Hong Kong, China — Cambodia’s national police commissioner, Gen. Hok Lundy, was killed in a helicopter crash on Nov. 9, Cambodia’s National Day. Hok was a member of both the Central Committee and Standing Committee of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and a close ally and senior advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose son is married to Hok’s daughter.
Commenting on Hok’s death, Cheam Yeap, a senior party official and parliamentarian, said, “The CPP and all Cambodians have suffered a huge loss.”
However, Hok’s death has brought relief to many, considering his record on human rights. Under his 14-year tenure, Hok was accused of failing to resolve many serious human rights violations implicating the rich and powerful. This failure has since developed into a culture of impunity in Cambodia.
Hok was also accused of violent acts such as the March 1997 grenade attacks on a peaceful anti-government demonstration, which killed 20 people and injured hundreds, as well as the extrajudicial killing of some 40 members of a rival party in a July 1997 coup.
Under Hok’s leadership, the Cambodian police showed little respect for human rights. They banned peaceful public demonstrations and protests, took part in forced evictions and used brutal force against demonstrators, recalcitrant evictees, suspects and ordinary people.
The ruling party has selected Neth Savoeun, Hok’s deputy, to replace him. However, Hun Sen had the final say in the selection of the three-star general, who is married to his niece, according to parliamentarian Cheam Yeap.
Neth’s appointment has been received with mixed feelings. Some welcome it and see better prospects for human rights in Cambodia. Others do not share this optimism, saying he will not be able to resolve cases of human rights violations inherited from his predecessor and that the police force will continue to be politicized, with the prime minister exercising personal control over it.
The Cambodian police are already politicized, as loyal members of the ruling party staff all positions of responsibility. Officers are slow in investigating crimes of a political nature that affect the opposition or government critics, but they act fast and more effectively if they affect senior party members or their families.
The appointment of the new national police commissioner can, however, create a break from the department’s poor record. It has opened up a good opportunity to move forward in policing. The new police commissioner, the Ministry of the Interior and the government should work to reform the police to improve performance, curb human rights violations, win public trust and meet the country’s international human rights obligations.
In order to attain these goals, the Cambodian police should not pledge loyalty to any political party or group. They should become a truly national police force, not a police force for the ruling party, as they currently are. They should strictly adhere to the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which is incorporated into Cambodia’s criminal law, but has so far been overlooked. And, most of all, they should “respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons,” as stipulated in the code.
By law, the Cambodian police should treat all persons equally. Citizens are entitled to protection without discrimination, as called for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cambodia has explicitly agreed. The police need to be impartial and respect the rights of all individuals, regardless of their origin, social status or political, religious or philosophical convictions.
This will require the Cambodian police to be politically independent and neutral, without affiliation to any political party. The national police commissioner should be placed directly under the authority of the minister of the interior, as he is supposed to be, and not under the prime minister. The police should be answerable to Parliament, through the minister of the interior and the prime minister.
Good conduct, political independence and neutrality of the police, as well as accountability to the Ministry of the Interior, should be explicitly incorporated into the police law that is currently being drafted. The same law should have penalties for any misconduct or breach of political independence and neutrality, and also create an independent institution to deal with complaints from the public against the police.
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(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
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