One SRP supporter was shot dead and another injured in Battambang province Wednesday night when an unidentified gunman opened fire on a couple at their Mong Russei district home, SRP officials and an election monitor said Thursday.
The SRP said that the attack in Talos commune was politically motivated. Police denied this, saying the couple may have fallen victim to an attempted robbery while the CPP said the dead woman in fact belonged to the ruling party.
“It was not a politically motivated killing,” said Siek Phea, district deputy police chief.
At about 9:30 pm Wednesday, Yut Yen, 57, was shot in the leg by an unidentified assailant in front of his house after he went outside to investigate when he heard dogs barking, Siek Phea said.
His wife Chhum San, 56, was shot once in the chest and killed when she came running after her husband, he said.
Puth Yoeun, the SRP’s district director, said the couple’s daughter had participated in an SRP rally attended by party leader Sam Rainsy earlier in the day.
“I am very suspicious about the killing—the robber didn’t take the victims’ belongings,” he said.
Yut Yen and Chhum San were previously CPP members and had recently started supporting the SRP, according to the SRP and Mar Sophal, a monitor with the Committee for Free and Fair Elections.
Information Minister and government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said that Chhum San was a village-level CPP official. The CPP has donated money to pay for her funeral and for Yut Yen’s hospital bills, he added.
Khieu Kanharith accused the SRP of using Chhum San’s death to gain political leverage. “Political parties are doing business on the dead people. It is very shameful,” he said.
SRP Secretary-General Mu Sochua said she believes that Chhum San was killed because she was politically active. Authorities must be “vigilant” about solving cases of violent intimidation during the campaign period, she said.
Yin Mengly, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said SRP officials in Mong Russei district have complained of intimidation since the official election-campaign period began March 16.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Tomei.)
