Former Cambodian opposition MP shot dead in Bangkok ‘assassination’

Lim Kimya, 74, had refused to fly Cambodia adjacent aft erstwhile PM Hun Sen threatened to marque absorption MPs lives ‘hell’.

Lim Kimya, a erstwhile subordinate of Cambodia’s National Assembly with the now-exiled absorption Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), has been changeable successful Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, successful an onslaught labelled an “assassination” by erstwhile colleagues.

According to The Bangkok Post newspaper, 74-year-old Lim Kimya was changeable dormant soon aft helium arrived successful the Thai superior connected a autobus from Siem Reap, Cambodia, connected Tuesday evening with his French woman and Cambodian uncle.

The CNRP confirmed the decease successful a statement, saying it was “shocked and profoundly saddened by the quality of the brutal and inhumane shooting” of Lim Kimya, who had served arsenic the CNRP’s subordinate of parliament for Kampong Thom province.

The erstwhile absorption MP, a dual Cambodian and French national, had reportedly continued to unrecorded successful Cambodia, adjacent arsenic galore different erstwhile absorption politicians fled, seeking governmental exile elsewhere successful the look of threats from the governing Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) nether then-Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The erstwhile hugely fashionable CNRP was dissolved successful Cambodia and each its governmental activities banned by Cambodia’s Supreme Court successful 2017. The enactment inactive exists arsenic an organisation successful Cambodian diaspora communities successful Australia, the United States and elsewhere. In a connection shared connected societal media, the CNRP described Lim Kimya’s sidesplitting arsenic an “assassination”.

(1/2) Bangkok's Chana Songkhram Police Station has released much CCTV footages showing a fishy who brazenly changeable and killed Lim Kimya, a 74-year-old Cambodian-French governmental activist.#bangkok #assassin #thailand pic.twitter.com/x2ObMIZob9

— Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) January 8, 2025

“The CNRP powerfully condemns this barbaric act, which is simply a superior menace to governmental freedom”, the connection said, adding that the governmental enactment is “closely pursuing the execution lawsuit and calls connected the Thai authorities to behaviour a thorough and impartial investigation”.

Thailand’s Metropolitan Police Bureau is searching for a gunman who fled the country connected a motorbike, The Bangkok Post reported.

Human rights groups person called connected authorities successful Thailand to behaviour a swift and thorough investigation.

Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director Elaine Pearson said the “cold-blooded killing” sent a connection to Cambodian governmental activists that “no 1 is safe, adjacent if they person near Cambodia”.

The cold-blooded sidesplitting of a erstwhile Cambodian absorption subordinate successful downtown Bangkok sends a chilling connection to Cambodian activists that nary 1 is safe, adjacent if they person near Cambodia. https://t.co/x5FUl1PM6M

— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) January 8, 2025

Phil Robertson, manager of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA), said the sidesplitting had “all the hallmarks of a governmental assassination”.

“The nonstop interaction volition beryllium to severely intimidate the hundreds of Cambodian governmental absorption figures, NGO activists, and quality rights defenders who person already fled to Thailand to flight PM Hun Manet’s run of governmental repression successful Cambodia,” Robertson said successful a station connected societal media.

Hun Sen’s lad Hun Manet became the country’s caller leader by replacing his begetter arsenic premier curate successful August 2023.

Hun Sen calls for crackdown connected Victory Day

Lim Kimya’s sidesplitting fell connected January 7, the day known arsenic Victory Day for the governing CPP, which marks the day that Vietnamese troops, supported by a tiny contingent of Cambodian soldiers, entered Phnom Penh and toppled Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge authorities successful 1979.

Since then, the state has remained nether the iron-fisted regularisation of Hun Sen and present his son, Hun Manet, with small country for governmental opposition.

At a ceremonial connected Tuesday to people the anniversary, Hun Sen called for a caller instrumentality to marque radical who wanted to overthrow his son’s authorities arsenic “terrorists… who indispensable beryllium brought to justice”.

While determination has been small effectual governmental absorption to the CPP since 1979, that astir changed successful 2013, the twelvemonth that Lim Kimya was elected arsenic an absorption subordinate of Cambodia’s parliament pursuing a wide predetermination successful which the governing enactment was astir defeated by the CNRP.

The absorption had tapped into a groundswell of fashionable enactment for governmental alteration aft decades of hardline regularisation by Hun Sen.

While the CNRP was erstwhile considered the sole viable hostile to the CPP and a imaginable predetermination winner, it was dissolved by Cambodia’s politically-aligned judicial strategy successful 2017.

Many absorption leaders and supporters person since fled into exile amid a question of arrests and Hun Sen, promising to marque their lives “hell”.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies