chumkiri district, Kampot province – As mourners carried the body of a Funcinpec member shot last week to a freshly dug grave, they were stopped by a policeman who had worked with the man the family suspects to be the killer.
The man owned a narrow strip of land over which the procession had to pass to reach the grave. He refused to allow the body to pass. Dos Hut, 47, was later cremated at a nearby pagoda.
The scene is one in a series of events in Trapeang Veng village, Trapeang Raing commune, that has left the victim’s family afraid for their lives and Sim Thy, the prime murder suspect, still at large.
Sim Thy, deputy chief of statistics for local police and neighbor of Dos Hut, shot her three times in the chest and once in the arm on Oct 19 with his police-issued AK-47, the victim’s husband, Vann Nhiel, said.
Several of the victim’s family members witnessed the slaying and described it as the result of an altercation between children.
When the daughters of Dos Hut and Sim Thy brought their argument home, it quickly escalated into a dispute among adults, Dos Hut’s daughter Khun Chantha said.
As Khun Chantha watched, Sim Thy stepped from his home, barely 3 meters from where Dos Hut stood at the bottom of her stilt house stairs, and shot the woman four times, Khun Chantha said.
“I was almost shot to death, too. I grabbed my mother as she fell, and he pointed the gun at my back. I was lucky his wife grabbed him and pulled him into the house,” Khun Chantha said.
When asked about pre-existing tensions, Vann Nhiel replied, “We have often had disputes, but we had good relations. We communicated.”
He added, “He did not like when we joined Funcinpec and he might have been bothered when we listened to the radio. He was a CPP supporter since 1979.”
According to her family, Dos Hut liked to listen to Funcinpec radio station Ta Prohm, as well as human rights programs on FM 105.
Funcinpec district chief Seng Sary said Dos Hut had not been previously threatened. He added that he did not think the shooting was motivated purely by personal differences.
“Maybe it was a personal dispute mixed with a political dispute. But why was the weapon at the house when [Sim Thy] is ordered to keep it at police headquarters? Why was it so well organized?”
Thach Nhev, the village’s deputy police chief, said that Sim Thy brought his weapon home because he was protecting a ceremony at a nearby pagoda. The officer declined to comment on possible political motivations for the murder “because it is a separate issue.”
The victim’s first husband—also a Funcinpec supporter—was shot and killed in 1994, Vann Nhiel said. The case remains unsolved.
Dos Hut’s family said the local police would not apprehend a fellow officer and they are living in fear of Sim Thy’s return.
“There are 10 people in the house, and we are very afraid he will return and shoot us to death,” Vann Nhiel said.
Sim Thy and his family disappeared soon after the shooting, and their house remains unoccupied save a lone police guard. Vann Nhiel said he heard the suspect was hiding in a village about 3 km away. Vann Nhiel said he made a complaint to military police on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Thach Nhev said the chief of police and a deputy had gone to the village to investigate.
Kampot district Deputy Police Chief In Chiva said police received an arrest warrant Friday.
When asked if she had any hope for Sim Thy’s arrest, Khun Chantha replied, “So little. But it’s peace if he’s arrested.”
