Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 30/03/2009. People looking at a photograph exhibit showing demonstrators in the middle of the grenade attack.©Vandy Rattana
Ka-set
By Duong Sokha
30-03-2009
About a hundred people gathered in front of the former premises of the National Assembly in Phnom Penh on the morning of Monday March 30th to commemorate the grenade attack which claimed the lives of sixteen demonstrators twelve years ago. Next to families of victims and members of the main opposition political formation in Cambodia - the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) - Phnompenhers joined the march for this now traditional ceremony organised before the stupa for victims of the March 30th 1997 grenade attack.
Students, workers, moto-taxi drivers, journalists… They were all demonstrating peacefully in favour of the reform and independence of justice in Cambodia, with Sam Rainsy, who was back then the president of the Khmer National Party, when four grenades were thrown in the middle of the crowd and killed sixteen people on March 30th 1997. Twelve years on, portraits of the innocent victims were displayed not far from the stupa erected to their memory, while photographs taken just after the attack were on display on hoardings and were the bloody evidence of the horror suffered by demonstrators.
Ly Neary, the mother of Chet Duong Daravuth, a journalist and doctor killed during the demonstration, was the first to speak in front of thirty monks and the hundred participants at the twelfth anniversary ceremony. The family representative insisted on reminding the audience of the long time victims’ relatives had been waiting. Twelve years later, they are still demanding justice and want the authors of the murders to be identified and prosecuted. “Again, I urge the Cambodian government to reopen the enquiry over those murders in order to find the real murderers and the people behind the attack, and bring them to justice. I also urge the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to publish the results of their investigation so that we, families of victims, can have the possibility of clearly knowing the identity of criminals and the people behind that”, Ly Neary declared. She insisted that the sacrifice of demonstrators in favour of democracy should not be vain, and that impunity in Cambodia should end.
Insisting on the fact that many of the demonstrators injured or killed during the attack were from a modest background, leader of the opposition Sam Rainsy said he was convinced that one day, victims and their families would be given justice. “Two reports exist on that case: one by the American Senate, the other by the FBI. The first one, which was made public, points at prime Minister’s [Hun Sen’s] bodyguards. And, despite the fact that the FBI report has not yet been published, four American journalists, some of whom work for the renowned Washington Post, were authorised to take notice of them: it appears that, like the American Senate report, it points at the prime Minister’s bodyguards”, the opposition leader said in front of journalists after the ceremony. He said he trusted the implementation of the principle of justice by the administration of American president Barack Obama.
During the ceremony, held in the presence of John Willis - the representative of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Cambodia -, the SRP leader and deputy for the Kampong Cham province stressed that the former IRI director, the American Ron Abney, who was present at the demonstration on March 30th and was injured by fragments of grenades, recently had to have a foot amputated due to secondary consequences.
Sam Rainsy also established a connection between the attack and current events: “Thirty years ago, the Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million inhabitants. And today, thirty years later, the trial of Duch, the former director of the Tuol Sleng prison, is opening. One day, criminals and people behind [this attack] will be prosecuted to”, he said. The SRP president mentioned the universal competence of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, most likely, according to him, to try criminals of all nationalities like those who committed and planned the attack.
Reached by phone, the spokesperson for the National Police of Cambodia, Kiet Chantharith, asserted he was not in a position to tell what was going on with the results of the enquiry made by Cambodian authorities and simply said that an ad hoc commission was set up back then. “I am not a member of that Commission. And since I took up that position, I have never heard anyone [at the national police general commissariat] mention that case. And I do not pay attention to it”, the police general commented.
By Duong Sokha
30-03-2009
About a hundred people gathered in front of the former premises of the National Assembly in Phnom Penh on the morning of Monday March 30th to commemorate the grenade attack which claimed the lives of sixteen demonstrators twelve years ago. Next to families of victims and members of the main opposition political formation in Cambodia - the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) - Phnompenhers joined the march for this now traditional ceremony organised before the stupa for victims of the March 30th 1997 grenade attack.
Students, workers, moto-taxi drivers, journalists… They were all demonstrating peacefully in favour of the reform and independence of justice in Cambodia, with Sam Rainsy, who was back then the president of the Khmer National Party, when four grenades were thrown in the middle of the crowd and killed sixteen people on March 30th 1997. Twelve years on, portraits of the innocent victims were displayed not far from the stupa erected to their memory, while photographs taken just after the attack were on display on hoardings and were the bloody evidence of the horror suffered by demonstrators.
Ly Neary, the mother of Chet Duong Daravuth, a journalist and doctor killed during the demonstration, was the first to speak in front of thirty monks and the hundred participants at the twelfth anniversary ceremony. The family representative insisted on reminding the audience of the long time victims’ relatives had been waiting. Twelve years later, they are still demanding justice and want the authors of the murders to be identified and prosecuted. “Again, I urge the Cambodian government to reopen the enquiry over those murders in order to find the real murderers and the people behind the attack, and bring them to justice. I also urge the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to publish the results of their investigation so that we, families of victims, can have the possibility of clearly knowing the identity of criminals and the people behind that”, Ly Neary declared. She insisted that the sacrifice of demonstrators in favour of democracy should not be vain, and that impunity in Cambodia should end.
Insisting on the fact that many of the demonstrators injured or killed during the attack were from a modest background, leader of the opposition Sam Rainsy said he was convinced that one day, victims and their families would be given justice. “Two reports exist on that case: one by the American Senate, the other by the FBI. The first one, which was made public, points at prime Minister’s [Hun Sen’s] bodyguards. And, despite the fact that the FBI report has not yet been published, four American journalists, some of whom work for the renowned Washington Post, were authorised to take notice of them: it appears that, like the American Senate report, it points at the prime Minister’s bodyguards”, the opposition leader said in front of journalists after the ceremony. He said he trusted the implementation of the principle of justice by the administration of American president Barack Obama.
During the ceremony, held in the presence of John Willis - the representative of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Cambodia -, the SRP leader and deputy for the Kampong Cham province stressed that the former IRI director, the American Ron Abney, who was present at the demonstration on March 30th and was injured by fragments of grenades, recently had to have a foot amputated due to secondary consequences.
Sam Rainsy also established a connection between the attack and current events: “Thirty years ago, the Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million inhabitants. And today, thirty years later, the trial of Duch, the former director of the Tuol Sleng prison, is opening. One day, criminals and people behind [this attack] will be prosecuted to”, he said. The SRP president mentioned the universal competence of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, most likely, according to him, to try criminals of all nationalities like those who committed and planned the attack.
Reached by phone, the spokesperson for the National Police of Cambodia, Kiet Chantharith, asserted he was not in a position to tell what was going on with the results of the enquiry made by Cambodian authorities and simply said that an ad hoc commission was set up back then. “I am not a member of that Commission. And since I took up that position, I have never heard anyone [at the national police general commissariat] mention that case. And I do not pay attention to it”, the police general commented.
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