Radio Australia
In Cambodia, a journalist and his son have been shot dead in what appears to be a targetted assassination.
The 47-year old opposition newspaper reporter was killed on Friday evening and his son died in hospital later that night.
Presenter: Liam Cochrane Speakers: Sara Colm, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch; Kek Galabru, president of LICADHO, Yim Sovann, candidate for Sam Rainsy Party; Khieu Kanarith, Minister of Information
SFX chanting
COCHRANE
About 500 people came to pay their last respects to journalist Khim Sambor on Sunday. He was riding on the back of a scooter with his 21-year-old son in central Phnom Penh when two men on a motorcycle opened fire from several meters away, killing Sambor and fatally wounding his son.
The journalist was a contributor to Moneaksekar Khmer, the daily newspaper affiliated to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
It's the first killing of a journalist in five years and Sara Colm from Human Rights Watch says it will have a chilling effect on Cambodia's pre-election environment.
COLM
"Whether it was politically motivated or not, it will still have an effect on people, making them more afraid to speak out, to write, to attend rallies."
COCHRANE
Kek Galabru is the president of the Cambodian human rights group
LICADHO.
She says that so far there have been reports of 11 political activists killed during the election campaign, although it's not clear whether all cases were politically motivated. Galabru says this murder the first high profile killing during the campaign - will probably cause self-censorship of the media and fear amongst voters.
GALABRU
"All the voters are scared now, especially the ones who want to support the opposition. For example, Dam Sith, the editor in chief of the newspaper of the opposition. He locked himself at home, he didn't even come to the funeral, the cremation of this victim."
COCHRANE
Dam Sith is the boss of the slain journalist and also a candidate for the Sam Rainsy Party. Last month he was held in jail on charges of defamation and disinformation after his newspaper reported a claim from the opposition leader that Cambodia's current Foreign Minister, Hor Nam Hong, was in charge of a Khmer Rouge death camp in the 1970s. A complaint was also lodged against opposition leader Sam Rainsy, and the court asked the National Assembly to remove his parliamentary immunity so he too could be prosecuted. The National Assembly said it could not remove the immunity at this time and Sam Rainsy is on a whistle-stop tour of the countryside to promote his party. Yim Sovann is a standing committee member of the Sam Rainsy Party and a candidate in the election. He attended the cremation of the journalist on Sunday and said the killing had political overtones.
SOVANN
"The government [is] afraid the opposition will win the election so they try to create this time the killing to intimidate the people, the voters, especially the activists of Sam Rainsy Party."
COCHRANECambodia's Minister of Information, Khieu Kanarith was also at the cremation ceremony. Kanarith said he has asked journalists to continue their duty and not to hide, but admitted the murder reflected badly on Cambodia's election campaign.
KANARITH
" I think this killing comes at a very bad time, because this is during the election and this will give a bad image of the electoral process, but also we ask that the authorities conduct an investigation and quickly find the culprit and bring them to justice."
COCHRANE
But historically, there has been little justice for Cambodian reporters killed in the line of duty. Local rights groups say this is the 12th reporter killed since Cambodia's first elections in the early 1990s, but not a single perpetrator has been convicted of their deaths. Rights groups and the opposition called for a swift investigation and arrests. But Sam Rainsy Party leader Yim Sovann warned that innocent people might be framed for the murder, as is alleged to have happened with the 2004 killing of trade unionist Chea Vichea.
SOVANN
"And do not arrest the plastic murderer, please arrest the true murderer. Don't do like you have done before. [In] many political killing the murderer [is] never arrested, I do not accuse the government but it's the government responsibility to arrest the true murderer."
COCHRANEThere are just two weeks to go until the country goes to the polls on July 27. But with allegations of intimidation and now this killing, observers like Kek Galabru say the chances of a free and fair election are becoming slim.
GALABRU
"So how we can say this election is free? It's not possible. Free, it means that every single Cambodian can come out, can support any political party [with] no intimidation, no stick, and no vote buying, no carrot. So here they use stick and carrot - a lot of carrot but a lot of stick also."
