately tried to kill other human beings," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker.

Chhun headed a group known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which accused Sen of being a dictator and helping rig elections so he could stay in power.

Prosecutors said Chhun had planned the operation for two years and had traveled to the region to assemble a rebel force. He raised money by holding fundraisers at the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked in Long Beach.

Prosecutors also believe Chhun was behind a February 1999 bombing of a bar in Cambodia that injured several people.

"Operation Volcano" was launched on Thanksgiving 2000 at the direction of Chhun, who was across the border in Thailand.

About 200 rebel troops showed up to fight, and they were quickly subdued after attacking various government buildings in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

In a rambling statement before his sentencing, Chhun told the judge that he started his movement as a nonviolent protester.

"The result is, nothing happened," Chhun said, adding that his approach changed as he saw Sen's troops "kill more people."

Callahan said the prosecution of Chhun was politically motivated because the U.S., which at the time was expanding its war on terror, was seeking international cooperation from countries in Southeast Asia.

"He was a sacrificial lamb to make sure everything went well in Southeast Asia," Callahan said. "Otherwise, the story doesn't make sense."

Callahan said he planned to appeal.

Chhun Yasith sentenced to life in prison

Chhun Yasith

Cambodia freedom fighter sentenced in fatal attacks

June 22, 2010
My-Thuan Tran and Scott Glover
Los Angeles Times

A Long Beach man convicted of orchestrating an attempted political coup in his native Cambodia that resulted in the deaths of three people was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to life in prison.

Yasith Chhun, former president of the Cambodia Freedom Fighters, was convicted in 2008 in connection with the Nov. 24, 2000, attacks in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Three members of Chhun's group were killed, and several Cambodian police officers and civilians were wounded.

Chhun, wearing a green windbreaker under chains around his waist, addressed the court in a tearful speech in which he talked of his suffering under the Khmer Rouge genocide that took the life of his father.

"I am not lucky like Americans who are born in this country," he said. " I was, unfortunately, born in Cambodia."

He said that after coming to the U.S. as a refugee in 1982, he felt he could no longer stand by as his native country descended into political chaos. "I had to do something for that country," he said. "I've been punished because I failed, that I'm not good enough to overthrow that government."

Judge Dean D. Pregerson said he did not believe Chhun was an "evil human being," but that the prison term was the consequence of Chhun's actions.

"I do not want to be the person who does not say to all those groups that, if you conspire against the U.S., that the U.S. will tolerate or be lenient to you," Pregerson said.

Chhun, who was convicted in 2008 of the attacks in Cambodia, plotted the assaults from his Long Beach office, prosecutors said.

After the attempted coup, he returned to the United States, took credit for the attacks in the media and said he would do it again, according to prosecutors.

The U.S. attorney's office took jurisdiction of the case based on the belief that Chhun had violated several federal laws governing the commission of crimes in foreign nations.

Prosecutors said Chhun went to Cambodia in 1998 to meet with military personnel opposed to the ruling Cambodia People's Party, headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. After the meeting, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters group was formed and Chhun was appointed president.

The military faction in Cambodia agreed that it would acquire weapons and that Chhun's group would be responsible for raising funds "for the violent overthrow of the Cambodian government," according to the U.S. attorney's office. A fund-raiser was held at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors presented documents at trial in which Chhun allegedly wrote that he would "tear Hun Sen" apart. In a presumed reference to other government officials, he allegedly wrote he planned to "cut their necks" and "send them to hell to soon,"

In fact, Chhun hid on the border of Cambodia and Thailand while about 200 members of his group carried out the assault with AK-47 rifles, grenades and rockets.

FBI/IRS agents in Cambodia involved in Chhun Yasith case in a bid for Hun Sen's regime?

Legal Attaché Laro Tan accepts his award from DPM Sar Keng.
Laro Tan, the Embassy’s legal attaché, and his colleagues pose with other Cambodia Government officials.

FBI/IRS agents recognized for their service by Deputy Prime Minister Sar Keng

Phnom Penh
December 19, 2008
Source: US Embassy in Cambodia

Laro Tan, the Embassy’s legal attaché, and five of his colleagues from the FBI and the IRS were honored on December 19th at a medal ceremony presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Sar Keng and other Ministry of Interior officials. The group was recognized for their contributions to the arrest of Chhun Yasith, the head of the group known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF) which attempted to overthrow the government on December 24th, 2000. They were joined by close to twenty Cambodian officers and civilians who either assisted in the case or were affected by the event. Deputy Chief of Mission Piper Campbell noted in her remarks that the CFF case highlighted what our two countries can achieve when we work together, and she reaffirmed the United State’s commitment to cooperating with Cambodia on law enforcement matters. In his remarks the Deputy Prime Minister echoed Ms. Campbell’s sentiment, stating that such cooperation would lead to the assurance of peace and security in the region.

