Phnom Penh Post
By David Boyle
People light candles at the site of the killing of Cambodian
anti-logging activist Chut Wutty in Koh Kong province on May 11, 2012.
Photograph: Reuters
Systematic extrajudicial killings were
directed and executed for decades by death squads established under
Prime Minister Hun Sen's regime and run by men who are now some of the
highest-ranking members of government, a report released by Human Rights
Watch today alleges.
The report, titled Tell Them That I Want To Kill Them,
unearths hundreds of cases of political killings investigated by the
United Nations, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, rights groups
and the media - linked to individuals including chief of the criminal
department at the Ministry of Interior Mok Chito and Central Security
Directorate chief Sok Phal.
From the “A–Teams” or death squads
established in the 1980's to the grenade attacks on opposition parties
in the 1990's, the bloody 1997 coup d'etat to the killing of Chut Wutty
this year, it outlines how alleged murderers have been promoted in the
Cambodian People's Party rather than prosecuted.
The government has said the report is simply a baseless, politically timed stunt intended to try and derail the ASEAN summit that starts Thursday.
Phil
Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the
farcical explanation for the death of fierce anti-logging activist Chut
Wutty – an official investigation revealed he was shot by a military
police officer who was then, accidentally, killed by his own gun by a
man trying to disarm him – showed murders were rewarded by the CPP.
“The
fact that, for instance, Mok Chito is tapped to go down to lead the
investigation to come up with a story to try to explain away the Chut
Wutty murder shows that these people are still the go-to people for the
CPP,” he said.
“Somebody like Mok Chito, who is known to have a
long association with the most senior people in the government and is
known to have a reputation as someone who has repeatedly got their hands
dirty for the CPP as an enforcer type, this is the type of person
that...when this person says what the story is, everybody salutes.”
Wutty was killed on April 26 while investigating illegal logging in the Cardamom Mountains.
The
report quotes a senior operative under the State of Cambodia, the
regime that ruled Cambodia immediately after the Khmer Rouge, detailing
how a secret death squad called A-92 was directed by Sok Phal and Mok
Chito.
“When Mok Chito [senior police officer] or my unit
discovered something or a target, we first had to make a report to our
superiors. They take the decision to kill. Mok Chito was involved in
lots of killings,” the anonymous operative is quoted as saying.
Mok Chito and Sok Phal could not be reached for comment today.
But
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said on the sidelines of a meeting
this morning that Human Rights Watch was just trying to make noise
ahead of ASEAN, and called it standard practice for rights groups and
protestors during international meets.
“First of all, he must
give the proof to say that this man is responsible for all these things.
I think for Human Rights Watch, it is just a personal vendetta between
them and the present prime minister,” he said.
Human Rights Watch also quoted Hing Bun Heang, former deputy head of the notorious Brigade 70, telling the Post
after the 1997 grenade attack on an opposition rally that he wanted to
kill journalists who alleged Hun Sen's bodyguards were involved in the
attack.
“Tell them that I want to kill them... publish it, say
that I, chief of the bodyguards, have said this. I want to kill... I am
so angry,” Bun Heang is quoted as saying.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com
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