Breaking news in Camboida Sea of Mourners Carries Kem Ley Home

Tho

https://www.cambodiadaily.com

ugh the man arrested for the murder claims to have acted in rage over a $3,000 debt he was owed, Kem Ley’s death has been broadly felt as an attack on the democratic principles he worked to promote as an analyst, researcher, commentator and government critic.

After leaving Pazhnom Penh’s Wat Chas pagoda shortly after dawn, the hearse bearing his body crawled through the city and along National Road 3 at a snail’azs pace—a train of vans, cars and motorbikes snaking slowly behind it for several kilometers—before arriving at his mother’s home in Takeo’s Angtakob village by dusk.

As the government had asked, the event remained apolitical—at least on the surface. Mourners and onlookers waved smiling portraits of Kem Ley along with Cambodian and Buddhist flags and bouquets of fresh-cut lotus buds.

But scratch at the surface, ask anyone who attended, and there were no doubts that Kem Ley died for speaking his mind, another victim of the country’s string of political assassinations.

Sum Phan, a university student who often heard the analyst speak on the radio, said Kem Ley had died a martyr.

“He died for the Cambodian people. He dared to sacrifice his life. He dared to speak the truth,” said Mr. Phan, who had donned a crisp white shirt emblazoned with Kem Ley’s face to watch the procession roll past.

“I totally believe it was politically motivated, because his analyses strongly affected the powerful people,” he said. “He spoke about border issues, about immigration from Vietnam, economic land concessions and deforestation.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen has taken on the accusations and denied them flatly, insisting that the government would not have ordered the murder because it had the most to lose from the backlash.

But the premier’s case gained no traction among Sunday’s mourners.

The size of the crowd may have recalled the late king’s funeral procession three years ago. But in spirit, it harked back to the funeral march for union leader Chea Vichea, who, like Kem Ley, was gunned down in a brazen daytime shooting with all the hallmarks of an ordered hit.

“I don’t believe the man they arrested is the real killer,” said Moeung Dara, waiting for Kem Ley’s body to pass. “I strongly believe it was politically motivated because it is the same thing over and over again.”