Chhun Yasith resigned from the SRP since 1998

Click to zoom in

On 07 October 1998, Chhun Yasith turned in his resignation letter to the SRP.

Hok Lundy gloating about Chhun Yasith's conviction, he forgot that Hun Sen also attacked the legitimate gov't of Cambodia in 1997

Chhun Yasith (L) and National police chief Hy Lung Doc (R)

Chief Calls Chhun Yasith Conviction a ‘Warning’

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
18 April 2008

National Police Chief Hok Lundy welcomed the guilty verdict of Chhun Yasith in US federal court this week, calling it a warning to other groups who might think of attacking the government.

Chhun Yasith was found guilty of leading an armed attack on the government by the Cambodian Freedom Fighters in November 2000, in fighting that left at least seven people dead.

“The conviction against Chhun Yasith is a warning to other individuals, even any Khmer or foreigner, who engage armed forces in attempting to topple the government or engage in terrorism,” Hok Lundy said in a phone interview. Any such person “is to face law enforcement and a legal sentence.”

Chhun Yasith, a US citizen from Cambodia living in Long Beach, Calif., was convicted of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

He faces up to life in prison and is set to be sentenced Sept. 8.

One witness of 13 who testified in front of a US jury this month said Chhun Yasith had denied the charges.

Chhun Yasith claimed “what he did was try to change the country from what he described as a dictatorial regime, and he also accused key witnesses of cheating and exaggerating in court,” the witness said.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation called two former lieutenants of the CFF, Thong Samean and Gilbert Sao, to testify to activities of Chhun Yasith as their leader.

The nighttime raid on government buildings left 13 people wounded and led to a round-up of CFF suspects, some of whom are now serving sentences in Cambodian prison.

Trial begins in LA in Cambodia conspiracy

04/02/2008
By GREG RISLING
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES—A native of Cambodia unleashed an attack to overthrow the government of that country, but the plot failed when only 200 supporters showed up to fight in the capitol city of Phnom Phen, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

In his opening trial statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker said defendant Yasith Chhun was willing to risk other people's lives as part of the effort in 2000 dubbed Operation Volcano.

Baker portrayed Chhun as callous, cowardly and incompetent and promised he would take jurors inside the conspiracy.

"Operation Volcano was a failure, it didn't succeed," he said.

Defense attorney Richard Callahan said his client, a U.S. citizen, was trying to save the country where he was born and raised.

"There was no intent for Mr. Chhun to murder anyone or injure anyone," Callahan said.

Chhun, 51, an accountant from Long Beach, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

The scheme crumbled in November 2000 when a late-night attack on government buildings led to the deaths of three of his troops and injuries to several police and military officers.

Prosecutors played a tape of FBI interviews with Chhun following the attempted coup. He told federal agents that he was in Thailand during the attack and was in contact with his commanders who were considering about 291 targets.

FBI Agent Donald Shannon testified that Chhun told him money raised in the United States was used to fund the attacks. Shannon also said Chhun showed no remorse over what had happened.

Prosecutors also showed jurors letters allegedly written by Chhun in the months leading to the attack that talked about plans to "burst the volcano."

"They cut turkeys, I cut their necks. Bye, my first lady," one letter said. Several notes were signed, "Mr. President."

In newly released court documents, federal prosecutors portray Chhun as a fervent adversary of Cambodia's government who had misguided political aspirations.

His trial was expected to last about three weeks.

Chhun is among a handful of so-called freedom fighters who have been arrested and charged in recent years with plotting to overthrow governments in Southeast Asia.

Last year, 11 men were arrested and accused of attempting to oust leaders of the communist government in Laos. One of the men was Vang Pao, a former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong mercenaries in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War.

Chhun's group, known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being a dictator and helping rig the elections so he could stay in power.

Hun Sen at one time was part of the communist-backed Khmer Rouge, which has been accused of atrocities that resulted in the deaths of some 1.7 million people in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.

