Cambodia is a country with corrupt government so naturally crime prevention is not a priority. Crime prevention is typically not even on an agenda. The result is a lawless country with incapable and underpaid police force. Add to it the fact that Cambodian culture is a culture of violence and you get the picture of a country with super high levels of crime, including violent crime against tourists.
Getting scammed and ripped off on a daily basis is something I won’t even list as a crime against foreigners in Cambodia as petty crime is so frequent, every tourist visiting the country will be subjected to it on every step of their stay. Instead, let’s focus on more serious crimes that happen more often than anyone cares to admit – violent crimes in which foreigners are brutally murdered:
Australian Man John Edward Thompson Clubbed to Death in Sihanoukville
Sihanoukville is a coastal resort town in Cambodia and is well known for being one of the most dangerous places in the world. While majority of Tuk Tuk drivers throughout the entire country are shady, you occasionally get a chance to deal with an honest driver who tries to make his living by offering decent services. You can even find such in Phnom Penh but they don’t exist in Sihanoukville. Virtually every Tuk Tuk driver in Sihanoukville is a crook with the rest of the local populace consisting of some of the most dangerous individuals anywhere in the world.
47 year old John Edward Thompson of New South Wales, Australia was clubbed to death in a robbery with wooden sticks while living in Sihanoukville, where violent crime against tourists is more than common.
Source: Daily Telegraph Australia
19 Year Old British Student Eddie Gibson Went to Cambodia and Never Returned
According to the words of his mother Jo Gibson-Clarke, Eddie Gibson, despite being a teenager was well travelled and very capable. He was on his way to visit Bangkok, Thailand but also went for a short visit to Cambodia and has never been seen or heard from again. Like so many before him and so many after him, Eddie Gibson simply vanished in Cambodia with no one investigating on his disappearance.
As I have explained countless times before, violent crimes without repercussions are easy and frequent in Cambodia. The cost of a human life is low (you can have anyone offed for $50) and guns are plentiful. With former Khmer Rouge henchmen roaming the country freely, still armed with their military grade weaponry and explosives, killing someone is a matter of simply wanting to, or having been paid a little to. The body would be then thrown in the jungle where wild dogs will eat it and no one will ever hear from you again. Cambodian police will not investigate and no one will be brought to justice.
Source: Daily Mail UK
David Mitchell, Owner of Ginger Monkey Bar Murdered in Phnom Penh
37 Year Old David Mitchell – a British owner of a Ginger Monkey bar in Phnom Penh and his girlfriend, 29 year old Jane Nye – a journalist from Wellington, New Zealand were stabbed in an armed robbery by a nymphetamine addict in Cambodia’s capital city. David Mitchell died as a result of vicious stabbings, while Jane Nye who had her throat slashed and got bludgeoned survived and was recovering in the hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.
If you survive a violent attack that near kills you, the first and most obvious thing to do is to remove yourself from Cambodia immediately. You don’t want any more dealings with this murderous nation and besides, if you come to a Cambodian hospital with life threatening wounds, you’ll leave with life threatening wounds and an HIV.
Source: New Zealand National News
French Tourist Jean-Pierre Blouin Killed in Sihanoukville
63 year old Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blouin was found floating in the sea near Ocheteal beach with fatal wounds to the neck, head and chest. His passport and an empty wallet were found nearby.
In an unrelated incident, another Frenchman, the hotel owner in Cambodia was hacked to death with a meat cleaver in his bedroom.
In yet another unrelated incident, a Canadian girl was raped on a beach in Sihanoukville by a Cambodian military police officer in 2004.
Source: Monsters and Critics
Canadian Aid Worker Jiri Zivny Beaten and Left for Dead in Sihanoukville
43 year old Jiri Zivny was a member of the team of volunteers from International Humanitarian Hope Society, a Kamloops, BC, Canada based humanitarian agency that specializes in distribution of vitamins and food to orphanages in Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Burma. In mid January, 2009 Jiri Zivny was withdrawing money from an ATM machine in Sihanoukville when he was attacked, brutally beaten and left for dead in a ditch. When he was discovered, he was stripped of all of his possessions, including his clothes and in a coma. It took a while to get him to the hospital where he was later proclaimed dead due to severe head trauma suffered during the attack.
