"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