Starting in 1998, prosecutors said Chhun traveled to Southeast Asia to assemble opposition forces to take over Cambodia. He promised he would raise money for the operation and even held two fundraisers at the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked in Long Beach, according to court documents.

Yorn Soksan, a former member of Chhun's group, said in a deposition that he left the group about six months before the November 2000 attack. He estimated there were as many as 20,000 soldiers who were willing to fight with Chhun.

But many of those soldiers were part of Cambodia's military and ultimately kept their allegiance with the government, he said.

Prosecutors said rebel operatives launched small-scale "popcorn" attacks in Cambodia, including one in February 1999 when a grenade exploded in a bar that injured several people.

The attacks were necessary so "the government would believe that CFF was only capable of carrying out these small-scale attacks, and thus, would be unprepared for the scope of Operation Volcano," prosecutors said in court documents.

About 200 fighters wearing red headbands and armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades and rockets struck various government buildings in November 2000.

For more than two hours, government and rebel forces were involved in a gun battle near the Ministry of Defense and Council of Ministers as well as a military base.

Rebel soldiers retreated after government tanks arrived.

Chhun's coup trial nears its beginning

04/01/2008
By Wendy Thomas Russell, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LOS ANGELES - Seven years ago, Yasith Chhun sat in his 10th Street accounting business, chatting excitedly about his recent failed coup of the Cambodian government - and openly promising to attempt another.

This week, his demeanor is sure to be far more subdued.

Now 51, Chhun faces a federal trial in U.S. District Court on charges stemming from the very conduct he once was so proud to share. Jury selection concluded Tuesday, and opening statements are scheduled for today before Judge Dean Pregerson.

If convicted, Chhun could be sentenced to life in prison.

Chhun was arrested in 2005 after a lengthy FBI investigation into possible terrorist activity generated out of his Long Beach business. He is charged with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

Until his arrest, Chhun's tax-preparation business, as well as his political views, were widely known in Long Beach's large, tight-knit Cambodian community.

According to an indictment, Chhun's anti-communist rebel group, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, attempted to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen's government in November 2000 by launching an attack on several government buildings.

The coup failed almost immediately, but at least three people were killed - all of them rebels - and others were injured.

Interviewed by the Press-Telegram in June 2001, Chhun spoke freely and fearlessly about what he termed "Operation Volcano," the name given to the attack.

He detailed, matter-of-factly, his mission to bring American-style "freedom, justice and democracy" to his former country. He bragged about the publicity he had received, and he chatted about his ambitious rebellion as if it were a board game.

"It's like playing chess," he said, laughing. "Put (the pieces) where the horse is and where the king is."

The "king" Chhun referred to was Hun Sen, a former communist who staged his own bloody coup in 1997 and then called an election a year later under pressure from international leaders.

Hun Sen won the election, but many continue to believe he is a corrupt, dictatorial leader masquerading as a liberator. He has been accused of doing little to save the country's 17million people from poverty, disease, crime and oppression.

Because so many others agreed with CFF's opposition to Hun Sen, Chhun was able to raise money for his cause in the United States. In May 2000, for instance, he staged a fundraiser on the Queen Mary.

Members of Chhun's group were convicted in Phnom Penh in 2001. Because the United States has no extradition treaty with Cambodia, however, Chhun himself was tried and convicted in absentia.

Because he was certain he had committed no American crimes and had no plan to return to his native country, Chhun told the newspaper he was confident in his choices.

"You cannot be a rabbit to control a tiger," he said at the time. "I am not scared of anything."

wendy.russell@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1272

One Righteous Against the Thousands of Crazy

April 1, 2008
Opinion by Kok Sap
On the web at http://neokhmer.wordpress.com

RE: A grand jury recommended that US citizen Yasith should face charges of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country and engagement in a military expedition against a nation with whom the United States is at peace.

In light of Mr. Brad Adams and Ron Abney accounts, Cambodia remains under the abusive regime which US Department of State is fully aware of and listed it in its Black Book since July 1997. The obvious, the tyrant ruler inflicts intractable pain and anguish upon citizens and world conscience daily.

To the surprise, the justice and human rights advocates had not come out in drove to argue in Citizen Yasith case. Indeed, he was overzealous and openly stated his purpose to fight for the weak. However, that does not excuse him from the accused crimes and charges according to his country of citizenship laws .Today, he is facing witnesses who are selected and sent over to U.S court by Cambodia tyrant ruler. No way will any of the witnesses speak against their ruler.

