Thread: Cambodia : "Who Killed Chea Vichea?,"

Cambodia vs. 'Chea'
DAVE MCNARY
Sat Jun 5, 2010

Director claims gov is preventing screenings of pic


Who Killed Chea Vichea?

The director of "Who Killed Chea Vichea?," a documentary about the 2004 slaying of the Cambodian union leader, is asserting that the Cambodian government has banned screenings of the film.U.S. helmer Bradley Cox says the government has been preventing showings of his film for the past month in the first banning of a politically charged film since the 1980s.

The movie screened at the recently wrapped Cannes market and has been playing the festival circuit for the past two years. It's been named to Amnesty Intl.'s Top Ten Movies That Matter list.

Cox says trade unionists attempted to hold the film's Cambodian premiere at the location where Vichea was killed but police raided the scene, leading to a declaration by the Cambodian government that the pic is an illegal import.

The movie makes the case that the government was allegedly complicit in the slaying and that police framed two innocent men for the killing.

"It's not surprising that the government would quickly move to suppress the film," Cox tells Variety. "Chea Vichea was a hero to many because he dared to speak up for the little guy. In a country run on fear, this is a rare thing and in the end, Vichea payed the price for it."

Doc was produced by Rich Garella and Jeffrey Sanders.

Garella lived in Cambodia for most of 1995-2003, was managing editor of the Cambodia Daily and later worked as press secretary for Cambodia's main opposition party.

variety.com

The show must go on
Meas Sokchea
Monday, 15 November 2010

A Union activist has announced he will screen a controversial film at the city’s new Freedom Park at 5:30pm tomorrow, whether or not officials give their permission for the film to be shown publicly.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said he wrote to Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema yesterday requesting permission to screen Who Killed Chea Vichea?, a 2009 film exploring the murder of the union activist.

“This film screening is intended for workers, teachers and people who can be aware of who killed Chea Vichea,” Rong Chhun said in the letter.
“It is also a reminder to the authorities to accelerate the investigation of this case to provide justice for Mr Chea Vichea.”

Chea Vichea, the former head of the Free Trade Union, was gunned down outside Phnom Penh’s Wat Lanka in 2004.

Though two men were arrested in connection with the killing, they were released in 2009 and rights activists have been urging the government to track down those responsible.

Kep Chuktema declined to comment yesterday, but Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said Rong Chhun would only have the right to screen the film if he received permission from the authorities.

According to the Law on Peaceful Demonstrations, protests can only be held at the Freedom Park with 12 hours’ advance notice and are capped at 200 persons.

He said Who Killed Chea Vichea?, a film directed by American Bradley Cox, was produced without permission from the relevant institutions. Since it was illegal, he said, it could not be screened publicly, and could only be shown privately.

“It is still a forbidden film. There is no public spot for him to screen it. If he wants to screen it, he can go and try. He has tried that already,” Khieu Sopheak said.
Previous attempts to screen the film in May were stymied by authorities.

Rong Chhun said that if the government refuses him permission to show the film, they should abolish the newly created Freedom Park, which the city has promoted as an arena for free expression.

“Otherwise, the Freedom Park was just created to deceive national and international opinion,” he added.

Chea Mony, Chea Vichea’s brother and the current FTU president, urged the government to shine a light on the murder of his brother, saying that banning the film would only perpetuate the culture of “impunity” in Cambodia.

But Kong Kannara, under secretary of state of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said the film was produced without a licence and that the authorities would take action to stop the screening.

“If it is illegal, they have the right to block it,” Kong Kannara said.

phnompenhpost.com

Police break up film screening
Meas Sokchea
Wednesday, 17 November 2010


Union leader Rong Chhun reads a letter from Municipal Hall, rejecting his request to screen the controversial documentary Who Killed Chea Vichea?.
Photo Supplied

About 50 police were deployed at the city’s new “Freedom Park” on Wednesday evening to block the screening of a controversial film exploring the shooting of a trade unionist. Rong Chhun, the head of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, asked for permission to screen the film at 5:30pm, but the plan was stymied by a strong police presence.

Before the planned screening, Daun Penh district officials gave Rong Chhun a letter from Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema, claiming the film could not be shown because it was illegal.

“Phnom Penh municipal hall has told you that the screening of the film Who Killed Chea Vichea? cannot possibly be shown unless there is permission from the relevant ministries,” the letter read.

“For this case, Phnom Penh municipal hall does not provide permission.”
Who Killed Chea Vichea?, a 2009 film directed by American Bradley Cox, explores the gunning down of former Free Trade Union leader Chea Vichea outside Wat Lanka in 2004.

Although two men were arrested in connection with Chea Vichea’s killing, they were released in 2009 and rights activists have been urging the government to track down those responsible.

