CAMBODIA: Police report a man drowned in water of hardly a meter depth

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man was found dead with a broken neck and severe injuries on his head in a river in Takeo province on 8 May 2008. The police have classified the case as accidental drowning. It is suspected that the man’s death was a political assassination as he was a member of the ruling party but was supporting a newly formed party at the approach of the new general election.

CASE DETAILS: (based on the information received from In Kong Chit, human rights defender, Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, Phnom Penh; Som Horl, victim’s son, Ta O Khang Choeung village, Ta O commune, Kirivong District, Takeo province; Cheng Chuop, Human Rights Party, Kirivong town, Takeo province)

On 7 May 2008, Chheang Som, 56, a farmer living in Ta O Khang Choeung village, Ta O commune, Kirivong district, Takeo province, failed to return home after his farm work. In the late afternoon of that day his wife was alarmed to see his oxen returning home alone without him. Immediately, together with some fellow villagers, she set out to search for him. The search team could not find him until the morning of 8 May at around 10am, when he was found dead with the top of head floating above water in an irrigation canal named Prolay Thom some 2 kilometers south of his village.

Upon this discovery his son, Som Horl, 25, immediately reported his father’s death to the police. When pulled out from the water just around noon, in the presence of five commune police officers, Chheang’s body was covered with mud. While his body was being washed, blood oozed out from a large wound on the left side of his forehead and from his mouth. Witnesses discovered that his neck was broken, a front tooth was also broken, and his jawbones were very loose.

The commune police chief present at the scene was heard as saying that “the deceased had been murdered”. The body was then taken to the deceased’s home for the funeral. Later on, at 2pm, the district military police and, some time later, the police from the provincial capital, Takeo city, went to do the “postmortem”. Both police investigation teams were taking photographs and they were heard as saying the same thing as the commune police chief: “the deceased had been murdered”.

To the consternation of Chheang’s own family and others, the Takeo provincial police in charge of the case said two days later that Chheang had died from accidental drowning. When asked about this news, the commune police chief, who had been heard as saying that Chean had been murdered, made no comment and referred the question to the provincial police commissioner who had issued the verdict on the case.

This verdict in contradiction with earlier assessments of the same case has given rise to suspicion that the superior police authority wanted to end the investigation because Chheang’s death may have been a political assassination. Chheang was a chairperson of Group 7 of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in his village. In January 2008, he discretely joined a newly formed party named Human Rights Party (HRP) and started to help this party though he did not resign from CPP. In March he mobilised villagers to join a rally addressed by HRP leader Kem Sokkha in his commune.

Chheang’s son, Som Horl, said that the suspicion came from his fellow farmers who had met his father on 7 May before his death. Som denied any political motivation behind his father’s murder. He said his father had met several fellow farmers on his way to till his land. In the presence of these farmers, he talked with a former provincial police officer named Minh Khauy, now a farmer living in another village, who had dropped by. The conversation turned into acrimonious quarrels when they talked about each other’s past misdemeanors. Minh got very angry at Chheang’s revelation of his bad past and sternly warned Cheang “not to know too much about him”. Chheang, Minh and the fellow farmers present dispersed and went to their respective paddy fields.

The commune police questioned Minh Khauy after the discovery of Chheang’s body, but released him later without any charge.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The water in the irrigation canal in which the Takeo provincial police said Chheang Som had drowned was hardly one meter deep. It is almost inconceivable that Chheang could have drowned in the water whose depth is well below his height.

In Cambodia over some period leading to any election has not been peaceful and free of violence. There has been varying degrees of violence when party signs have been removed or vandalized, and party activists have received threats and intimidation or have even been killed. In March 2008, two party activists respectively in Svay Rieng province and Seam Reap province were killed. The next general election will be held on 27 July 2008, but political parties have already started their campaigns well ahead of the prescribed of 30 days before the voting day.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In Cambodia, the police are modeled on the French police. There are the national police, commonly known simply as the police and the military police (or gendarmerie in France). The national police are placed under the authority of the Ministry of Interior. National police officers who are doing work connected with courts of law under the code of criminal procedure (investigation, search, and arrest) are called judicial officers.

The military police are under the authority of the Ministry of National Defence. Many of the military police officers are also judicial police officers doing basically the same work as their national police counterparts.

All judicial officers, which include more than national and military police officers, are placed under the jurisdiction of prosecutors and, ultimately, of the Prosecutor-General. The Prosecutor-General can propose disciplinary action against them to the Minister of Interior in the case of national police officers and to the Minister of National Defence in the case of military police officers.

The territory of Cambodia is divided in provinces and municipalities (22 altogether). Each province or municipality is divided into districts, each district into communes, and each commune into villages. As a legacy of the communist days, a village may still have groups of houses. The national police have their provincial/municipal units or commissariats, each headed by a provincial police commissioner; district units, each headed by a district police inspector; and commune administrative police units, each headed by a commune police chief.

The military police have their provincial/municipal units, each headed by a military police commander, and district units, each headed by a military police commander.

There are three levels of courts: the Supreme Court at the top, the Court of Appeal, and then the Provincial/Municipal Courts or Courts of First Instance. The Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal are located in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh, while the Courts of First Instance are located in the provincial/municipal capitals. All prosecutors attached to the Courts of First Instance are placed under the authority of the Prosecutor-General attached to the Court of Appeal.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities listed below to request them to conduct proper investigation into Chheang Som’s death and bring those responsible for it to justice.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteru on the Question of Torture, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of human rights in Cambodia and OHCHR in Cambodia calling for interventions in this case.

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