Other hand many of Cambodians living in U.S were abused and violated to the core of UN human dignity and rights by Cambodia preceding government. That’s the ground that many of us were granted rights to live here.

Although years passed and we grown to love and oblige our home country calls of duty. Some of Cambodian children grown up and joined up the U.S armed forces. Yet so many of us remain hurt and share the conviction one day that our former country Cambodia and kin will live free of abuse and fear. Because of that many of us obliged to help and advocate putting a stop on the current government abuses.

In this justice saga, let’s look at Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg ,of Harvard School, argument in light of Dr. Martin L King reasoning’s,” Justice is not a rule or a set of rules but a moral principle. We know it is sometimes right to kill, because it is sometimes just. The Germans who tried to kill Hitler were doing right, because respect for the equal values of lives demands that we kill someone who is murdering others, in order to save lives.”

Cicero said,” The inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man’s life.” Is Citizen Yasith an evil or good? In U.S argument in this, it makes citizens Nixon, Ford and Kissinger doctrine in SE Asia, the world savior. Inevitably, for the fishermen must use bait to catch fishes. So it goes in arm struggle people get hurt and killed. So in this matter how one argues injustice.

During US Civil Rights struggle, late Mr. Malcolm X openly said,” in any mean necessary when come to self defense and one freedom. “ Along that line, Citizen Yasith openly advocated breaking unjust laws of his birth country in any necessary mean to seek freedom for his fellows. I am pretty sure what he saw in his action was to save lives and defend justice.

There is a striking similarity in the Bay of Pig invasion event excepted it was prepared and conducted from U.S soil. The goal was to overthrow Cuba government and eliminate Cuba leader Fidel Castro. Cuba was recognized a foreign sovereignty although its leader was not well received by Cubans in exile. I bet there were more causalities than Citizen Yasith private sponsored excursion.

Ironically, U.S government waivered its citizenship laws on Cuban fighters. Also some may still remember the Contra deal and Colonel Oliver North lied to Congress during President Reagan term. For some reasons, the complexity of Contra involved Cambodia resistance movement that primarily made up of Democratic Kampuchea fighters during the time too. However, none of the key personalities in both events was facing swift justice and possibly irrevocable penalty like Citizen Yasith today. In light of moral principles and obligation, many citizens are profoundly confused.But for the sake of one morality and judgment let’s share the quote from Dr. King Letter from Birmingham Prison, in 1965,” One may well ask, how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact there are two types of laws, just and unjust. One has not a legal but also a moral responsibility to obey just laws. One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just; any law that degrades human personality is unjust. An unjust law is code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal.

I do not advocate evading and defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust law, and willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

From the Egoism,” the right action in any situation is the one that is most in the individual’s long term best interests.” That seems proving Citizen Yasith is an egoist. That reminds us, a famous egoist line from U.S exemplary, give me death or liberty. Beside him, there are Sixty-four Cambodian Freedom Fighter (CFF) members, mostly peasant farmers, were subsequently arrested by Cambodia tyrant.

The group’s name implies clear defined role and mission. Given peasant in Cambodia, in most cases, is illiterate and poor. However in human tuition it’s not hard to recognize freedom and terror. May be that’s why they put themselves at risk of being killed and arrested to fight ultimate fear. Accustomed to fear of reprisal from old country, this matter is apparent a lightning rod for many Cambodians in U.S. Especially those residents of Long Beach felt deaf and mute over this case, although many of them share view and pain with those who live under the tyrant rule.

Not only that in Citizen Yasith case, the laws seem justifying the ends meet the means. The failure to see the obvious is unacceptable and immoral. The silence is too deafening.

'Brave' Foe of Khmer Rouge To Go on Trial Today in L.A.

April 1, 2008
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
New York Sun

A Cambodian-American accountant is scheduled to go on trial in a Los Angeles courtroom this morning for allegedly inciting a failed coup attempt in his homeland, some 8,000 miles away.

The former leader of the self-styled Cambodian Freedom Fighters, Yasith Chhun, 51, is charged with violating the Neutrality Act, a law that dates to 1797 and bars Americans from taking up arms against countries with which America is at peace. Mr. Chhun also faces charges of conspiring to kill, to destroy property, and to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the unsuccessful putsch in November 2000.

Seven people, some or all of them insurgents, were reported killed in the attempt to oust the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former brigade commander for the Khmer Rouge, which killed about 1.7 million people during its rule in the late 1970s.