After the screening was halted, Rong Chhun said that if the government does not allow people free expression at the new “Freedom Park”, it would be better to turn the paved area into a “grass field”.

phnompenhpost.com

City restricts union march
Meas Sokchea
Thursday, 20 January 2011


Unionists march in 2009 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the killing of union leader Chea Vichea.
Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Phnom Penh municipal authorities have granted permission for unionists to hold a march through the city in memory of slain unionist Chea Vichea, though they have imposed restrictions on where and how the group can assemble.

In a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, Koeut Chhe, deputy chief of the municipal cabinet, said 250 members of the Free Trade Union would be permitted to participate in the march, but that they would not be permitted to carry banners make public statements.

According to a report of the meeting obtained today, Koeut Chhe also said the march would be barred from passing Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house near Independence Monument, and warned that the ceremony must not be used as a platform for FTU members to make political statements.

“If the participants do not respect the above conditions, the permit holder must be completely responsible before the law,” the report quoted Koeut Chhe as saying.

Unionists march each year to mark the gunning down of former FTU president Chea Vichea on January 22, 2004, at a newspaper stand near Phnom Penh’s Wat Lanka.

Though two men were arrested in connection with Chea Vichea’s killing, they were released in 2009 and rights activists have urged the government to track down those responsible.

Authorities have also moved to break up several planned screenings of Who Killed Chea Vichea?, a 2009 film directed by American Bradley Cox which explores the unionist’s killing.

According to the Kingdom’s law on Peaceful Demonstrations, passed in October 2009, public protests are restricted to crowds of fewer than 200 people and require at least three representatives to register their identification cards with local authorities at least five days prior to the protest.

Demonstrations are also banned after dark.

Koeut Chhe could not be reached for comment today.

But Chea Vichea’s brother and current FTU President Chea Mony strongly criticised the city’s preconditions.

He said that the FTU wrote to the authorities on January 10 not to ask permission, but only to inform them that the celebration would take place, describing the restrictions as an impingement on the freedom of assembly.
“The government has always restricted democrats. We are not killers,” he said. “If they do not allow the parade, I’ll still do it.”

Chea Mony also called upon politicians from other parties to participate in the ceremony.

He declared that if Prime Minister Hun Sen wanted them to avoid his villa, he should make the demand himself.

Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha said he planned to inform members of his party to join with the FTU during the march.

He added that the authorities’ restrictions were evidence that they were ill-prepared to provide security for the people.

“The right to freedom of expression cannot be banned except when [people] use violence and incitement,” he said.

“If the government refuses to allow the FTU to make statements, it appears to be seriously restricting the rights of the people.”

phnompenhpost.com

Union leaders and garment workers attempting to view a controversial documentary today on the murder of labour leader Chea Vichea were thwarted when the owner of the local restaurant where they had gathered cut the electricity in the building.

Union film blocked again | National news | The Phnom Penh Post - Cambodia's Newspaper of Record

youtube.com

Hun Sen warning on Labour Day events
Mom Kunthear
Friday, 29 April 2011

Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned workers and unions not to organise activities that would affect “public order and society” on International Labour Day this Sunday, according to a statement received by The Post yesterday.

The document, signed by Hun Sen and dated April 12, warned union members and workers that they should avoid controversial labour activities during the annual holiday.

“Please take this day to organise events for culture, art and entertainment … and avoid doing activity that can be affected to the public order and society,” the statement read.

Hun Sen also participated in an International Labour Day celebration at Koh Pich Convention and Exhibition Centre in Phnom Penh yesterday, an event that was closed to the press.

Vong Sovann, president of Cambodian Confederation of Trade Unions, said yesterday that the premier struck an enthusiastic tone at the celebration, attended by more than 2,000 workers, union members and students.

“Hun Sen encouraged workers by asking their employers to create a happy entertainment on Labour Day,” he said, adding that the premier said he admired garment factories that organised parties and events for workers. Von Sovann added that the premier also urged workers to find solutions to disputes through official lines.

“Workers have to find a resolution [to problems] through the Ministry of Labour’s Arbitration Council,” Vong Sovann quoted him as saying.

International Labour Day is set to see thousands of workers hit the streets of the capital. The Cambodian Labour Confederation has sent a permission letter sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Hall last week to allow up to 3,000 people to parade through the capital on Sunday. CLC president Ath Thorn asked to use Preah Sisowath for the event, according to the letter.

Sar Mora, president of the Cambodian Food Service Workers Federation, said yesterday that they had received a response letter from City Hall inviting them to discuss the request in a meeting later today.

“I don’t know yet whether they allow us to do it or not,” he said.

Last year, controversy hit Labour Day when police tried to ban a screening of a documentary about slain labour leader Chea Vichea, forcibly removing projector screens set up by organisers outside Wat Lanka in central Phnom Penh.

