"Winner Takes It All"

"Winner Takes It All" Abba

30th March 1997 - Scenes many believed or claimed only the "genocidal Pol Pot clique" would be capable of creating. Many of the wounded and survivors had been denied emergency treatment by some of the foreign funded clinics and medical facilities in Phnom Penh on that day out of desire not to affront the Hun Sen regime by "helping" its purported "enemies". Later the same year other Funcinpec figures were known to have sought refuge at foreign embassies, including the Singapore compound, but had been similarly turned away out of similar precaution during the 5-6 July coup - School of Vice

So much atrocity had been committed in the course of the brief but bloody coup that took place in and around the Cambodian capital in 1997 that a foreign reporter noted grimly that despite the heavy rain fall that followed shortly afterward it was not enough to wash away the blood that had soaked parts of the roads on which the clashes took place. Scores of captured Funcinpec officers had also been executed to quell any further potential military threat to the CPP regime. However, the powerful Second Prime Minister at the time insisted there was "no coup", and played down the atrocity itself. He nevertheless justified it politically by accusing Funcinpec of harbouring KR fighters within its rank - School of Vice

During the 2 days of fighting in July 1997 Phnom Penh residents - many of whom survivors of the Pol Pot regime - had been forced to re-enact the April 1975 march out of the capital once more - School of Vice

Koh Pich Bridge Stampede 2010: no independent inquest into the causes of the tragedy - School of Vice

Trade Union leader Chea Vichea murdered in 2004: no independent inquest into his assassination. Public showing of the film documentary "Who Killed Chea Vichea?" in Cambodia is still banned - School of Vice

Chut Wutty murdered whilst investigating illegal logging activities in Koh Kong province, and yes, no independent enquiry into his murder either - School of Vice

The list of slain victims can go on forever, and the regime's failure to provide justice for these victims can hardly come as a surprise given its vested interests behind their eliminations and the overt political motivations therein. Needless to mention, no independent inquest means no call for fair trial, and no fair trial means no justice, which in turn implies “civil society’s” tacit acceptance and/or tolerance of “impunity” which it otherwise noisily condemns. If all civil society groups and NGOs in Phnom Penh alone join forces and march in protest of this travesty their combined numbers could literally fill the length and breadth of Norodom Boulevard leaving impoverished locals to get on with eking out a living uninterrupted. Perhaps, just a couple of hours of their pleasant Sunday afternoon, [Phnom Penh is still a small capital!] after which they can always climb back up to their favourite river front balcony to enjoy the cool evening tropical breeze and the scenery of lesser humans. OK, I won't talk about it if it makes you feel bad . . . School of Vice