By Melissa Lampman - Kamloops This Week
Published: January 27, 2009
Questions raised in death of Kamloops aid worker in Cambodia
A new story is emerging about what happened to a Kamloops man who died in Cambodia, originally reported as having been attacked, robbed and left for dead in a ditch.
Jiri Zivny, 43, died on Jan. 15 in Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh from injuries he allegedly sustained when assailants hit him on the head as he was riding away from a bank machine six days earlier in the coastal resort town of Sihanoukville.
According to the International Humanitarian Hope Society, the Kamloops-based charity with which Zivny went on the humanitarian aid mission to Southeast Asia to help orphans, Zivny was nearly beaten to death by his attackers, who stole $500 he withdrew at the ATM, along with his wallet, clothing and camera.
But subsequent reports from the country suggest the aid worker — who stayed with another group member known only as “Loren” to continue the mission overland to Thailand after the group split up in Vietnam in early December — may have died as a result of injuries he received in a motorcycle accident in Sihanoukville.
Curious to why newspapers in Cambodia were relying on Canadian media reports for information, freelance editor and writer Vincent MacIsaac, who lives in the small beachside town, looked into the alleged assault.
MacIsaac told KTW that, in addition to local traffic police reporting Zivny crashed his motorcycle into another bike in the early hours of Jan. 9, the chief of immigration police was quoted in the Cambodia Daily as never having heard of the attack.
“There was a media report that a fax was sent to the Canadian embassy here the day of the accident from traffic police in Sihanoukville, notifying the embassy that a Canadian had been injured in a traffic accident,” MacIsaac said.
When contacted by KTW, the Australian consulate in Phnom Penh, which provides services to Canadians in Cambodia, could neither confirm nor deny this.
“Consular officials are providing assistance and support to Mr. Zivny’s family, as well as following up with local authorities responsible for investigating his death,” said Daniel Barbarie, consular spokesperson.
“Due to the privacy act, no further information can be released on this case at this time.”
However, official police records show Zivny was transferred by an ambulance from Sihanoukville to the hospital in the capital city, where hospital records show he arrived at the emergency ward at 11:35 p.m. on Jan. 10, with the ambulance driver noting the patient had been in a motorcycle accident.
Zivny was immediately transferred to the intensive-care unit and, by 12:30 a.m., had been shifted to the neurological ward, where he died six days later, at 5:15 p.m. local time.
MacIsaac, who has worked in Far East and Southeast Asia for 14 years, was at Calmette Hospital the day Zivny died, interviewing doctors.
The doctors, he said, determined there were no cuts or bruises that indicated blunt-force trauma inflicted by an assailant.
“During the first interview, on the afternoon of Jan. 15, doctors treating the patient allowed me to see him,” MacIsaac reported in an article published in the Asian Sentinel.
“If he had been struck in the face, the wound had healed by then.”
Despite repeated attempts by KTW to contact her, Evelyn Picklyk, president and founder of IHHS, could not be reached for comment before press deadline.
Published: January 27, 2009
Questions raised in death of Kamloops aid worker in Cambodia
A new story is emerging about what happened to a Kamloops man who died in Cambodia, originally reported as having been attacked, robbed and left for dead in a ditch.
Jiri Zivny, 43, died on Jan. 15 in Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh from injuries he allegedly sustained when assailants hit him on the head as he was riding away from a bank machine six days earlier in the coastal resort town of Sihanoukville.
According to the International Humanitarian Hope Society, the Kamloops-based charity with which Zivny went on the humanitarian aid mission to Southeast Asia to help orphans, Zivny was nearly beaten to death by his attackers, who stole $500 he withdrew at the ATM, along with his wallet, clothing and camera.
But subsequent reports from the country suggest the aid worker — who stayed with another group member known only as “Loren” to continue the mission overland to Thailand after the group split up in Vietnam in early December — may have died as a result of injuries he received in a motorcycle accident in Sihanoukville.
Curious to why newspapers in Cambodia were relying on Canadian media reports for information, freelance editor and writer Vincent MacIsaac, who lives in the small beachside town, looked into the alleged assault.
MacIsaac told KTW that, in addition to local traffic police reporting Zivny crashed his motorcycle into another bike in the early hours of Jan. 9, the chief of immigration police was quoted in the Cambodia Daily as never having heard of the attack.
“There was a media report that a fax was sent to the Canadian embassy here the day of the accident from traffic police in Sihanoukville, notifying the embassy that a Canadian had been injured in a traffic accident,” MacIsaac said.
When contacted by KTW, the Australian consulate in Phnom Penh, which provides services to Canadians in Cambodia, could neither confirm nor deny this.
“Consular officials are providing assistance and support to Mr. Zivny’s family, as well as following up with local authorities responsible for investigating his death,” said Daniel Barbarie, consular spokesperson.
“Due to the privacy act, no further information can be released on this case at this time.”
However, official police records show Zivny was transferred by an ambulance from Sihanoukville to the hospital in the capital city, where hospital records show he arrived at the emergency ward at 11:35 p.m. on Jan. 10, with the ambulance driver noting the patient had been in a motorcycle accident.
Zivny was immediately transferred to the intensive-care unit and, by 12:30 a.m., had been shifted to the neurological ward, where he died six days later, at 5:15 p.m. local time.
MacIsaac, who has worked in Far East and Southeast Asia for 14 years, was at Calmette Hospital the day Zivny died, interviewing doctors.
The doctors, he said, determined there were no cuts or bruises that indicated blunt-force trauma inflicted by an assailant.
“During the first interview, on the afternoon of Jan. 15, doctors treating the patient allowed me to see him,” MacIsaac reported in an article published in the Asian Sentinel.
“If he had been struck in the face, the wound had healed by then.”
Despite repeated attempts by KTW to contact her, Evelyn Picklyk, president and founder of IHHS, could not be reached for comment before press deadline.
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