[Tlc] C-opposition journalist shot

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin



Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/218439,cambodian-opposition-journalist-shot-dead.html

Phnom Penh - A senior Cambodian journalist working for an opposition
newspaper was gunned down and killed in a central street in the
capital Friday evening, police said. Khim Sam Ol was a journalist for
the pro-Sam Rainsy Party newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer, police and a
journalism representative said.

Police said Sam Ol's son, who was not named, was also seriously
injured in the attack as the pair walked back from exercising at the
capital's Olympic Stadium after work.

Ages of the men were not immediately available.

Cambodia is scheduled to hold national elections on July 27 and
although the National Election Committee has reported fewer
potentially politically motivated incidents than previously, past
pre-election periods have been marked by violence.

The murder is likely to cause a political storm because on June 8, Sam
Ol's editor, Dam Sith, was arrested on defamation charges against
Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong and spent a week in Prey Sar prison
before Prime Minister Hun Sen intervened.

Hor Namhong later dropped the charges after Dam Sith wrote to him
saying he had made "a mistake" in publishing the offending comments.

And police Friday urged caution in assigning political blame to Sam
Ol's murder, saying investigations were in the early stages and no
motive had been established.

"If you don't like someone, hurting them when tensions are high, like
before an election, and then hoping politics is blamed is a sensible
strategy," one officer said on condition of anonymity.

Personal disputes, most often over money, land or lovers, remain by
far the primary motives for murder in Cambodia.


______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu