A relative of the political opposition figure Kem Ley being comforted Sunday at the gas station in Phnom Penh where Mr. Kem Ley was shot and killed. Credit Samrang Pring/Reuters

Cambodian Opposition Figure’s Killing Recalls Darker Times

International New York Times | 10 July 2016

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A prominent Cambodian political commentator who had recently helped found a new independent political party was gunned down at a gas station in central Phnom Penh on Sunday morning in what analysts called a major setback for democracy and freedom of expression in the country.

The commentator, Kem Ley, 46, had stopped in for his morning coffee at the station’s convenience store when he was shot and killed by a man who then fled on foot, according to the police.

Gen. Kirth Chantharith, a spokesman for the Cambodian National Police, said he had received a report that Kem Ley was shot multiple times through the chest shortly before 9 a.m.

“The offender was arrested and is being interrogated,” he said, adding that the man had identified himself as Chuob Samlab, an unlikely name that translates as “Meet Kill” in the Khmer language.

“He said he was cheated by Kem Ley to the amount of 3,000 U.S. dollars,” Mr. Kirth Chantharith said. “However, the police do not believe him. They still continue the investigation.”

The police said in a statement that the suspect, 38, was from a rural area along Cambodia’s western border and that he had migrated to Thailand to work on a plantation. A leaked video of his confession to the police that circulated on social media showed him with blood streaked across his face as he explained that he had bought a pistol in Thailand with the intention of killing Kem Ley because he was owed $3,000.

With its brazenness and high-profile target, the killing seemed to hark back to an era of political violence in Cambodia that many had hoped was over.

The leading Cambodian opposition figure, Sam Rainsy, called the killing an “assassination” and an “act of state terrorism” on Facebook.

Public assassinations of opposition figures and union leaders occurred with chilling regularity throughout the 1990s and mid-2000s, but began to taper off about a decade ago as the country’s long-ruling authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen, managed to best or buy off his rivals and consolidate much of the country’s political power.

However, Mr. Hun Sen is now grappling with the most serious challenge to his authority in years. Fueled by the rise of a younger generation of voters who are more educated and better informed than their parents, as well as increasing frustration with widespread corruption and sclerotic government institutions, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party nearly ran away with the 2013 election.

The prime minister and his Cambodian People’s Party have responded with a months long crackdown on protesters and dissenting voices in which many government critics have been jailed or face lawsuits. The National Rescue Party has been paralyzed as its two top leaders have both been hit in recent months with court cases that could put them in jail for years, prompting one leader, Mr. Sam Rainsy, to flee to exile in Paris, while another has been hiding out in the party’s offices for the past six weeks.

Kem Ley had recently helped found a new political party in Cambodia. Credit Heng Sinith/Associated Press

Mr. Hun Sen condemned the killing in a statement on Facebook and called for greater security. “I would like to express my condolences for the death of Mr. Kem Ley, who was cruelly gunned down by a gunman. I would like to condemn such a cruel action,” he said.

Mr. Kem Ley was already a well-known commentator in 2014 when he announced that he was fed up with the country’s political scene, which he called stagnant and elitist. He founded a political action network that he hoped would create new leaders and tackle issues important to farmers that go untouched by both major parties.

Last year, his Khmer for Khmer network registered the Grassroots Democracy Party and announced that it would field candidates for local elections in 2017.

In the days before his death, Mr. Kem Ley had spoken out about a recent report about the vast wealth accumulated by the family of Mr. Hun Sen, as well as use of the courts as a political tool against the opposition party.

Ou Virak, the head of Future Forum, a local think tank, said Mr. Kem Ley had a remarkable ability to communicate political ideas to diverse audiences.

“He was a great communicator,” he said. “He could simplify complicated ideas into the language of the people. He was straightforward, often able to narrate stories to make his point interesting and to get the message across to ordinary Cambodians.’’

Mr. Ou Virak, who was recently sued by Mr. Hun Sen’s party for making statements critical of the government, said the killing would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Cambodia, making him and other government critics fear for their safety as they had in the past.

“It’s only recently that the new, post-Khmer Rouge generations are starting to find their voice and starting to express themselves, mainly through Facebook,” he said. “The killing of someone as prominent as him will likely set that back a couple of years. Personally, I am currently still in shock.”

An angry and grieving crowd of hundreds gathered on Sunday at the gas station where Mr. Kem Ley was shot, bearing incense sticks and white flowers to pay their respects.

Monks and other mourners bedecked Mr. Kem Ley’s car — still parked where he had left it outside the gas station — with flowers and incense, and unfurled a hastily scrawled sign across the windshield reading, “In a dictatorship, the speaker of truth is murdered.”

“We must find justice for him!” shouted a woman in the crowd as it pressed forward in an effort to break through a police line and enter the gas station’s convenience store, where Mr. Kem Ley’s body still lay in a pool of blood.

Yang Sokhy, a 37-year-old motorcycle-taxi driver, had arrived at the scene with a packet of incense, hoping to be allowed to light a stick and pray over Mr. Kem Ley’s body.

“I’m just a citizen who liked him, his fan, because he spoke the truth about what is happening in our society,” Mr. Yang Sokhy said. “In our country, it’s always like this. All people who dare to speak out meet this ending.”