Anecdotal Evidence

By Saing Soenthrith
The cambodia daily

I wanted to work for The Cambodia Daily because it is an independent newspaper dedicated to strengthening a free press. Since early 1996 this job has provided me with some unusual experiences that stick in my memory.

In April 1997, anti-drug police seized seven tons of marijuana destined for Sri Lanka at Sihanoukville Port. Police Chief Heng Pov ordered the contraband to be piled up and burned at anti-drug police headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district.

Policemen dug holes outside the department and filled them with the marijuana, which they doused with gasoline. At first the fire burned off black smoke that smelled terrible. Then the smoke turned white and smelled nice.

It billowed high and wide, making the people who gathered around to enjoy it happy and sleepy. It reminded me of the chicken soup seasoned with ganja that I ate when I was young.

In the second week of February 1997, government soldiers and former Khmer Rouge guerrillas loyal to CPP Battambang provincial Governor Ung Samy fought troops loyal to Funcinpec Deputy Governor Serey Kosal at Phnom Thipadei outside Battambang town.

Expatriate reporter Chris Decherd and I went to the battlefield at Phnom Thipadei. We hired a motorcycle taxi to take us up the only road that led to the fighting. I saw the Funcinpec soldiers lying dead—still warm when I touched them—under the mango trees. The villagers’ rice fields burned, and the Khmer Rouge let loose cries of victory.

Decherd and I tried to report on both factions. By doing so, we found ourselves caught in the middle, with artillery shells flying overhead. Cut off from the road, we found a villager who guided us down oxcart trails through rice fields for several hours until we emerged on National Route 5. Funcinpec soldiers were fleeing north, back toward Battambang town.

A young soldier, just a boy, begged me for help. I gave him my jacket to cover his military uniform and squeezed him on the motorcycle with Decherd, the driver and me.

We filed the story and got the scoop.

The next morning I got on a Russian-built military plane back to Phnom Penh. The journalists aboard were in the back while all the high-ranking military loyalist officers sat comfortably and spoke merrily about their victory.

As our flight neared Phnom Penh, a soldier came from the cockpit to the back of the plane and asked some of us journalists to return to the front with him. Once there, the pilots explained that our weight was needed there to tip the plane’s nose groundward. The plane could not otherwise descend until it ran dry of gasoline, they explained.

We were terrified, but we landed safely. The officers, whose nerves had been spared for fear of rebuke, disembarked obliviously.

In the 1998 election, 39 parties competed. The Cambodia Daily reported that Ung Huot—Prince Norodom Ranariddh’s successor as Funcinpec first prime minister, installed by Hun Sen after the 1997 factional fighting—predicted his Reastr Niyum Party would win 15 parliamentary seats. Ung Huot saw the story and demanded a correction. His party would win 50, not 15, seats.

Then Ung Huot told the local and international press that if they did not believe him, they would “get a shock” when the election results came out. So Ung Huot, who had served as first prime minister for only six months, got the shock himself. The CPP won 64 seats, Funcinpec won 43 and the Sam Rainsy Party won 15. None were left for Ung Huot’s party.

Then Sam Rainsy rejected the results of the 1998 elections. He led demonstrators in the park across the street from the National Assembly, which temporarily became known as “Democracy Square.” Thousands joined him, and they marched across the city demanding that Hun Sen step down.

At one point, the protesters gathered outside of the European Union’s headquarters on Sihanouk Boulevard. The protesters demanded that the EU, which had provided election monitors, intercede on their behalf.

But then pretty young Vietnamese girls came out onto the building’s balcony to witness the commotion. The crowd, with its nationalist leanings, immediately went into a greater uproar. “Vietnam girl! Vietnam girl! Srey yuon!” people angrily shouted, pointing at the girls. The girls retreated indoors. The EU later declared the 1998 elections free and fair.

These are just a few of the memorable anecdotes. Thank you for reading.