The film, called Who Killed Chea Vichea?, is set to be screened at Sam Rainsy Party headquarters this Sunday.

phnompenhpost.com

Cambodia Erects Statue of Slain Labor Organizer
Reported by Morm Moniroth for RFA’s Khmer Service.
Translated by Samean Yun.
Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
2013-05-03


Chea Vichea's statue in Phnom Penh after its unveiling on May, 3, 2012.
RFA

Cambodia unveiled the statue of a slain popular labor union leader on Friday, nearly a decade after his assassination, in a rare show of recognition to a government critic.

Chea Vichea, founder of the Free Trade Union, was gunned down in broad daylight in the capital Phnom Penh in 2004, in a case seen as a symbol of the country’s culture of impunity.

Rights groups say his real killers remain at large although two people have been convicted over the murder.

His 2-meter (7-foot) stone statue, in a public garden near the newspaper stand where he was shot, was built and designed by the city government after receiving green light from Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has constantly been accused by human rights groups of various abuses.

Chea Mony, who succeeded Chea Vichea as head of the umbrella trade union group, said the government paid U.S. $5,000 for the statue, which reports say cost U.S. $8,000. The remaining sum came from workers’ contributions.

But Chea Mony said the status in honor of his brother did not mean that justice had been served over the murder, calling on the government to bring those behind the killing to justice.

“I constantly dream of learning who the real killers and those behind the killing are,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Chea Vichea was not a traitor, but they killed him.”

Case 'closed'

Rights groups say the two men jailed over Chea Vichea's murder, who were arrested following an investigation plagued by irregularities, are scapegoats for the true killers.

Chea Vichea, who had close affiliations with an opposition party, was an outspoken campaigner for workers in the country’s lucrative garment industry, which has been at the heart of labor disputes and media scandals over low wages and conditions.

The statue depicts Chea Vichea with one hand raised and the other holding a microphone, as he would have done when leading a labor demonstration.

In December last year, an appeals court upheld the 20-year jail sentences imposed by a lower court on the two men, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, who have alleged they were framed by the police.

Ministry of the Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak said Friday that the ministry’s own investigation was closed since the Phnom Penh court had handed over its verdict.

“We won’t have any more investigation on this because the court accepted the two suspects,” he told RFA, saying the ministry would reinvestigate the case only if there were a request from the court.

“The judge has that power according to the law,” he said.

rfa.org

Cambodia Acquits Two Jailed for Labor Leader’s Murder
Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service.
Translated by Samean Yun.
Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
2013-09-25


Born Samnang (2nd R) and Sok Sam Oeun (R) are escorted by prison guards to the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh, Sept. 25, 2013.
RFA

Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted two men it said were wrongly convicted of the 2004 murder of outspoken labor leader and opposition supporter Chea Vichea, in a move widely welcomed by the country’s civil society organizations and the international community.

But the decision immediately led to calls from rights groups and Chea Vichea’s family for a reinvestigation of the case and to bring the true killers to justice.

Presiding Judge Khem Pon ordered the release of Sok Sam Oeun and Born Samnang—two men seen by rights groups as “scapegoats” for the crime—following a five-hour hearing at the nation’s top court in Phnom Penh, saying the evidence against them was lacking.

“The evidence provided by the police contradicted the testimony of the witnesses and the court has not provided any new evidence linking the pair with the crime,” Khem Pon said in his verdict, prompting cheers from supporters and shouts of thanks from the two men to the panel of nine court judges.

Sok Sam Oeun told reporters after the trial that the acquittal had given him hope in the country’s judicial system.

“There is justice in Cambodia today, now that the court has released me,” he said.

Sok Sam Oeun's lawyer Hong Kim Soun applauded Wednesday’s “just verdict” but blamed the authorities who had arrested his client and the Phnom Penh court that jailed him for six years. He said he would discuss with Sok Sam Oeun the possibility of pursuing lawsuits against the authorities.

Labor leader killed

Chea Vichea, the former president of Cambodia’s Free Trade Union (FTU)—one of the biggest unions in the country—was shot to death on Jan. 22, 2004 by an unknown assailant while he read a newspaper at a stand in Phnom Penh.

Sok Sam Oeun and Born Samnang were arrested within days and were each handed 20-year jail sentences in a 2005 trial decried by rights groups as unjust. The two men maintained that they had been framed by the police.

In 2008, the Supreme Court ordered a reinvestigation that led to their release on bail from 2009-2012, but they were ordered jailed again when the Appeal Court upheld the original sentence.

The two men had each spent nearly five years in prison for the crime before Wednesday’s verdict.

Chea Vichea founded the FTU along with president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party Sam Rainsy and had tirelessly campaigned on behalf of Cambodia’s garment workers.

Rights groups have said that his murder highlights a culture of impunity in Cambodia, where a number of members of the media, rights campaigners, and opposition leaders have been targeted for assassination, though the perpetrators have never been found.


Cambodians observe the fourth anniversary of the death of Chea Vichea in Phnom Penh, Jan. 22, 2008.
Credit: AFP
Verdict welcomed

The Supreme Court decision was welcomed by the FTU’s current president, the brother of Chea Vichea, Chea Mony, though he said that he and his family would not rest until the killers were made to pay for their crime.

“We have not received justice because the court has not yet sentenced the true perpetrators,” he said.

Local rights groups Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), and Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) also applauded the court verdict in a joint statement issued Wednesday.

“It has been clear from the outset that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun were scapegoats in this case,” the statement said, noting that while the two men had not been granted compensation for the years they spent in prison, the atmosphere in the courtroom following the decision was “jubilant.”

“However, although today’s decision represents a victory of sorts for the two accused, justice for Chea Vichea remains elusive. His real killers remain at large, and the Cambodian authorities must reinvestigate the case in order to demonstrate that impunity does not reign in Cambodia.”

Judicial ‘deficiencies’

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Labour Office (ILO) said in a statement that the decision showed that the court had identified “deficiencies” in the way police handled the case.

“While the ILO ... and the OHCHR welcome the acquittal and imminent release of the two men, they recall the emphasis placed by international supervisory bodies on the needs for a full investigation into the murder of Chea Vichea in order to ensure that the real perpetrators are prosecuted, tried and punished,” the statement said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s trial, New York-based Human Rights Watch had called on Cambodia’s government to drop its case against the two men, with Asia director Brad Adams noting that the country’s judicial officials had acknowledged to his organization that their “conviction was the result of a high-level political decision, contrary to the facts of the case and applicable law.”

He said the case would be a test of whether the country’s courts will “continue to be a political tool of Prime Minister Hun Sen.”

rfa.org

Deportation, Jail Threatened if Film Screened
Denise Hruby
January 24, 2014

The public screening Friday of a banned documentary film that implicates the government in the 2004 assassination of prominent union leader Chea Vichea has had to change venues because the man renting out the original location, Meta House director Nicolaus Mesterharm, would not allow the viewing.

The tussle over the showing of the award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary comes amid a threat by a government spokesman on Thursday that any attempt to screen the film will be met with the summary deportation of foreign nationals involved, and the imprisonment of Cambodians.

“If you defy the ban, we kick you out,” Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said.

“If you are Cambodian, we throw you in jail,” he said.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) had planned to show the film, “Who Killed Chea Vichea?” at the offices of Sithi Hub, a meeting space for bloggers and activists.

Sithi Hub is located in a villa that previously housed Meta House, an arts and media center that focuses on film screenings and was established by German filmmaker Mr. Mesterharm—who sublets the building to Sithi Hub.

When Mr. Mesterharm found out about the planned screening of the Chea Vichea film, he refused to allow it proceed, said Ramana Sorn, project coordinator for CCHR’s Freedom of Expression Project.

“We changed the location because we had some problem with the location at Sithi Hub,” she said.

Ms. Sorn said the “problem” with the screening was Mr. Mesterharm.

“[The rental contract] should have been clear before renting the house…. Our contract only says that we can use the space for Sithi Hub,” not for public screenings, Ms. Sorn said.

Mr. Mesterharm told CCHR that they could not screen the film at Sithi Hub in an email on Wednesday.

“I hereby like to inform you that this [screening] won’t be possible because of an existing ban” on the film by the government, Mr. Mesterharm wrote.

Mr. Mesterharm defended his decision saying that he had not banned the film, the government had.

“It is forbidden because the movie is forbidden,” he said. “I have only made him [the film’s producer, Rich Garella] aware that it is forbidden.”

The film is now scheduled to be screed today at CCHR’s headquarters in Chamkar Mon district at 5 p.m. in Khmer and again at 7 p.m. in English.

Bradley Cox, who directed the film, said the government had used many excuses to prevent the screening of his investigation into the assassination of Chea Vichea, who was killed 10 years ago Thursday.

“The government has given us excuses in the past, for example that we had no proper permit or no import license…. There was a myriad of reasons why it can’t be shown but that seems to only apply to our movie and not any others,” he said from Bangkok.

Mr. Siphan confirmed that the documentary, released in 2007, was still banned.

He said the government was concerned that the film, widely available on YouTube, would influence public opinion.

cambodiadaily.com

Originally Posted by Mid

He said the government was concerned that the film, widely available on YouTube, would influence public opinion.

Sounds very much like the leaders in Cambodia will return to burning books again shortly