Scambodia

Systematic extra-judicial 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 yesterday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleges.

The report, 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 that are linked to individuals including chief of the Ministry of Interior’s criminal department Mok Chito and Central Security Directorate chief Sok Phal.

From the “A-teams” or death squads established in the 1980s to the grenade attacks on opposition parties in the 1990s, the bloody 1997 coup d’etat to the killing of Chut Wutty this year, the report outlines how alleged murderers have been promoted in the Cambodian People’s Party-led government rather than prosecuted.

The government has said the report is a baseless, politically timed stunt intended to try and derail the ASEAN summit that begins on 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 with his own gun by a man trying to disarm him — showed murders were rewarded by the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

“The fact that, for instance, Mok Chito is tapped to go down to lead the investigation and 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,” Robertson 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 [senior police officer] Mok Chito 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.

“Sok Phal was in charge of internal security, while Luor Ramin was responsible for foreigners. A-teams reported to Sok Phal, who reported to Sin Sen. Sometimes they went directly to Sin Sen.”

Sok Phal said yesterday he was very surprised to hear of the allegations against him.

“It is the first time that I heard people accuse me; I am always helping people,” he said, requesting a copy of the report before he could comment further.

Mok Chito, who, according to the report, was referred to by one US diplomat as “the ultimate fox in the chicken coop”, said he was at the gym yesterday and then switched off his phone.

Many others who were subsequently promoted to high-level positions in the CPP and government are named as having been involved in extrajudicial killings or death squads.

They include You Sin Long, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs; Heng Pov, who became Phnom Penh police chief and an adviser to Hun Sen until he was jailed on a slew of charges including extortion and murder; and Luor Ramin, who has also been promoted to the upper ranks of the NACD.

None of them could be reached yesterday, and Sin Sen died in 2008.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said on the sidelines of a meeting on Tuesday morning that Human Rights Watch was just trying to make noise ahead of ASEAN, and called such attempts standard practice for rights groups and protesters operating during international meets.

“First of all, he must give the proof to say that [these men] are 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.

HRW references, among many other sources, a September 1993 United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia human rights report, which found 39 incidents of “killing political opponents” that resulted in 26 casualties and 25 killings intended to intimidate the public.

The death squads that HRW said performed these operations were dissolved after a failed 1994 coup attempt and eventually reintegrated into the police, today operating as two distinct units, Kamlang la’or (good forces) and Kamlang samngat (secret forces).

Time and time again, the report points to murders conducted with complete impunity. There were no subsequent arrests, instead, authorities frequently devised ludicrous conclusions, including outlandish claims of suicide, a trend the report suggests continues today.

When investigating the death of senior Funcinpec General Chao Sambath, who the UN reported was shot three times in the head by soldiers immediately following the 1997 coup d’etat, authorities concluded the deceased had committed suicide “by biting his own tongue”, the report states.

In another case, Khmer Krom monk Eang Sok Thoeun – who was found dead with his throat slit three times amid an official crackdown on monk protests – was also deemed to have committed suicide by police.

They then ordered his immediate burial and prohibited monks from conducting funeral proceedings.

The report highlights a speech in which Hun Sen suggests that an infamous 1997 grenade attack at a rally held by an opposition party led by Sam Rainsy, which left 16 dead and more than 150 injured, had been orchestrated by party leadership in order to blame the CPP.

Most recently, HRW points to the farcical and contradictory official accounts of how Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana were killed, a narrative that was finally settled by none other that Mok Chito.

The intimidation is also shown to have stretched to the media in cases such as the killing of journalist Khim Sambo, a reporter with the opposition-affiliated newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer, who was gunned down with his son in a drive-by shooting.

The grisly details of how bullets were extracted from the dead body of outspoken newspaper editor Thun Bun Ly’s body by a gloved soldier in 1996, almost immediately after he was killed in a crime that never led to a single arrest, are also recounted.

“It is not my job to hold the testicles of the co-prime ministers [Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen],” Bun Ly is quoted as having told an amused courtroom during a trial instigated against him because of critical articles he published.

Human Rights Watch also quoted Hing Bun Heang, former deputy head of the notorious Brigade 70, who told the Post after the 1997 grenade attack that he wanted to kill journalists who alleged Hun Sen’s bodyguards were involved.

“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.

Hing Bun Heang is now commander of Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit and deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Source - http://www.phnompenhpost.com

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A Shadowy organisation that has been accused of fraud in multiple countries is operating in Cambodia, raising concerns about government oversight and the potential defrauding of foreign investors.

Asia Real Property Co, Ltd – a firm with offices on Norodom Boulevard – identifies itself in promotional material as a subsidiary of an international real estate consultancy known as “ARP-OITC Group Co Ltd (Cambodia)”.

OITC is short for the “Office of International Treasury Control”, a group that has been implicated in a series of bizarre scandals from Ecuador to Fiji while making grandiose claims about its links to the United Nations and the United States government.

