Lengthy standoff ends in tragedy

[geovalin]

Lengthy standoff ends in tragedy

 

 

The last words of 6-year-old Pha Chharan were still ringing in his mother’s ears hours after the child was pronounced dead on arrival at Tbong Khmum Provincial Hospital early yesterday morning.

“Mum, please hug me and help me.”

 

“He did not tell me how hurt he was,” Yam Sophorn, his 31-year-old mother, said. “He kept repeating to himself for more than half an hour on the way to the hospital. Then my son died.”

 

The death marked the tragic end of an hours-long standoff with police on Tuesday night, when the young boy was stabbed and slashed by his mentally disturbed uncle, who was then brought down in a hail of bullets.

Chharan had gone to Kak commune’s Kanche village at about 10am on Tuesday to visit his uncle, Him Sokna, 22.

 

He often rode his bike along the 2-kilometre road from the family home in neighbouring Bosti village to visit the man, who would give him money, his mother said. What he didn’t know was that Sokna had not been himself recently.

 

“I was shocked when my neighbour phoned me to tell me that my son was being held prisoner and had had his hands and legs bound,” she added.

 

Rushing to the scene, Sophorn pleaded wtih her brother-in-law to release the child.

 

“When I arrived there, I begged him to release my son, but he brandished knives and threatened me. He told me not to worry, that he would release him,” she said.

 

Hundreds of onlookers and police joined in the calls for Sokna to stand down, but to no avail.

 

Yem Run, Kanche village chief, yesterday described the scene.

 

The father of Him Sokna yesterday holds casings from the bullets that were used to kill his son after Sokna took his nephew hostage in Tbong Khmum province. Heng Chivoan

 

“We asked him what he wanted, but he did not tell us. He only ordered us to get away from the boy or he would kill him,” he said.

 

Mao Pov, police chief of Tbong Khmum, said provincial, military and Interior Ministry police tried to trick Sokna into taking sedatives.

 

“At first, we put sleeping medicine in an energy drink, but he did not drink it. We also put it in some in food,” he said.

 

Police then filled the house with smoke to make Sokna pass out.

 

“After that, police came up from behind the house to help the boy. They got to him, but unfortunately he was tied by rope to a pillar in the house,” Run said.

 

“The man [Sokna] ran towards two police officers to stab them. Seeing him, they ran out of the house.”

 

Before police could devise a new strategy, Sokna began to slice at Chharan with two knives, before running at them.

 

“The police shot him when they heard he had cut my son’s throat. Then I had no fear anymore, and I went to hug my son. I saw that his hands were tied with a krama and his legs with a rope. His legs were hacked at many times,” Sophorn said.

 

Police chief Pov said the authorities “did not want to shoot him, but we wanted to defend ourselves when he chased us. So we shot him in the legs, shoulder and stomach until he died. We regret this”.

 

Kanche villagers had grown increasingly wary of Sokna over the past three months, claiming he had been loved by all until he began making death threats and acting erratically in May.

 

Three days before the attack, Sokna had beaten his mother and tried to strangle his father, villager Om Yot, 53, said. “Everyone in the village feared him.”

 

His parents had since stopped sleeping in the house, his father said.

 

“My wife and I dared not to sleep at home for three days already, because he had choked me and beat my wife,” he said, adding that the family had sought intervention from a traditional healer many times.

 

“Had I known Chharan was coming, I wouldn’t have allowed him to enter the house. I deeply regret what happened. I lost my grandson and son, but I could not help when it happened.”

 

Grieving mother Sophorn cradled a photo of her son under the house where he was killed yesterday afternoon, shortly after his funeral was held.

 

“I’ll never forget my son’s last words. But, he did not cry,” she said.

 

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lengthy-standoff-ends-tragedy

 

 

[geovalin]

Maid, boy ‘rescued’ from home

Thu, 31 July 2014

Mom Kunthear

Police from the Ministry of Interior are questioning two people over claims that their 18-year-old maid was raped and her 10-year-old brother abused, according to police and human rights officials.

Am Sam Ath, a legal adviser for rights group Licadho, said yesterday that the two were “rescued” from a house in Tuol Kork district on Tuesday after a complaint from their mother.

Sam Ath said the 18-year-old had lived with the family as a maid since she was 8, but that her brother had only moved in a few years ago.

“The mother told me that her two children were detained and they were tortured as well,” he said, adding sexual abuse claims have not been verified.

“The police and court started to investigate and they rescued the children [Tuesday] evening from the house,” he said.

An Interior Ministry Anti-Human Trafficking Police department official who declined to be named confirmed two people were being questioned and that police had seized “evidence” from the house.

 

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/maid-boy-%E2%80%98rescued%E2%80%99-home

 

[geovalin]

Police tactics draw scrutiny

Fri, 1 August 2014

May Titthara

Questions are being raised over police tactics after a 12-hour standoff with a man who took his 6-year-old nephew hostage on Tuesday ended in the tragic killing of the child.

Locals yesterday slammed the police’s seeming reluctance to use lethal force on the perpetrator until after the boy had been stabbed, while officials said they had followed protocol and tried to minimise harm to both the boy and his captor.

“The authorities have all kinds of guns. Why didn’t they use them?” said Meas Sophea, one of many capital residents who saw the tale reported on TV. “And why did they use them after the boy had already died in their hands?”

However, military police spokesman Kheng Tito said that the mixed forces responding to the scene in Tbong Khmum province may have been caught off-guard.

“Military police are trained to save people in emergencies, such as catastrophes or natural disasters. We have intervention units, especially in cases of terrorism or kidnapping. We have demolition and liberation teams who are trained daily,” he said.

Provincial police chief Mao Pov said that throughout the standoff police tried a number of tactics to end the situation without resorting to deadly force.

“We have to look at the real situation, whether or not the perpetrator will listen to us. And if he does not, we have to shoot to defend ourselves, and there is no law banning us from shooting him,” he said.

“It is not that we are not trained. We already tried all kinds of techniques.”

Police attempted to incapacitate Him Sokna, 22, using smoke guns and an energy drink laced with sedatives. When the smoke caused Sokna to move away from his nephew, Pha Chharan, police tried to rescue the boy, only to find he was tied to a pillar.

Officers then retreated as Sokna, whose family had noticed his mental health deteriorating, advanced brandishing knives. Though Sokna was clearly a risk to the child, himself and the authorities, police refrained from shooting him, because “he is still a human being”, Pov said.

After officers retreated, Sokna stabbed the boy. Moments later, he was shot dead in a hail of bullets. Chharan died in his mother’s arms on the way to hospital.

Chan Soveth, a senior monitor with rights group Adhoc, said that when young children are involved, the police should be prepared to take any action necessary to protect the life of the child.

“In this case, the perpetrator was a madman and they should have taken all necessary measures to save the boy’s life . . . but the case has shown that our officers are careless and irresponsible,” he said.

“It demonstrates that our authorities are short of skills.”

Contingents of provincial and military police were dispatched, arriving at the scene in Tbong Khmum province at about 11am. A detachment of police from the Ministry of Interior was also present.

John Muller, managing director of local security company Global Security Solutions, said the forces should have been prepared to respond to the situation.

“The police and military police are well trained, so whether they had the right people there or not, I don’t know,” he said.

Officials yesterday would not confirm which units from the ministry it had deployed and gave no indication that an investigation into police actions would be conducted.

 

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/police-tactics-draw-scrutiny