COCHRANE
Liam Cochrane for Radio Australia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
In Cambodia, a journalist and his son have been shot dead in what appears to be a targetted assassination.
The 47-year old opposition newspaper reporter was killed on Friday evening and his son died in hospital later that night.
Presenter: Liam Cochrane Speakers: Sara Colm, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch; Kek Galabru, president of LICADHO, Yim Sovann, candidate for Sam Rainsy Party; Khieu Kanarith, Minister of Information
SFX chanting
COCHRANE
About 500 people came to pay their last respects to journalist Khim Sambor on Sunday. He was riding on the back of a scooter with his 21-year-old son in central Phnom Penh when two men on a motorcycle opened fire from several meters away, killing Sambor and fatally wounding his son.
The journalist was a contributor to Moneaksekar Khmer, the daily newspaper affiliated to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
It's the first killing of a journalist in five years and Sara Colm from Human Rights Watch says it will have a chilling effect on Cambodia's pre-election environment.
COLM
"Whether it was politically motivated or not, it will still have an effect on people, making them more afraid to speak out, to write, to attend rallies."
COCHRANE
Kek Galabru is the president of the Cambodian human rights group
LICADHO.
She says that so far there have been reports of 11 political activists killed during the election campaign, although it's not clear whether all cases were politically motivated. Galabru says this murder the first high profile killing during the campaign - will probably cause self-censorship of the media and fear amongst voters.
GALABRU
"All the voters are scared now, especially the ones who want to support the opposition. For example, Dam Sith, the editor in chief of the newspaper of the opposition. He locked himself at home, he didn't even come to the funeral, the cremation of this victim."
COCHRANE
Dam Sith is the boss of the slain journalist and also a candidate for the Sam Rainsy Party. Last month he was held in jail on charges of defamation and disinformation after his newspaper reported a claim from the opposition leader that Cambodia's current Foreign Minister, Hor Nam Hong, was in charge of a Khmer Rouge death camp in the 1970s. A complaint was also lodged against opposition leader Sam Rainsy, and the court asked the National Assembly to remove his parliamentary immunity so he too could be prosecuted. The National Assembly said it could not remove the immunity at this time and Sam Rainsy is on a whistle-stop tour of the countryside to promote his party. Yim Sovann is a standing committee member of the Sam Rainsy Party and a candidate in the election. He attended the cremation of the journalist on Sunday and said the killing had political overtones.
SOVANN
"The government [is] afraid the opposition will win the election so they try to create this time the killing to intimidate the people, the voters, especially the activists of Sam Rainsy Party."
COCHRANECambodia's Minister of Information, Khieu Kanarith was also at the cremation ceremony. Kanarith said he has asked journalists to continue their duty and not to hide, but admitted the murder reflected badly on Cambodia's election campaign.
KANARITH
" I think this killing comes at a very bad time, because this is during the election and this will give a bad image of the electoral process, but also we ask that the authorities conduct an investigation and quickly find the culprit and bring them to justice."
COCHRANE
But historically, there has been little justice for Cambodian reporters killed in the line of duty. Local rights groups say this is the 12th reporter killed since Cambodia's first elections in the early 1990s, but not a single perpetrator has been convicted of their deaths. Rights groups and the opposition called for a swift investigation and arrests. But Sam Rainsy Party leader Yim Sovann warned that innocent people might be framed for the murder, as is alleged to have happened with the 2004 killing of trade unionist Chea Vichea.
SOVANN
"And do not arrest the plastic murderer, please arrest the true murderer. Don't do like you have done before. [In] many political killing the murderer [is] never arrested, I do not accuse the government but it's the government responsibility to arrest the true murderer."
COCHRANEThere are just two weeks to go until the country goes to the polls on July 27. But with allegations of intimidation and now this killing, observers like Kek Galabru say the chances of a free and fair election are becoming slim.
GALABRU
"So how we can say this election is free? It's not possible. Free, it means that every single Cambodian can come out, can support any political party [with] no intimidation, no stick, and no vote buying, no carrot. So here they use stick and carrot - a lot of carrot but a lot of stick also."
COCHRANE
Liam Cochrane for Radio Australia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
No comments:
Post a Comment