Further updated: Bangkok dangerous I

Back in early December, PPT posted on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees declaring Thailand’s deportation Cambodian political dissidents as a violation of “its commitment to the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits states from returning people to countries where they may face torture or other human rights abuse…”.

The deported activists were all linked with the Cambodia National Rescue Party, banned by the Cambodian regime, and were deported following a request from Phnom Penh. They were subsequently charged with ‘treason’.”

It gets worse.

The Bangkok Post reports that Lim Kimya, 73, a former Cambodian opposition MP, was assassinated near Wat Bowonniwet in the center of Bangkok on Tuesday evening.

The victim was “a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was the main opposition party in Cambodia before it was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November 2017.”

The Post reports that Lim Kimya, “who held Cambodian and French nationality, had reportedly travelled to Bangkok by bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia, with his French wife and Cambodian uncle.”

As is common in targeted assassinations in Thailand, the assassin rode “a motorcycle, parked it and got off to shoot. He then rode away along Phra Sumen Road…”.

Lim Kimya had not lived in exile, and this made him a target for the Hun Sen-Hun Mamet regime. Murdering him in Bangkok, with a Hun Sen friendly regime in power allows deniability. We would expect claims to be made that there were personal or business interests behind the killing.

Such murders and repatriations are a mark of relations between Thailand and close neighbors this century, and especially under military regimes in Bangkok. No one should forget the Mekong murders of Thailand’s political exiles in Laos, probably by the Thai military, the enforced disappearances in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and in Thailand for China and Cambodia.

From Wikipedia

We are guessing that the assassin was hired in Thailand, where hitmen are so common that the police maintain a list of them in each province. Some of them have military and police links and they also often have political protection. They are seldom apprehended for their “work.”

So common are these hired assassins that Hong Kong filmmakers Danny Pang Phat and Oxide Pang Chun have made two Bangkok Dangerous movies in 1999 and 2008. In these films, like in real life, there are assassins on motorcycles and political hits.

Under conservative and authoritarian regimes, the space available for political oppositions has been narrowed. As regimes cooperate across the region, nowhere is safe for political opponents or political refugees.

Update 1: As we suspected, the police are now saying that the suspect in this assassination is from the Thai military or was previously with them. As we said, that’s pretty “normal” in such cases. Prachatai reports: “On 8 January, the police reported that the suspect had been identified. It was reported that the suspect is 41-year-old Ekkalak Paenoi, a former Thai marine at the Royal Thai Navy. An arrest warrant has been issued, and he is charged with premeditated murder, carrying a firearm in public without valid reason.” If he’s caught, he’s unlikely to say who hired him. That, too, is “normal.”

Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights Labour Advocates states:

This brazen shooting of a former CNRP MP on the streets of Bangkok has all the hallmarks of a political assassination, and looks to be a significant escalation in the use of transnational repression in Bangkok. The direct impact will be to severely intimidate the hundreds of Cambodian political opposition figures, NGO activists, and human rights defenders who have already fled to Thailand to escape PM Hun Manet’s campaign of political repression in Cambodia….

Update 2: The story about this assassination gets more interesting by the day. Seemingly with amazing speed and astounding cooperation from Cambodian authorities, the alleged gunman, the Bangkok Post reports that “Ekalak Paenoi, 41, had fled across the border after carrying out the shooting of Lim Kimya on Tuesday evening. He was apprehended at a restaurant in Battambang province around 4.30pm on Wednesday afternoon.” That alone should raise questions about exactly what’s going on in this political murder case.

The report stated:

Police said the suspect, also known as “Sergeant Em”, had served in the marine corps unit of the Royal Thai Navy and was currently working as a motorcycle taxi driver. He was found to have a criminal history and an outstanding warrant for asset-related offences.

Pol Lt Gen Sayam Boonsom, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the suspect was likely to be a gun for hire and someone may have identified the target for him.

Also cause for suspicion, this from Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub: “We will investigate and determine if the motives [for the killing] were personal or otherwise… We don’t want our opposition party to link this to politics because it would impact the country’s image…”.