"Chhun is a brave man," a former vice president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, So Sokhom, said yesterday during a telephone interview from his jewelry store in Arlington, Va. "It doesn't matter. Until the day I die, I still salute him. Nobody stood up to defend the Cambodians except for people like him."

Mr. Hun Sen was named a co-prime minister of Cambodia after United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993. In 1997, he forced out his counterpart, Prince Ranariddh, in what outsiders called a coup. Mr. Hun Sen's party won elections in 1998, but the campaigning was marred by violence and observers decried the elections as unfair.

Trial begins in Cambodia coup case

Tue, 01 Apr 2008
DPA

Los Angeles - Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a southern California resident who allegedly led the attempted overthrow of Cambodia's government in November 2000. Yasith Chhun, 51, president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, was charged with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

Chhun could face life in prison without parole if found guilty. He denies the charges.

Prosecutors allege that Chhun met with former members of the Khmer Rouge military in October 1998 at the Cambodia-Thailand border to plan an overthrow of the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Prosecutors say that Chhun raised money in the United States and masterminded the attempted coup against Hun Sen, which included armed attacks on government buildings by an estimated 60 men. Three of the attackers were killed, and an unknown number of Cambodian citizens and security forces died in the incident. Hun Sen was unscathed.

Witnesses Leave for US 'Freedom Fighter' Trial

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
27 March 2008

A delegation of 14 witnesses left Phnom Penh Thursday to attend the US trial of Cambodian Freedom Fighter president Chhun Yasith, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The delegation was representing the country of Cambodia as a victim in a terrorist attack, said Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak.

"We sent 14 people, including eye-witnesses and police officials," he said.

Chhun Yasith, 50, was indicted in June 2005 on charges related to November 2000 violence involving government forces in Phnom Penh. He was also charged with his wife, Pech Sras, 41, with tax fraud.

The violence, which authorities later called a coup attempt and terrorist attack, involved a squad of 50 men armed with rockets, grenades and assault rifles.

The fighting left at least four dead and 14 wounded and led to a round-up of 64 suspected CFF members in Cambodia.

Chhun Yasith was officially charged with "conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with whom the United States is at peace," the US Department of Justice said in a statement at the time of his arrest.

He faces life in prison for the 2000 attack and up to 29 years for tax fraud.

Cambodian witnesses fly to US for accused terrorist's trial

Thu, 27 Mar 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - A group of 15 Cambodians were leaving for the United States Thursday to take the stand in the trial of a Cambodian American accused of inciting a coup, the delegation leader said. Police Lieutenant General Moeuk Dara said the delegation would act as witnesses in the Los Angeles trial of self-confessed Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF) leader Chhun Yasith, scheduled to begin Tuesday.

With much urging from the Cambodian government, the United States designated Yasith's group a terrorist organization for its fatal and failed November 24, 2000, attempted coup in Phnom Penh.

At least four people were killed and more than a dozen injured before police and the military brought the situation under control. Sixty-four CFF members, mostly peasant farmers, were subsequently arrested.

A grand jury recommended that US citizen Yasith should face charges of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country and engagement in a military expedition against a nation with whom the United States is at peace.

Formerly a Long Beach, California, accountant before his 2005 arrest, Yasith and his wife, Sras Pech, also face charges of lodging fraudulent tax returns by exploiting information gleaned from Cambodian immigrants.

He faces life in prison without parole on each charge if convicted. Pech also faces a lengthy prison term, possibly life.

The anti-communist CFF seeks to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen's government, charging it with corruption and mismanagement.

Chhun Yasith Trial Delayed

Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
09 October 2007

The trial date for accused Cambodian Freedom Fighter Chhun Yasith has been delayed, a US court official said Tuesday, a day proceedings had been scheduled to begin.

The trial is now scheduled to be held early next year, said a spokesman for the Department of Justice in California, where Chhun Yasith faces federal charges of inciting a Cambodian coup in November 2000 and tax fraud in the US.

The coup charges stem from 90 minutes of violence on Nov. 24, 2000 between forces claiming to be members of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters and government troops that led to the deaths of at least four men.

The tax charges assert that Chhun Yasith, a Long Beach accountant, and wife Sras Pech bilked fraudulent tax returns from the federal government using information from Cambodian immigrants.

A police official in Phnom Penh told VOA Khmer Tuesday a delegation of witnesses against Chhun Yasith had prepared for trial in October, but had been told by US federal officers they would not be needed until later in the year.