In an attempt to play down the crime (or perhaps in an attempt to come with a fabricated “breaking story” to establish himself as a superior journalist), a news surfaced that according to some Canadian, the murder of Jiri Zivny was a traffic accident. Even though Jiri Zivny’s body had no rash or scratches typical of bike accidents, and had his cell phone, camera, money and clothes disappear with the attack, Cambodian officials are in a major rush to make his brutal murder play down as a traffic accident. Such whitewash is something that could be expected. Cambodian authorities are experts at sweeping the story under the carpet if it could jeopardize visitor numbers.
Source: National Post
Contradicting Statements About Safety in Cambodia
This is the list of just a few documented cases of foreigners – both tourists and expats killed in violent crime attacks in Cambodia. Strangely enough and following truly bad journalism, many reports contain contradicting or downright silly statements regarding safety in Cambodia. For example following statement from the Reuters report about the murder of David Mitchell in Phnom Penh concludes with the following statement:
Despite its reputation for lawlessness, most violence against foreigners in the impoverished southeast nation, which is still recovering from decades of civil war including the Khmer Rouge genocide, is limited to street crime or assault.
Most violence against foreigners is limited to street crime or assault? Hmm… Does that not cover it all, really? Sure there are also foreigners hacked up with meat cleavers in their own bedrooms, like the French hotel owner, but getting violently assaulted in the street is all it takes to get you killed in Cambodia and that’s exactly what happens in this country more often than any politically correct newspaper would like to admit. Tourist safety is in question so let’s stop being politically correct and call a spade a spade. The politically incorrect translation of said statement, without beating about the bush would read:
Foreigners in Cambodia are subjected to considerable danger of being the victims of violent crime.
Then there is an even more ridiculous statement about safety in Cambodia in an article related to the murder of Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blouin who was killed for 2,000 Riel (about $.50). The statement reads:
While muggings are common in Cambodia, where a sense of lawlessness and a gun culture remain after decades of war that ended in 1998, serious attacks on foreigners have been rare.
Wow! So mugging is not a serious crime? Does this reporter mean that unless a person dies, it’s not worthy of mentioning and doesn’t add to how dangerous the country really is? Violent armed robberies are extremely common in Cambodia and just because some people survive them – regardless of how bloodied and near dead they end up – are we not supposed to count them and continue fooling new travellers to Cambodia with statements that Cambodia is otherwise safe?
Many foreigners (including myself) have been and still are subjected to violent assaults in Cambodia, but all know really darn well that reporting the assaults to the Cambodian police is a waste of time. Yet it’s only a waste of time if they are lucky. In a less lucky case, upon reporting, they would be subjected to extortion or ridicule by the police themselves. Thus, foreigners simply chalk it up as a bad experience, try to collect themselves and swallow the pride hoping it will not happen to them again. The scars follow them for the rest of their lives, but there simply is nothing they can do about it in a country like Cambodia. Unless the case involves shockingly gory loss of life, not only will it not be reported to the police, it will not make it to the media at all.
What Causes Violent Crime Against Tourists in Cambodia?
It is important to understand that a country with hundreds of murders each day will not get an international community talking. However if a government arrests just one person outside of standards accepted by the international community, that could cause a massive media backlash. One wrong arrest could result in human rights violations accusations which could result in shrinkage of foreign aid and foreign support for opposition to oust current dictatorship.
Hence for a government of Cambodia it is easier and more “international media friendly” to let violent crime get out of hand, even if it involves tourists, than having any of the criminals prosecuted and put away. Unfortunately, this approach hurts both ordinary Cambodians who needlessly die in the hands of criminals the number of which seem to be growing like mushrooms after rain, as well as foreigners who are far more attractive targets for violent crime than the locals.
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Even if the case of Jiri Zivny was the way Cambodian authorities are trying to play down, it would still show Cambodians in true light. Whether he was beaten to death and robed right after leaving the ATM machine, or beaten to death and robbed after he got into an accident that rendered him unable to protect himself, the Cambodians who did this to him showed how dangerous the country really is. When Jiri Zivny was near dead, they stripped him of all of his possessions and clothes and finished him up before leaving him in the ditch to die. Even if he landed there because of the accident, it was because of Cambodians that he got no help, but was instead beaten some more and then robbed. What a nation!
I find it hard to believe that what u write here is a comon threat to all visitors to Cambodia.
Was there for a week (drunk sometimes too) and NOTHING happened.
I might made a shit of myself at a few occasions, but nothing dodgy happened.
I went walking everywhere in PP at any time of day searching for something to eat and looking for pubs.
Once I rented a bike and got totally lost and I ended up at someones porch eating with them. Had to stop a tuk tuk to get back to the hotel, and even though the driver asked me not to bring the bike along, I insisted and in the end he was cool with it.
Of course bad things happens everywhere, but I think u have dug up the worst things u could find about Cambodia.
I love the country and the people and most definitely going back there again!
foreigners are not welcome unless they
give all there money to cambodians,this is thanks to ngos and organisations that
\helped confuse these people…If you have any sense stay out of asia ….
Jimmy, what do you mean by “stay out of Asia”. Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei are great countries to visit.
And yes Mark, Cambodia is definitely not safe at all.
Hello Kelly,
thank you for your comment. I agree with Singapore and Brunei. I visited both countries while I was in the area and found them safe in all regards (also safe for larger purchases because consumers are protected from scam so you are backed up in case you get to deal with a shady person – unlike it is in Malaysia, Thailand or Cambodia). Compared to the rest of Asia, traffic situation is also much safer in Singapore and Brunei and pedestrians are respected as traffic participants, which is something you won’t find elsewhere in SE Asia. These two are definitely some of world’s safest countries.
Malaysia however, is a slightly different game. I spent 5 months there – because people are nice, there is a lot to see and it is a very “foreigner friendly” country that will get you spoilt cause it’s so easy to get by with English and find your way around with signs you understand.
Malaysia was the only country in SE Asia where I tried hitch-hiking (and was very successful, aside from one time when I tried to go to an extremely remote cave and there was only on average one car per hour going down that road). I was once picked up by a mad driver who had a class 7 BMW (quality car), but he drove like mad down windy road of Belum Forest reserve in heavy rain. I thought I was going to die he drove so recklessly, but the car truly stuck to the road and kept its balance despite inappropriate driving.
People of Malaysia offer help even if you don’t ask for it. It’s definitely one of the finest countries in Asia and one where I spent more time than anywhere else (I really liked it there, I won’t lie). However Malaysia is also home to some of the worst drivers in the world. I actually think they are worse than Chinese drivers in China. That makes for very bad road safety. Sidewalks are either non existent or in bad conditions forcing people like me – who like to walk everywhere – to walk on the road where world’s worst drivers drive in the most uncourteous manner imaginable. There are often no ways for pedestrians to safely cross the road and if you have four lanes on each side, full of drivers who don’t respect pedestrians, you’re in for a tough time crossing it.
That all aside – the best way to tell how safe a country is, is by doing a reality check on it. You do it by going to http://www.BestGore.com website (exercise caution as it is a reality website and reality is often not very pretty) and search for the country you intend to visit to find out what takes place there. I hate to admit this, but Malaysia, even though I had the best possible experience travelling through it, is a very dangerous country. With high intentional homicide rates and some of the worst traffic accidents (which are all facts that can be looked up on BestGore.com) I would really have hard time putting it in the same league with Singapore or Brunei.
Mark
“Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei are great countries to visit.”
Brunei? Oh lor! LOL.
The above ‘catalog’ of crimes against foreigners in Cambodia is but a handful of incidents over the last five years or so, and pales into absolute insignificance when compared to the number of similar happenings in neighbouring Thailand. There, foreigners (mostly white Westerners) are dying off at the rate of around 5 or 6 a week, most of which the horribly corrupt and predatory Thai police dismiss as ‘suicide’ (victim is found with his hands tied behind his back and a plastic bag over his head!) or ‘natural causes’. Recently, nine people have so far died in very mysterious circumstances connected to a hotel in Chiang Mai, which is still allowed to remain open and tout for business – “coincidence” – proclaims the Governor of Chiang Mai. A cursory investigation into who actually owns this hotel will explain why they are allowed to continue operating with impunity.
A couple of years ago, the British Foreign Office announced that Thailand accounts for the deaths of more British nationals overseas than any other country. A staggering statistic, when one considers that Thailand attracts only 0.6% of outgoing tourism from the UK.
While I agree that one should certainly exercise due caution in certain areas of Cambodia, particularly at night, one needs to keep a sense of perspective. Yes, the country is dirt poor, corrupt, with a venal and basically useless police force, and a repressive government whose only concern is lining their own pockets; but so too is much of the Third World. For horrendous crime rates, senseless violence, unbelievable squalor, and rampant corruption at even the most elementary levels of society, much of Latin American and Africa make Cambodia seem like a bastion of civilization in comparison.
Overall, Cambodia is a lot less dangerous for tourists and foreign residents than many other places on the globe, including huge swathes of the so-called ‘developed’ West.
No doubt Thailand, Cambodia and many other asian countries are quite equally dangerous and most uncomfortable for any foreigners who have to struggle with little money or travelling alone.
Me and my partner and best friend are in Sihanoukville now, after spending 6months travelling in South-East Asia. We have genuinely loved Cambodia so far… until 2 nights ago when we were brutally attacked… TWICE.
My boyfriend and I were walking along the beach in the evening on our way home from a bar, when a Cambodian man ran past, grabbed my bag from my shoulder and bolted into the darkness. (In it was my camera, both our phones, ipods, money etc). We walked about 40 meters from the beach to the main road looking for help. We both looked obviously upset and distressed, and to add insult to injury (or injury to insult in this case) a middle aged white man who was sitting in a tuk-tuk by the road ran at us from behind, beating my boyfriend around the head with a metal bar. I started screaming as my boyfriend fell to the floor, at which point the man turned around, ran at me, and smashed my face in with the bar. He then got back in the tuk-tuk and drove away. He didn’t speak, or take anything (we clearly had already been robbed minutes earlier). The tuk-tuk driver, a Cambodian man, just watched. A group of Cambodian people who were sat eating nearby immediately ran away also, clearly not wanting to get involved. We staggered up the street hysterical and bleeding, when another Cambodian man turned up and took us to the police booth. The policeman on duty took one look at us and laughed, telling us it was not his problem, and to go away before he arrested us for disturbing his nap. Within minutes, a group of about 70 people were surrounding us trying to help, including a Cambodian man who said “I saw everything, I was the man’s tuk-tuk driver.” When asked where he took the man, he promptly changed his story and left. Someone rang the police who were annoyed that there was no money in it for them (they wanted us to pay them to find the criminals), and told us to go to hospital. Some friendly Russian men took us to hospital, paying for the tuk-tuk. The hospital staff would not treat my partner for his head injury, then proceeded to stitch my face up without anaesthetic! Horrific pain. One of the Russian guys helping us was actually weeping seeing the distress we were in. They did not treat me for my clearly broken nose, or ask if we had other injuries. Then, they were reluctant to let us leave because we couldn’t pay the bill – even though we explained we had just been robbed and needed to get in touch with our insurance company.
My mum, back home in England, got in touch with a member of the British Embassy based in Sihanoukville, who came to our hotel and helped us. He first took us to the general purpose chief of police who said it was not his problem – we needed to go to the tourist chief of police. We went there, and this policeman accused us of everything being our fault, and told us to go back the next day. We returned the next day to get a police report, which we had to write ourselves, and it had a word limit! They also demanded that we omit the whole metal-bar violent attack part because it would look bad on their records!! We wrote it on anyway because none of them could speak or read English. The British Ambassador told us no investigation would take place, as the police worked pretty much solely on bribes, and even if they did catch the two separate criminals, they would be able to pay off the police so there would be no just outcome.
The horror of this ordeal has left us distressed, traumatised and massively out of pocket (but thankfully our insurance are going to cover it). Since then I have read up about the vast amount of crime that occurs and goes unreported or unsolved in the area. I still love Cambodia, but would advise anyone who visits Sihanoukville to exercise extreme caution, even when traveling in groups. And if you are unlucky enough to experience crime, make sure you get all the correct documentation needed for insurance, and do not have faith in the police.
Sihanoukville in particular is one of the most dangerous places for westerners (Tourists and expats alike) in Cambodia. 2 Weeks ago, end of April 2012 there where 4 fatalities in Sihanoukville alone in one week !! the first one was considered “suicide” : see:http://www.kambodscha.don-kong.com/2012/05/07/was-nachts-in-sihanoukville-alles-passieren-kann/
Although it is in German, the picture tells it all. The second story was happening on Sihanoukville’s Ocheteal Beach where an Australian had his throat cut. A day later the French owner of “Cambadia” Restaurant at Victory beach had shot himself and the last one, possibly a brit was pushed off the road while driving his rented motorbike. He instantly died. None of this ever appeared in the local press. Cambodian Daily and Phnom Penh Post are possibly too busy to raise AD Revenues from the 3000 NGO’s. Sihanoukville has over the last 10 years got considerably worse. At the start of the rainy season the outlook for cambodians and expats alike is more than bleak.