Three unknown assailants shot and killed a Sam Rainsy Party activist and human rights informant in Kompong Cham province on Friday, setting off concerns that this could be the first politically motivated killing since the run-up to the Feb 3 commune elections.
The victim, Heng Sean, 48, who had worked for the human rights group Adhoc for five years as well as the opposition party, was shot to death at his home in Suong commune, Tbong Khmum district, by three men reportedly dressed in military uniforms.
“This was not a robbery because the [killers] did not take anything—they shot him and then escaped,” said one human rights worker with an international NGO who declined to be identified. “But we have no evidence yet that this was politically motivated.”
According to the human rights worker, Heng Sean, who was shot at 2 am on Friday, had no personal disputes with anyone.
Although no investigation has been completed and some of the details of Friday’s killing are still hazy, a general picture has emerged from Sam Rainsy Party members, human rights activists and police in the area.
Var Sarith, the provincial military police commander, said on Sunday that Heng Sean confronted the three suspects after he heard them near his house. The three were wearing military uniforms, he said, and one of them was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle.
After Heng Sean shouted at them to get away from his house, the suspects shot him dead, Var Sarith said.
The suspects, who have not been arrested or identified by police, then fled the scene.
“I think the killing was not political—it was a robbery,” he said on Sunday.
Kang Sokhorn, provincial police chief, also agreed that the motive behind Heng Sean’s killing was likely theft.
“There is no evidence showing that it is a revenge or political killing because he had no disputes with neighbors,” Kang Sokhorn said Sunday. He added that the police are continuing to investigate the killing.
While many of the details of the killing are generally agreed upon, Sam Rainsy Party Cabinet Chief Phi Thach disagreed with the police theory for the motive behind the killing.
“No personal items were taken from Heng Sean,” Phi Thach said on Sunday. “That is why we are certain that this is a politically motivated killing.”
Phi Thach said that according to reports he had received, Heng Sean went out to the yard with his brother to investigate a loud sound he heard on the night of the killing.
Three people shined a flashlight in his eyes and fired three shots, Phi Thach said. Two of the shots hit Heng Sean in the chest, killing him.
Investigators found some chicken bones and a discarded coconut in the area where the killers fired the shots from, indicating that the gunmen may have been waiting for Heng Sean and had planned the killing in advance, Phi Thach said.
Kompong Cham experienced the most election-related violence of any province in the year leading up to February’s commune elections. Five of the 17 election-related killings occurred in Kompong Cham, two of those in Tbong Khmum district.
In Tbong Khmum, gangs of militia and military members allegedly carried out a campaign of intimidation against members of the Sam Rainsy Party and Funcinpec in the months before the Feb 3 elections.
In November 2001, a Funcinpec commune candidate and a Sam Rainsy commune candidate were killed in Tbong Khmum within two hours of each other.
