Businessmen warned Tuesday that the death of Lee Chim Hsin, head of the Taiwan Business Association in Cambodia, could curb investment in Cambodia, while remaining skeptical that Phnom Penh’s police force could solve the murder or protect them.
A swift resolution could allay those fears.
“If the case is solved, it’s a good factor for investors,” said William Ping Wang, director of the Taipei economic and cultural office in Ho Chi Minh City, who was dispatched to Phnom Penh by the Taipei government. However, he said, the Taiwanese investors he had spoken to “don’t have much confidence in the police.”
Penal Police Chief Khuon Sophon said Tuesday the investigation had “no result yet,” but they suspect the killing may be linked to a business dispute.
Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara said Tuesday the murder “may be a difficult case,” and take some time to solve.
Police so far have been able to dig up only one witness: a moto taxi driver who could identify the make and model of the motor bike the two assailants were driving.
“If we want to find the person who hired the murderers, we should find the killers first,” Khuon Sophon said. “But right now our investigation is in the dark.”
Lee, 43, was murdered Thursday near his home in Tuol Kok district. He was the first head of a Taiwan Business Association in the world to be killed in a foreign country. Lee was shot once in the right hand and once in the torso, Ping said.
Also injured in the attack was Liu Chuen Chin, son of local Taiwanese businessman Liu Hsin-Li. Police say Lee was murdered because he was mediating a dispute between two Taiwanese companies, but would not disclose which companies.
Other businessmen interviewed Tuesday were also unsure of the names of the companies, though they believed one was Taiwanese and one was Cambodian.
Robbery has been ruled out as a motive, police said.
Lee’s death has made headlines in Taipei, Ping said, and investors there were carefully watching the investigation.
After the reports, “they will think a lot,” before investing in Cambodia, he said.
Taiwan is the second-biggest foreign investor in Cambodia, after Malaysia, according to figures from the Council for Development in Cambodia. Between August 1994 and December 1999, Taiwanese investments totaled $295 million, compared to Malaysia’s $1.8 billion.
Taiwan has not had an official liaison office in Phnom Penh since July 1997, when Prime Minister Hun Sen closed the office and evicted official representatives. He accused the Taiwanese of aiding Funcinpec during factional fighting.
Since then, the Taiwan Business Association has acted as an ad hoc point of contact for the more than 400 Taiwanese living in Cambodia. Lee was head of that organization.
Taipei and local photographers, video cameramen, and reporters surrounded Lee’s widow and children later Tuesday morning as his body was moved to Pochentong Airport.
The images they would send back to Cambodia’s potential investors in Taiwan were those of Lee’s remains wheeled into the export storage hanger in a white box marked, “Cargo.” The box was addressed to Taipei.
(Additional reporting by Saing Soenthrith)