In addition to real estate consulting, ARP-OITC offers “bank instruments”, including high-limit lines of credit, to foreign partners, ARP-OITC executive managing director Soush Saroeun said in an interview this month. He said the company was working on three joint-ventures in Cambodia with companies from Vietnam, Canada and France.

“Though not generally or publicly known, OITC is the largest International Institution of its kind,” the organisation says in a brochure.
It claims to be “the largest single owner of gold and platinum bullion in the World” and “the largest single owner of Home Mortgage Securities in the World today”.

The OITC’s website is adorned with UN logos, and the group claims to have been granted “Sovereign Entity Status under the United Nations Charter Control No: 10-60847”. OITC assets are given “full International Protection and Immunity under Full Jacket Security Level 3-5 … under the Great Seal of America (No: 632-258894) on behalf of the International Community”, the site says.

“Ask the US embassy – they know me very well,” Soush Sarouen said.
UN and United States embassy representatives in Phnom Penh said, however, that they had no knowledge of the organisation. “After speaking with the UN headquarters we can confirm this group is not affiliated with the UN,” Ben Pursell, a spokesman for the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Cambodia, said. “Also, UN ‘charter control numbers’ do not exist.”

“The United Nations Office of Legal Affairs advises not to interact [with] such entities.”

Although ARP-OITC chairman Ray C Dam is touted in promotional material as an “economic adviser” to US presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush, a spokesman at the US embassy in Phnom Penh said the embassy had “no information about [Ray C Dam’s]
background nor have seen any evidence of a connection” to the US government.

“It’s fanciful on so many levels that it’s almost humorous,” said Stephen Higgins, CEO of ANZ Royal Bank, who has reviewed ARP-OITC documents.
“Cambodia does not want to be associated with these kinds of scams.”

OITC worldwide

“The truth about OITC is very difficult for the common person to understand as they then need to understand many other issues,” Keith Scott, an Australian who identifies himself as OITC’s “Chief of Council of the Cabinet”, said in an email.

Scott declined to disclose his own whereabouts or those of OITC chairman Ray C Dam.

“In the past, [with] small-town reporters such as in Phnom Penh, we find reporters make up what they do not understand, and it all becomes total nonsense,” he said.

Indeed, it appears many have found the work of the OITC inscrutable.

The firm made an abortive US$5 billion bid for the British car company MG Rover in 2005, the Financial Times reported, puzzling accountants by issuing a down payment of 1 pound in the form of a postal order.

Later that year, the OITC surfaced in Ecuador, where its representatives reportedly offered $150 million in long-term credit to the small municipality of Oña for infrastructure projects in exchange for a $20,000 deposit paid by Oña mayor Germania Ullauri into a Malaysian bank account.

This line of credit never materialised, however, and in April 2006, Ullauri filed a lawsuit accusing Ray C Dam and two Ecuadorian associates of fraud, Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper reported.

Keith Scott surfaced in Fiji in March of 2006, where he reportedly offered $6 billion to be used toward the creation of a bank for local landowners.
Fijian police commissioner Andrew Hughes later said he was “profoundly suspicious” of the OITC’s offer; Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said “no one in their right mind” would inject so much money into such a small economy, the Fiji Times reported.

Keo Vanthan, the director of Interpol in Cambodia, said he had no information on Scott or the OITC.

Inroads in the Kingdom

Scott and his associates took an increasingly hostile tack with journalists in Fiji, with OITC Fiji agent Masi Kaumaitotoya warning at a news conference that media outlets who criticised the organisation could face legal action.

“Reporters, I give you a warning. Don’t you ever, ever, ever again report negatively on OITC or we’ll sue you for defamation,” Kaumaitotoya said, according to the Fiji Times.

The group has continued its litigious ways in Cambodia, filing a disinformation complaint against a journalist from the Cambodia Television Network in Banteay Meanchey province following his reporting on a local land dispute.

The journalist, Lay Li, was summoned to appear in court earlier this month in connection with his reporting on the dispute allegedly between the OITC’s Ray C Dam and Lay Saran, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces deputy commander in Phnom Srok district.

Soush Sarouen declined to provide contact information for Ray C Dam, and described his location as “around the world”. Phone calls to a number listed in ARP-OITC’s promotional materials for Ray C Dam’s office in Washington were not answered.

Soush Saroeun said CTN had “looked down on” his organisation with its coverage of the dispute in Banteay Meanchey, which centres on 7 hectares of farmland claimed by both Lay Saran and Ray C Dam.

Aside from the land in Banteay Meanchey, Soush Saroeun said ARP-OITC did not have real estate interests of its own in Cambodia, and had instead provided “bank instruments” and consulting on property and land concessions to foreign companies.

“I have many connections with the high officials to do this,” he said.

But Mao Pao, the deputy chief of the real estate division at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said ARP-OITC did not have a licence from the government to work in the property sector.

He said the finance ministry had contacted the company last month and told it that it needed to apply for the licence or face sanctions.

Earlier this month, Mao Pao said, the “director” of ARP-OITC had come to the Ministry of Economy and Finance to say that the company had not operated in the property sector since last year due to the global economic crisis.

“We want them to write an official letter to confirm that they’ve stopped their operations, but until now, we have not received a letter or any information yet,” Mao Pao said. “They have no licence to operate in the real estate sector in Cambodia.”

Soush Sarouen said it was “our plan” to get a licence from the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the future.

ARP-OITC also offers “credit facilities” and “loan assessment”, according to its promotional material, services that may also bring it under the authority of the National Bank of Cambodia.

NBC director general Tal Nay Im said she was unfamiliar with ARP-OITC, but that any company offering loans or credit needed a licence from the national bank.

ARP-OITC was not registered with the NBC as of last month.

In an interview earlier this month at his offices – which were home to a receptionist, two other staff members and modern computers and office equipment – Soush Saroeun offered only vague outlines of his company’s joint ventures in Cambodia.

The project with the Canadian company, he said, involved the construction of “local housing”, while the French company is working on “a movie in the US for Hollywood”.

The Vietnamese firm, Bao Phu Gia Company, plans to work as an importer, Soush Saroeun said. According to a copy of the contract between Bao Phu Gia and ARP-OITC, ARP-OITC has guaranteed $100 million in funding via HSBC Bank in exchange for a $200,000 payment from Bao Phu Gia for “bank-mobilisation fees”.

HSBC spokesman Gareth Hewett said in an email that the bank “tend[s] not to comment on these things”.

As proof of his firm’s connection with the global finance giant, Soush Saroeun offered a document dated December 29, 2009 and littered with spelling and grammatical errors that was signed by HSBC Group Finance Director “Dr David J Flint”.

As of December 2009, HSBC’s Group Finance Director was Douglas Flint.

ANZ’s Stephen Higgins called the contract “clearly a fraud”, and said it was “damaging to Cambodia’s image to have operations such as this in Phnom Penh”.

“Clearly, they’ve managed to fool people with this scam,” he said. “It’s so laughable, but you get enough people falling for it that people make money off it.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SOEUN SAY AND CHHAY CHANNYDA

From The Phnom Penh Post

Offices of the Ministry of Cults and Religions have been transferred to local investment company Pheapimex in a property deal that some observers say is an example of the malfeasance that characterises the Kingdom’s public land management.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials from the Ministry of Cults and Religions’ National Committee for Organising National and International Festivals said they had received a letter from Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) lawyer Khiev Sepphan dated last Friday that asked them to vacate their offices on Sisowath Quay by the end of the month.

“If you do not follow this notification, the lawyer will make a report to the CPP office to pursue further measures,” read the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Post.
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Well well well. Where do I begin? That title probably has all the avid readers (all two of you) intrigued…..but before I jump into that fiasco, i’ll back track a bit on what we’ve been doing since the last entry.
We spent out last day in Bangkok in the Siam square district, shopping and revelling in the chaos of Bangkok. We found a gourmet food supermarket which was, as you may guess, Daryns idea of heaven so we spent alot of money getting heaps of tasty bits and pieces for a picnic..it was sooo good.
We went out for a few drinks on our last night in Bangkok and Daryn played numerous games of pool with a lovely Thai man and no, he did not lose anymore money. I went home before him but must have been sleeping too deeply as when he came home and tried to get me to wake up I ‘didn’t hear a thing, so he spent the night sleeping downstairs on the couch - I think much to the amusement of the guest house staff.
Bangkok was really good fun this time around, and Daryn really enjoyed his first experience of this part of the world. It is crazy and hectic but touristy enough to ease you into your trip slowly.

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This happened to me before Pchum Ben. I was tending to the Russian Market shop as all Bloomers were off to the provinces to see their families during this important festival. I was about to shut it when a Khmer woman entered the shop. In hindsight, I should have been more alert. All the signs were there: She wore a hat which she didn’t remove, she didn’t look at me, and she spoke in a very small voice. Not that she was shy—far from it. When it was clear that I hadn’t a clue that she was about to scam me, she became confident and even demanding at the end.
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I have decided to write about the scam volunteer project after enough customers have told me about their bad experiences. The last one was a young woman in her early 20s from Canada who paid, get this, USD6000 (!) for a 6 weeks volunteer programme with an organisation here in Siem Reap.

[I want to name names but I am afraid of being murdered. It’s not a joke. You can hire a hit man for USD100 (or so I was told, I did not enquire personally!) and when you are in the way of thousands of dollars, you can bet that it makes financial sense for a crook to pay a hundred bucks to get you out of the way.]

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Can volunteer scams get any worse than this? A day after I wrote about the bad experiences of travellers who come to this country to help Cambodians, another young woman told me about her encounters.

This young lady has been working 14 hours a day helping this orphanage, run by a Cambodian man, whose entire family lives at the orphanage. The first time we met she gushed about the orphanage. I was sceptical, and asked her if she knew the orphanage was legit, but she seemed so sure. She said the main reason she was impressed was that the kids looked well-fed and happy.

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