Animist Farm Films
Dave Walker has not been seen since he left his guesthouse in the northwest city of Siem Reap on Friday afternoon. He left behind his laptop, phone and passport. Cambodian police are investigating.
Canadian officials said Wednesday they were working with Cambodian authorities to try to find an Edmonton filmmaker and journalist who disappeared in the country late last week.
Dave Walker has not been seen since he left his guesthouse in the northwest city of Siem Reap on Friday afternoon. He left behind his laptop, phone and passport. Cambodian police are investigating.
The 58-year-old had co-founded a film company in Cambodia but his friend Peter Vronsky said he wondered whether Mr. Walker had been “silenced” by someone who felt threatened by his efforts to trace former Khmer Rouge.
It’s possible that he scared some guy
During the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge waged a genocide in Cambodia, killing more than a million people as it tried to impose hardline communist ideology in the country. Several Khmers have gone on trial in recent years.
Mr. Vronsky said Mr. Walker had a long interest in tracing what had happened to the various Khmer officials. Among his projects was a screenplay titled The Man From Year Zero, about former Khmer Rouge war criminals living in exile in North America.
“It’s possible that he scared some guy,” Mr. Vronsky said. “They’re now hauling these guys into court who, for 20 years, have been walking free and giving press interviews. And suddenly now there’s a whole series of trials taking place.
But another friend, Alan Parkhouse, editor of The Phnom Penh Post, said Mr. Walker was not working on any stories that would have upset former Khmer Rouge. “Quite the opposite, in fact,” he said.
Rather, he was developing a film, based on a story he wrote for the paper, about a Khmer Rouge who saved his village. “It was an unusual story in that the Khmer Rouge leader of the village was actually a nice guy, and still is,” he said.
MARK PETERS/AFP/Getty Images
Former Khmer Rouge leader "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea in the courtroom during trial at the ECCC in Phnom Penh on Oct. 16, 2013. Cambodia's war crimes court will start hearing closing statements on October 16, in the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of masterminding one of the worst horrors of the 20th century.
Canadian consular and law enforcement officials “are in contact with local authorities in Cambodia to gather additional information,” said Saro Khatchadourian, press secretary to Minister of State Lynne Yelich.
According to his website, Mr. Walker co-founded the Cambodian-registered company Animist Farm Films in July 2012, to produce “high-concept, human interest” films and revive the country’s movie industry.
He began traveling in Southeast Asia following a stint in the British military, which trained him in intelligence, the Edmonton Journal reported in a 1995 profile. He is the co-author of Hello My Big Big Honey!, a book of love letters by foreigners to Thailand’s “bar girls.”
Police launched an investigation after being contacted by the Australian embassy, which handles Canada’s consular affairs in Cambodia, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
“We are worried about his safety now,” Yut Sinin, an Immigration Police officer told the paper. “Previously he would usually leave Siem Reap for Thailand for about three or four days, but this time we found that his passport, phone and clothes are still in his guesthouse.”
Added his business partner, Sonny Chhoun, “I think something is wrong. I don’t think he would just leave, with his phone on the charger, and go somewhere else,” the Postreported. “This is very unnatural for Dave. I know him very well.”
National Post
• Email: sbell@nationalpost.com |
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/19/alberta-man-who-went-missing-in-cambodia-may-have-been-silenced-over-film-about-war-criminals-friend-says/
2 comments:
i somehow doubt it... we know that many of those evils are working in the CPP govt right now ... nothing secret about it.... nothing is hidden to the CIA and its tentacles organizations. the world leaders already know and they are turning a blind eye..''.birds of feathers must stick together'' is the rule...the one that rocks the boat will be taken out... gaddafi , sadam , osama etc...
The bottom line is any foreigner comes to Cambodia, the person is facing a very high risk. This is why Cambodia has low foreign investment.
The only way Cambodia has any investment was to get favors from either China or Vietnam. But these kind of investment comes at the price of control. Both China and Vietnam want to control Cambodia.
If you don't like to be under control, then you must get investment from other countries. You need to be nice, smart, hard working.
But you are not nice. You are dumb and lazy. Just read the Khmer comments on this forum and you can see.
We can have an intellectual challenge on the forum to see how dumb the Khmer folks compared to me. I estimate that I am 100 times smarter than the Khmer, or 10 times smarter than the North Vietnamese or 20 times smarter than the South Vietnamese. So, a North Vietnamese is about 10 times smarter than a Khmer.
-Drgunzet-
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