Statement of Bou Rachana, Wife of Kem Ley, for the Launch Announcement Session of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, 23 October 2021

My name is Bou Rachana. I am the wife and widow of Kem Ley, who was gunned down by Hun Sen government agents while he was drinking coffee at a gas station food store in Phnom Penh on July 10, 2016. My husband was, in the words of the BBC, “one of Cambodia’s best known political commentators.” It was not a coincidence that he was murdered just after broadcasts bringing public attention to a Global Witness report that documented charges that Hun Sen family members had received substantial financial benefits from land grabs and other government and business transactions that were carried out at the expense of the Cambodian people.  

Pure and simple, my husband was assassinated to keep him quiet, and to prevent him from criticizing Hun Sen and his policies. Just before he was killed, Kem Ley warned Cham Bunthet, another political commentator at the time, “Brother, our lives are at stake here. It is risky to speak out against the government.” A few days later he was killed. And an Amnesty International video tape analysis of the shooting and the escape route taken by the shooter, as well as comments by several other independent observers, suggest strongly that the Hun Sen government was directly involved and responsible for the murder. The government never investigated the crime, and they pinned the assassination on a “fake killer” to avoid facing an investigation that would reveal their own complicity. 

Finally, this Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia has given me the chance to speak out, and to obtain truth and justice for my husband Kem Ley, and other victims of his lethal attacks like labor leader Chea Vichea, and environmentalist Chut Wutty. We need to understand that Hun Sen has a long history of using assassination, beatings, arrests, and fake criminal trials to muzzle his critics, and to prevent open public discussion of his tactics. He even has used his own personal Bodyguard military unit to physically assault members of the National Assembly (Kong Sophea and Nhay Chamroeun) who spoke out against him, and to plan and facilitate a 1997 grenade attack at a rally of members of the political opposition that killed and wounded over 120 participants. 

We cannot expect the government of Hun Sen to investigate itself, or to stop the tactics of harsh and lethal repression and intimidation that keep it in power, without an independent voice that seeks and tells the truth about the Hun Sen government’s abuses. That is why this hearing, and the work of this independent Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, are so important. Thank you for finally giving me and my children the chance to speak the truth about my husband’s killing, and to obtain even a small measure of justice and accountability against the real perpetrators responsible for his death.