Tuesday, 27 December 2011
The Phnom Penh Post
A group of female students in Battambang province have filed a police complaint against a high-ranking military officer who they allege violently assaulted them and threatened to kill them last Friday night.
The students, all 22 years old, filed the complaint with the Battambang provincial police commissioner on Saturday after alleging that Colonel Pen Kim Sea had crashed the birthday party of one of the girls and proceeded to physically lash out at the group.
“We kept asking him, ‘What did we do? Why are you here?’,” one of the women, Srey Leak, said, adding that he had smashed her against a wall.
She told the Post Pen Kim Sea was wearing his military uniform and was drunk when he entered the hotel the girls were at in Chey Korng village.
The colonel, chief of the Military Region 5 finance office, allegedly then called his two bodyguards to bring his gun from his car so he could kill the women, before leaving without fulfilling his threat.
“It was improper to use his rank and position to commit such an act,” Srey Leak said.
Nita, one of the other students assaulted, told the Post the unprovoked attack was because Pen Kim Sea thought one of the group was having an affair with his 21-year-old daughter.
“I often drove with my friend to go and see her girlfriend,” Nita said. “So I think he [Pen Kim Sea] confused me with her and acted out.”
In fact, Pen Minea, the now-former girlfriend of his daughter, was not at the party.
Pen Minea told the Post she and the military officer’s daughter broke up about two months ago. “We used to be sweethearts but have not seen each other since she started seeing a boy,” Pen Minea said.
The accused’s daughter would not comment on her relationship with Pen Minea or if the relationship enraged her father.
“They have filed a complaint against my father. That is my father’s matter now,” she said.
Neither Pen Kim Sea nor the Region 5 commander could be reached for comment.
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