Power in numbers: mob killing in Cambodia. Long analysis about a painful topic

[geovalin]

Harriet Fitch Little and Vandy Muong

A year ago, a mentally ill man was beaten to death by villagers who had mistaken him for a thief. Despite only four of those involved being sentenced, it was a harsher punishment than expected – in almost all instances of mob killings, no questions are even asked

Everyone helped to hit and beat him. I slapped him, but not to kill him.” Sera* is lounging against a post underneath his family’s large home. He is dull, listless and initially unwilling to talk. Once he is sure the police have not come to rearrest him, he relaxes slightly. What happened, he explains, was “bad luck”.

“The police took photos with their phones, which showed the faces of people there. We all did it together, but they arrested only four of us,” he says.

The two dozen family members who have gathered around him chime in with various supporting statements: Sera was one of a hundred; he had just been trying to get a better look when the police took his photo; he’d definitely left by the time they burned the man’s body. One year ago this week, the picturesque village of Srae Ambel, situated in a hard-to-reach district of Kampong Speu, was the staging ground for a particularly gruesome night of violence.

LONG ARTICLE HERE

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/power-numbers-mob-killing-cambodia