VI. Hun Sen and the Grenade Attack on an Opposition Party Rally, March 30, 1997
By 1997 the CPP-FUNCINPEC coalition government was falling
apart. Armed clashes between soldiers and security officials from each party
broke out in Battambang province in February.
At this time, Sam Rainsy was emerging as a serious threat to
CPP success at elections scheduled for 1998. Since the killing of an opposition
journalist in May 1996, Rainsy, who had been minister of finance until his
dismissal in 1994 by Co-Prime Ministers Prince Ranariddh and Hun Sen for
demanding the acceleration of reforms, had begun staging regular protests over
labor rights, corruption, illegal logging, the environment, and the lack of
political pluralism. The creation of Cambodia’s first independent labor
unions in January 1997 had led to many strikes and demonstrations. Rainsy attended
many of them, and each was met with a heavy police presence that raised
tensions.
On Sunday, March 30, 1997, approximately 200 anti-government
demonstrators arrived at a park across the street from the Royal Palace and the
National Assembly after a 10-minute march. They carried banners with slogans in
Khmer and English such as “Down with the Communist Judiciary” and
“Stop the Theft of State Assets.” Rainsy was present at the rally.
The UN human rights office in Phnom Penh considered the
rally on March 30 to be so innocuous that for the first time it sent no one to
monitor it. Yet this demonstration made history for two reasons: it was the
first post-UNTAC demonstration formally approved by the Ministry of Interior,
and it ended in grenades and carnage. When the grenade-throwing was over, at
least 16 people lay dead and dying. More than 150 were injured.
The main target, Sam Rainsy, survived the attack. After the
first grenade exploded, Rainsy’s bodyguard, Han Muny, threw himself on top
of his leader. He took the full force of a subsequent grenade and died at the
scene. Rainsy escaped with a minor leg injury. Body parts of other victims
littered the area, and the grisly photos of the dying against the backdrop of
the Royal Palace landed the story on the front pages of newspapers around the
world and as the lead story on CNN. One photo shows a teenage girl with her
legs blown off trying to stand up. Cambodian police present not only did not
help the injured, but some tried to block bystanders from assisting victims.
The attack was well-planned. Members of the personal
bodyguard unit of Hun Sen, Brigade 70, were deployed in full riot gear at the
rally. The rally was the first time Brigade 70 has been deployed at a
demonstration. The elite military unit not only failed to prevent the attack,
but was seen by numerous witnesses opening up its lines to allow the
grenade-throwers to escape through a CPP-controlled area of Phnom Penh, and
then threatened to shoot people trying to pursue the attackers. The police,
which had previously maintained a high-profile presence at opposition
demonstrations in an effort to discourage public participation, had an
unusually low profile on this day, grouped around the corner from the park.
Other police units, however, were in a nearby police station in full riot gear
on high alert.
In a speech on the afternoon of the attack, Hun Sen
suggested that the leadership of the KNP might have organized the attack to put
the blame on the CPP. Instead of launching a serious investigation, he called
for the arrest of Sam Rainsy. However, facing resistance in the CPP and an
onslaught of domestic and international outrage, he dropped the plan.
The FBI undertook an investigation into the grenade attack
because a US citizen, Ron Abney, was among those wounded. The FBI concluded
that Cambodian government officials were responsible for the attack, but the
chief investigator, Thomas Nicoletti, was ordered out of the country by US
officials before he could complete his investigation.[165]
On June 29, 1997, the Washington Post reported:
In a classified report that could pose some awkward problems for US policymakers, the FBI tentatively has pinned responsibility for the blasts, and the subsequent interference, on personal bodyguard forces employed by Hun Sen, one of Cambodia’s two prime ministers, according to four US government sources familiar with its contents. The preliminary report was based on a two-month investigation by FBI agents sent here under a federal law giving the bureau jurisdiction whenever a US citizen is injured by terrorism.... The bureau says its investigation is continuing, but the agents involved reportedly have complained that additional informants here are too frightened to come forward.[166]
While the investigation uncovered a great deal of evidence,
as did investigations by the UN human rights office, the Cambodian authorities
failed to cooperate. On January 9, 2000, CIA director George Tenet said the
United States would never forget an act of terrorism against its citizens and
would bring those responsible to justice “no matter how long it
takes.” Yet the FBI investigation was abandoned and formally closed in
2005.
Rather than identifying and prosecuting the people who
ordered and carried out the grenade attack, the Cambodian government has since
handed out high-level promotions to two people linked by the FBI to the attack.
The commander of Brigade 70 at the time, Huy Piseth, who admitted ordering the
deployment of Brigade 70 forces to the scene that day, was later promoted to be
a lieutenant general and undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Defense.
Hing Bun Heang, deputy commander of Brigade 70 at the time, was promoted to
deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in January 2009. In
a June 1997 interview with the Phnom Penh Post, Bun Heang threatened to
kill journalists who alleged that Hun Sen’s bodyguards were involved.
“Why do they accuse us without any basic evidence? We are innocent
people, we were not involved in that attack. Publish this: 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.”[167]
The March 30 grenade attack has cast a long shadow over
Cambodian politics that remains today. The attack appears to have been intended
to destroy the political opposition in Cambodia. It signaled that pluralism
would be opposed by powerful people and would come at a deadly price. The
attack on Sam Rainsy and his supporters remains an open wound in Cambodia, but
neither the government nor Cambodia's donors have done anything to hold those
responsible to account. The clear involvement of Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit
in the attack and the perpetual failure to address this crime has led some to
refer to March 30 as “Impunity Day” in Cambodia.
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