A Sam Rainsy Party chief said masked men came to his house the same night that a colleague and commune candidate, Touch Voeun, was gunned down in his home.
“I am very worried about my safety,” said Chheng Kak Lim, chief of the Sam Rainsy Party in Staung district, Kompong Thom province.
Chheng Kak Lim said he fears for his life, particularly after the police concluded that Touch Voeun—the opposition party’s commune candidate in Kompong Kdei commune—was killed because of accusations that he was a sorcerer. Human rights groups have discounted that theory
“It is a political killing,” human rights group Adhoc Director Thun Saray said Monday. “He was not a sorcerer.”
Adhoc will continue to investigate whether there were any past threats to or intimidation of Touch Voeun.
Officials have said accusations of sorcery led to two of the four commune candidate shootings since June. Some observers have expressed fear that allegations of sorcery are licenses to kill opposition candidates.
“It is easy to kill anyone accused of sorcery,” Chheng Kak Lim said. And he worries the sorcery accusation is all too easy to pin on him, because he makes his living as a traditional Khmer doctor.
On the night Touch Voeun was killed, Chheng Kak Lim attended a funeral. His wife and one of his sons went home before him. When his son arrived at the house he turned on a flashlight and saw three men, including at least one on the roof. The men ran away.
Three days earlier, on Aug 20, Chheng Kak Lim’s nephew saw a man hiding under the house, who also ran off.
Chheng Kak Lim said he has filed a complaint with the human rights group Licadho and the local district police.
“I just let them know in case something happens to me in the future. They told me not to walk around at night,” he said.
Officials in the province said they were treating the rumors seriously, and would try to protect Chheng Kak Lim.
