Cambodian Opposition Leader Mu Sochua Will Not Withdraw Her Defamation Suit Against Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen

Politics can have a two-faced approach in The Kingdom of Cambodia.

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

In an article written by Neth Pheaktra that appeared in the May 15th, 2009 online edition of The Phnom Penh Post, opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmaker Mu Sochua maintained that she would not withdraw her defamation suit against Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Further, she urged the Cambodian Bar Association to act objectively in its investigation of her lawyer for misconduct, saying that she feared no one else would represent her if the organization banned him from practicing law.

"If Kong Sam Onn is disbarred, I don't know who I have confidence in and who would dare defend me in court," Mu Sochua said, referring to her lawyer, who is the subject of a complaint from Hun Sen's own counsel and former Bar Association president Ky Tech.

"Ky Tech made many comments about me that could be seen as an attempt to exert influence on the court. The Bar must show its independence.... This case is not about Mu Sochua; it is about justice," Mu Sochua said. "I do not intend to withdraw my case from the court. Please rest assured that I intend to go all the way," she said.

We know who Prime Minister Hun Sen is of course, and Mu Sochua is a former FUNCINPEC party member who headed the Ministry of Women's and Veterans' Affairs before she stepped down from her role in July 2004 citing corruption as a major obstacle to her work. Afterwards, she was elected to parliament as a member of the SRP where she still serves.

Mu Sochua sued Prime Minister Hun Sen seeking punitive damages of thirteen cents over remarks he made during a nationally broadcast speech on April 4th 2009. In her lawsuit, Mu Sochua alleges that Prime Minister Hun Sen defamed her by making "scurrilous references" to her in the speech. Although she was not named, the circumstances and references he made in his speech were so specific that they could refer only to her claims Mu Sochua.

In his rebuttal, Prime Minister Hun Sen claims, he does not "despise any woman at all” and said he did not attack Mu Sochua directly. The remarks he made in Kampot on April 4th 2009 about a woman behaving in a “provocative way”, who “lunged towards a man to kiss him, so much so that the buttons of her blouse popped out” were not about the SRP MP at all." he continued. Hun Sen has counter sued Mu Sochua for $2500 USD, claiming he has been defamed by Mu Sochua's filing of her defamation suit and has threatened to strip her of her parliamentary immunity. "To strip her immunity, "it is as easy as ABC" the prime minister said. If stripped of her parliamentary immunity and convicted, Mu Sochua could face a prison term.

Moreover, Kong Sam Onn, the lawyer representing Mu Sochua in Cambodia's courtrooms, faces disbarment because "of statements he made when outlining his client's case at an April 23 press conference called by Mu Sochua."

Mu Sochua is concerned with former Bar Association president Ky Tech fondness for kangaroo courts. According to a 2007 report prepared by Global Witness, Ky Tech is described by "well-placed sources" as an advisor to Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany and he has close links with powerful players in Cambodia’s timber industry [89]. Ky Tech has represented Seng Keang, in various dealings related to her activities as a partner in the Seng Keang Company, Cambodia's most powerful logging syndicate. Her business partners include Hun Sen’s first cousin, Dy Chouch, (her ex-husband) also known as Hun Chouch, and Khun Thong, another well placed timber baron.

Ky Tech has attracted media attention for his vocal criticism of proposals to allow foreign lawyers to practice at the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders [90]. He is also reported to have said that Cambodian lawyers participating in training organized by the International Bar Association in support of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal are in breach of Cambodian law [91].

Global Witness wrote a letter to Ky Tech in February 2007 asking him whether these reported comments were an accurate reflection of what he said and, if so, to explain their meaning. As of the date of the report's publication in 2007, Ky Tech had not replied to the letter. Human rights workers expressed concerns that Ky Tech was acting on instructions from senior Cambodian officials who want to see the tribunal process stall or disintegrate altogether [92]

The Hun Sen government has opinions regarding court proceedings as proved by their latest public statement regarding the recent imprisonment of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma (Myanmar).

In their denunciation, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Koy Kuong said, "The stand of our government is that it hopes Mrs. Suu Kyi will be found innocent of these accusations and that she will not receive any additional punishment, because she has been punished already." He went on to say, "The junta has promised democracy and so far it has done nothing to show any concrete progress,"

What is Cambodia's corrupt government trying to achieve by aligning with the rest of the civilized world in their remarks while at the same time running a kangaroo court of their own? International credibility. Prime Minister Hun Sen and his inner circle have successfully pursued a two-faced approach to government since the late 1980s. Projecting a facade of liberal democracy is part of a strategic political propaganda campaign adopted to keep western monetary donations flowing in at the current rate of nearly 1 billion USD per year.

Hun Sen has successfully hoodwinked the rest of the world for years by issuing statements such as the above-mentioned while progressively tightened his grip on power, as witnessed by his treatment of Kong Sam Onn and Mu Sochua.

Since apparently Ky Tech knows how to act upon instructions from senior Cambodian officials, what do you think they have told him to do?

It's my assumption that Mr. Ky Tech has been commanded by Hun Sen to send first class transportation to Yangon (Rangoon) Burma to pick up a few courthouse kangaroos. After all, when Hun Sen, aka Captain Kangaroo, tells Cambodian people to jump, except for people such as Kong Sam Onn and Mu Sochua, the usual response he receives is, "How high?

Appendix

89 Interviews with two confidential sources, 2004.

91 Erika Kinetz, ‘Sok An Calls for UN ‘Dialogue’ On KR Defence’, Cambodia Daily, 18 December, 2006; International Bar Association, ‘Threats by Cambodian Bar Force Cancellation of IBA Training in Support of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal’, 24 November 2006. This IBA statement talks about Ky Tech threatening “measures” against Cambodian lawyers joining the IBA training sessions.

92 Human Rights Watch, ‘Cambodia: Government Interferes in Khmer Rouge Tribunal; Donors Should Recognize How Government Tactics Threaten Entire Process’, 5 December 2006, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/05/%20cambod14752_txt.htm, (last downloaded 10 April 2007); personal communications from two human rights workers, 2007.

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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Could Southeast Asia Learn About Press Freedom From John Peter Zenger?

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

A Buddhist monk pauses at a news stand to read The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Nearly 300 years ago, in 1733, a man named William Cosby was Governor of the colony of New York (now a state in the USA). Forty-three years before America's independence, the well-connected Cosby had been installed as New York's Governor by the Queen of England. Mr. Cosby was a corrupt man who is said to have looted treasuries, ripped off property owners and bribed legislators and judges. England's Foreign Office knew Cosby was a crook but needed to protect him lest they appear incompetent for appointing him.

Enter John Peter Zenger. The German born Zenger was a journeyman printer by trade who owned and operated New York's only independent printing press. Zenger learned the printing trade from William Bradford, a man who was contracted to print all official documents for the Governor, the New York Colony Assembly and the city Council.

Bradford played by the Governor's rules since he earned a good living from the contracted business while also printing New York's Gazette, the colony's only newspaper. The Gazette's content was controlled by the Governor's office and Bradford knew better than to rock his own boat by printing dissenting opinion.

When corrupt people hold high government positions, squeaky wheels always seem to begin turning before the government finds its grease so a group of New Yorkers decided to start a newspaper, a weekly called The Journal, containing news Bradford considered "unfit to print". Since Zenger ran the only independent printing press, it was left to him to print The Journal, a paper in which writers from opposition parties wrote about Cosby trying to rig elections, illegally fire judges and so forth.

The Journal also printed opinion about a new concept: a free press, and in doing so, became a new genre of newspaper for America. What was The Journal doing differently? In publishing news stories about government corruption, its articles explained that for the betterment and equality of all citizens, writing such pieces was important and justifiable.

Governor Cosby didn't like The Journal much so he had one of his henchman confiscate all the copies of the Journal and burn them on the steps of City Hall. The Journal of course told readers what happened in their next edition but Cosby had to figure out a way to silence The Journal. Since several of the paper's writers were anonymous, Cosby decided to arrest Zenger who, after all, was the paper's printer. During the nine months Zenger spent in jail awaiting trial on charges of seditious libel, Zenger's wife, Anna Catherine, printed The Journal, which she failed to print just once.

Since truth was not a defense against the libel of a public official in England or the colonies, the jury was only to decide if Zenger printed the "libelous material." The judge had no hand in determining whether the paper actually defamed Cosby. Due to more of Governor Cosby's chicanery, Zenger was temporarily without counsel until the colonies best lawyer, Andrew Hamilton showed up. He agued that the jury had the right to decide both the law and facts if it chose to.

Further, he argued that truth MUST be a defense against libel: "IF LIBEL IS UNDERSTOOD IN THE UNLIMITED SENSE URGED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, THERE IS SCARCE A WRITING I KNOW THAT MAY NOT BE CALLED A LIBEL OR SCARCE A PERSON SAFE FROM BEING CALLED TO ACCOUNT AS A LIBELER. MOSES, MEEK AS HE WAS, LIBELED CAIN--AND WHO IS IT THAT NOT LIBELED THE DEVIL?"

Hamilton said in his summation, "The question before the court and you, gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the case of one poor printer which you are now trying. NO! It may in its consequences affect every free man in America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty ... your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens-- every man who prefers freedom to slavery will bless and honor you ... as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny and by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble foundation for securing for ourselves, our posterity and our neighbors that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right: The liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing the truth."

Hamilton refused a fee after the jury proclaimed Zenger "not guilty".

In matters of libel in America, the jury is the judge of both the law and the facts. This principle continues to underpin the American publishing industry to this day.

I shared this little tale with you because although most Americans know the story of John Peter Zenger, there may be a few Cambodian's reading this that are unfamiliar with him. In Cambodia, journalists are still murdered, papers are shut down and national TV news is censored. Further, people are jailed for reporting about what OTHERS SAY about government officials, a stark contrast to the principles that are set forth in the Zenger case.

Cambodia ranked 85th in Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, but that number deserves closer inspection. According to a November 7, 2007 article written by Salim Lamrani that appeared on the Centre for Research on Globalization's website, the 2007 index, laden with contradictions, is nothing more than a fraud…"

Lamrani claims, "Reporters Without Borders is not a reliable source" and receives funding from the CIA front National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as well as such entities as Center for a Free Cuba. Concisely, Lamrani theorizes that RSF ranks many countries much lower than where they actually should be listed and others much higher based on the prevailing winds of Washington D.C.'s foreign policy agenda and the money received by Reporters Without Borders from entities that support the plan.

In future posts I'll look for your feedback regarding Cambodge Soir's problems after citing a report prepared by Global Witness (GW) entitled Cambodia’s Family Trees, the murder of a Khmer journalist in Phnom Penh, a newspaper confiscation and a reporters arrest, so I felt that Hamilton's summation and Lamrani's comments might provide reference points for those who may want to look intently into the current state of press freedom in Cambodia and other Asian countries.

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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Women Enjoy Equal Opportunity In Cambodia's Whiskey Business

A sign advertising a Hennessy liquor product rises high above Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

It's known around Cambodia that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen controls the elite Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) Brigade 70 and an additional reserve force of 4,000, known as the "Bodyguard Unit". These forces that amount to a personal militia have to eat just like the rest of us so where does the money to support them come from? Well folks, if you believe a former Brigade 70 officer cited in a 2007 report prepared by Global Witness, Brigade 70 is involved in protecting illegal activities and has committed serious crimes such as killing, smuggling, illegally arresting people and violating people’s personal property.

While women the world over struggle with issues related to gender equality, it seems as if some of Cambodia's women have no such concerns.

Let's talk about smuggling for a moment. Attwood Import Export Co. Ltd is the official distributor in Cambodia for Hennessy cognac and well-known brands of whisky and beer. According to Global Witness, Attwood’s Managing Director Lim Chhiv Ho is described by a well-connected source in Cambodia’s commercial sector "as one of a quartet of politically powerful women who do business deals together."

The others are said to be Yeay Phu of Pheapimex; wife of National Customs and Excise Department Director Pen Simon; and Tep Bopha Prasidh. She is married to Cham Prasidh, the Minister of Commerce, and is Director of Administration at the ministry. Tep Bopha Prasidh reportedly owns 10% of Attwood – a stake worth $1 million USD. Keeping it all in the family, Lim Chhiv Ho’s daughter is married to Yeay Phu's son.

Attwood has received concessions from the government to develop three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) near Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh and Bavet on the Vietnamese border. These deals give the company generous tax holidays and duty exemptions.

Obviously Attwood has to get their spirits from somewhere and that's where Brigade 70, the nationwide timber trafficking service comes in. Brigade 70’s clients are a ‘who’s who’ of major timber barons in Cambodia, including the infamous Pheapimex company run by Hun Sen crony Yeay Phu.

Since the mid 1990s, when he purchased the rank of major in Brigade 70 for US $5,000, Brigade 70 Brigadier General Hak Mao has kept busy most days transporting millions of dollars-worth of logs and timber products sourced from areas where there are no legal harvesting operations. Nevertheless, that's not going to stop him from helping the ladies serve up a drink now and then.

According to members of his staff, in March 2005 Hak Mao received $100,000 USD for transporting 60,000 bottles of Hennessy cognac from Oknha Mong Port to the InterContinental Hotel in Phnom Penh. The InterContinental Hotel building belongs to Hun To, the 52 year old nephew of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Hun To, according to well-placed sources who spoke to Global Witness, "is a major drugs trafficker."

Now admittedly one-hundred grand is chump change to a guy who reportedly takes in between $2 million and $2.75 million USD annually by smuggling ill begotten logs (among other items) even though he has been estimated to spend between $388,000-$518,400 USD per year to support Brigade 70 and the Bodyguard Unit, Hun Sen’s two most important military units. Still, it's nice to know Hak Mao supports this affirmative action program.

Global Witness does not know which type of Hennessy cognac Hak Mao was asked to deliver to the hotel but Brigade 70 trades on a reputation for speediness and efficiency. Hak Mao’s drivers have orders to turn off their phones before starting each journey in order to avoid distraction, and instructions not to stop under any circumstances, even if they hit another vehicle or people along the road.

At InterContinental prices, the retail value of 60,000 bottles of Hennessy Paradis, "efficiently delivered", would be close to US$5.9 million (about $98 USD per bottle). Attwood, runs a large shop retailing duty free liquor in a building adjacent to the InterContinental.

According to police interviewed by Global Witness in two districts on the outskirts of Phnom Penh through which Brigade 70 convoys regularly pass, Hak Mao’s trucks have hit motorists or pedestrians on several occasions. The policemen claim that Brigade 70 compensates injured victims with payments of US$50-US$150 and pays the families of those that die between US$100 and US$300.

Hak Mao doesn't stop at delivering logs and alcohol via large trucks however. According to soldiers and local Phnom Penh residents interviewed by Global Witness, Brigade 70 distributes items such as beer, spirits, cigarettes, perfume, electronic goods, construction materials, clothes, sugar, pharmaceuticals, and products destined for supermarkets including ice cream within Phnom Penh using a fleet of small ice cream and soft drinks trucks.

So how much is a Cambodian's life worth when one gets steamrolled by a Brigade 70 semi? About as much as a bottle of cognac the ladies are serving up as part Hun Sen's gender equality program. Another one-hundred dollar bottle please!

Note: In January 2007 Global Witness wrote to both Attwood and Hennessy companies to ask if they were aware of the evidence of cognac smuggling, but has not received a response from either firm. There is no suggestion by Global Witness that Hennessy is involved in the smuggling of its products, or that the InterContinental Hotels Group is implicated in any way.

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage