CAMBODIA: Police bury a corpse of an alleged rape victim without postmortem

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the failure to conduct a proper postmortem examination by the police before they buried a female corpse recovered from a forest in Battambang province. There were indications that the woman could have been raped before she was killed. However, the police chose bury it where it was recovered without conducting a postmortem or any other forensic investigation that would scientifically establish the cause of death and could have helped identify those responsible.

CASE DETAILS: (According to an interview with a local police officer, Ngeth Sakheang and other media sources)

On 13 January 2008, three fishermen found the corpse of an unknown woman in a swampy forest bordering Koah Smang Lake in Prey Troap village, Prek Norin commune, Ek Phnom district, Battambang province. They then reported it to the police.

After receiving the report, Ngeth Sakheang, a local police officer, went to the scene together with the head of the provincial police “forensic” unit. The corpse had no clothes on, was bloated and had been submerged in 15 centimeter deep water and covered with thick grasses. Her left shoulder was broken and her clothes were found about five meters away from where her body was discovered.

According to Ngeth no one in the village living nearby could identify the corpse. The woman was about twenty years of age, 1.5 meters tall, with a fair complexion and shoulder length hair. The clothes she would have been wearing were a blue long sleeve shirt and yellow trousers.

Shortly after arriving and briefly examining body, the police then quickly came to the conclusion that the woman was a victim of rape and that she was murdered probably around four to five days earlier. The police likewise theorized that the victim may have known her attacker and could have identified them had she been left alive.

The police later buried the victim’s corpse in the area where it had been found. The manner of investigation the police claimed to have conducted was not credible and their conclusions fail to have any grounding in any systematic scientific examination; however, they nevertheless claimed they had already launched and conducted their investigation. They also made public pronouncements appealing for persons who may have known the victim and her relatives to come forward to retrieve the corpse from where it is buried.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Burying and cremating dead bodies in absence of a proper post mortem examination and thorough forensic investigation is a common practice in Cambodia.

For instance, when union leader Chea Vichea was shot dead in January 2004, the manner in which the police conducted his postmortem examination was also improper. (For background of this case please read: UA-124-2007). It was done in haste and the doctor did not do anything other than to certify the death.  Had the victim’s relatives not been able to prevent the police from cremating his body in a Buddhist monastery, the body would have been cremated without their knowledge or consent. They had to take the body from the police in order to give him a proper funeral ceremony and had it cremated few days later. However, no proper forensic and postmortem examination was either requested or performed on the body by the police before it was sent for cremation.

In August 2007, an army general and businessman, Oum Chhay, was found to have died within the premises of the police’s anti-drug department where he had been detained on charges of production of illegal drugs. His body was taken to a public hospital for a postmortem examination; however, no further investigation was conducted to determine his cause of death while in police custody. The hospital merely capitulated to the police’s story which claimed Oum Chhay’s had committed suicide by throwing himself out of that window. No credible investigation was conducted to establish whether his death was anything other than suicide which would have been especially prudent since he was in a position to possibly implicate influential people in his illegal business.

In July1997 the body of a senior politician, Ho Sok, was also hurriedly cremated in a Buddhist monastery immediately after he was shot dead while detained in a room inside the Ministry of Interior in Phnom Penh. No postmortem examination was conducted on his body.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

In Cambodia, corpses found floating in rivers, lakes or found in forests, as in this case, happens from time to time. However, proper and professional postmortem examination on the corpses recovered in order to establish their cause of death and to collect evidence in identifying the attackers rarely takes place. There is no independent forensic service apart from a police forensic unit located in Phnom Penh.

As in the case mentioned above, establishing the cause of death depends heavily on the judgment of police investigators or officials who have little or no forensic training. They are allowed to decide the cause of death on cases even in those involving suspicious deaths or in cases of corpses that have been reported to them. They do not seek assistance from doctors and forensic experts in order to obtain a medical conclusion as part of the process in their police investigation.

Also, there are practically no morgues in Cambodia where bodies can be preserved for periods of time while awaiting postmortem examinations. Once a corpse is found, the police request the relatives or friends to take them away for burial or cremate them according to their religious practices. The lack of proper facilities and training in forensic investigation methods has resulted in policemen making conclusions in their investigations on the victim’s death using arbitrary criteria and their own questionable judgment. .

However it must also be noted that it is rare for relatives or friends of the victim to request the carrying out of a postmortem examination or request to exhume a body for forensic examination even in cases involving suspicious deaths. The combination of lack of facilities, training and dismissive practices preventing the scientific examination of corpses has in effect shielded perpetrators of these murders from being identified and held to account. Often limiting the possibility of them being identified and that the cause of the victim’s death being established.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write your letters to the authorities listed below urging them to ensure that a proper forensic examination is performed of the female corpse. The police should also be investigated either for their neglect or for failing to ensure that the corpse is examined properly before it was buried.

Please also urge them to ensure that in the future corpses or persons who have died in suspicious circumstances are subjected to postmortem and proper forensic examination. This is necessary in ensuring that the cited cause of death had factual and scientific basis; and a method for identifying those responsible for their deaths is possible.

The AHRC writes letters to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia and Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women calling for their intervention in this matter.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER