There is no law in Cambodia, there is no justice in Cambodia. So what is there to stop anyone from killing you? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! If the person you encounter feels like drawing blood, they will because there is nothing to hold them back. And once you’re lying dead in the ditch, life for everyone in Cambodia, including your killer will go without change, without remorse. Unhindered, undeterred and unpunished, the killer will wait around for another opportunity that offers itself.
Being a lawless country, killing someone in Cambodia carries virtually no punishment and since all of the guns used by Khmer Rouge are still in the country, distributed amongst the populace without any control or regulations, why would anyone hold back? Afterall, even those who killed an estimated 2.5 million people escaped the punishment, so what is a couple of murders compared to the genocide?
But than… how is it possible that some people claim that Cambodia is not dangerous?
It’s simple – if you look at it closely, you will notice that nobody has the balls to go as far as claiming straight up that Cambodia is not dangerous. If anyone does, they always include countless “buts” in each sentence that carries the “not dangerous” statement. One must read between the lines to better understand what they mean when they say that “Cambodia is not dangerous, one just needs to exercise common sense”. So let’s take a closer look at what it means:
Cambodia is not dangerous, but don’t wander the streets alone after dusk
Translation: Being a country that’s close to the equator, daylight hours are identical to the nighttime hours virtually year round. By saying that you shouldn’t wander the streets of Cambodia alone after dark means that you should lock yourself up after 6pm because Cambodia is too dangerous during the 50% of the time you spend there.
Cambodia is not dangerous, but don’t carry more than $15 on you at any given time
Translation: It is almost certain that if you stay in Cambodia long enough, sooner or later you will get mugged, but because of incapable police force, muggings are never reported so people just chalk it up as a terrible experience because that’s about all they can do about it in Cambodia. And since you stand such a high chance of getting mugged with zero chance of recovering your possessions, don’t carry anything expensive on you so that the loss is as minimal as possible.
Cambodia is not dangerous, just avoid confrontations with locals at all costs
Translation: Locals carry guns and are not afraid to use them. They will stare you down, laugh straight into your face and otherwise try to provoke you into a self defense mode so they can enjoy taking another foreigner down. The richer a kid, the more provocative they get.
Cambodia is not any more dangerous than, say… New York
Trust me, getting mugged in Cambodia is different from getting robbed in New York. First of all, unlike in Cambodia, 90% of New York residents don’t spend their time looking out for easy victims of crime they could mug. Likewise unlike in New York, 90% of Cambodians are too lazy to go to work to try to help themselves. They rely on someone else to help them which leaves them with too much time on their hands to kill.
If you do get unlucky and get jumped by a robber who tries to move your valuables from your pockets to his in New York, you stand a good chance that he would take the stuff and run away. Muggings in Cambodia are nothing like that. During the course of an ordeal you will be subjected to an endless violence and even if you manage to diplomatically give them all of your possessions without getting hit, before they leave to move on to the next foreigner, they will either shoot you, or in a better case just hit you with the handle of their gun. This is if you do not try to resist in any way.
If you do try to resist, their natural aggression will come out in all of its glory and you will understand why they refer to Cambodia as the culture of violence. Cambodians are accustomed to violence and live being violent every day. Cambodians seek confrontations and will keep provoking you at all times to give themselves a reason to come at you with violence. If they have nothing else to say, they will tell you that you look too white to be in their country and that it offends them. If you respond to it in any way, you will see them come at you with their naturally violent selves. That is what they want.
Cambodia is not dangerous, but…
So here is the answer to all the riddles. 90% of all visitors to Cambodia will do exactly as stated in the points above. They will get picked up by their hotel at the airport, take taxi everywhere they go to minimize contact with and exposure to the locals, have a guide by them at all times or travel as part of an organized group, etc. As such, the chances of encountering a violent crime Cambodia is drenched with is next to zero. It’s not surprising all of those people will say that they have never felt threatened in Cambodia.
Sticking with popular tourist spots that are always full of foreigners and avoiding self reliant transportation options, such as a bicycle, without ever wandering off the beaten track drops chances of a violent attack to near zero even in a country full of criminals like Cambodia. So if all you care about is an artificial experience, then chances are you will not find Cambodia dangerous. That’s what majority of people do and they come and leave without any major problems. And that’s why you hear so many people say that Cambodia is not dangerous. That’s simply because they were smart and didn’t attempt to meet the real Cambodia which is nothing like what they say. The real Cambodia is without doubt, one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
History of Cambodia is a history of violence. Violence has been part of Cambodian culture and everyday life for centuries and is as prevalent today as it has always been. As a traveller who spent a few months in the country and didn’t go through it locked up behind the safety fence of his hotel, I was exposed to the reality of the Cambodian ways, including its endless violence and crime. I have already shared the stories of other travelers who were victims of violent crime while travelling through Cambodia, and now I would like to share my personal experience and answer the question “Is Travel to Cambodia Safe?” with my own stories.
I stay in amazement when I see certain bloggers or forum members go through lengths to portray Cambodia as a safe country. Whatever the agenda behind such purposeful twists of truth is, I can’t help but express the horror over how public is systematically mislead. It takes savage imagination to call Cambodia a safe country. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
The following is nothing less and nothing more than my personal, firsthand experience after 2 months in Cambodia. These are not reports I got from other people, this is what happened to me personally:
My Personal Experience
I came to Cambodia with an open mind. I have been volunteering and supporting this country since the moment I set my foot on its soil and continued doing so unhindered despite the ordeal locals were repeatedly putting me through. Just as most other visitors to the country, I was also told that it was safe to travel in Cambodia. Having traveled through many countries before, including third world, non western countries (6 months on various islands in the Caribbean and 2 years in Eastern Europe – aside from countless other countries) I knew one has to keep his wits together and play it safe at all times, but still I came here believing that Cambodia was reasonably safe.
Theft
The very first time I had an unfortunate encounter was after two weeks in Cambodia at a more remote temple on the grand circle of Angkor. I locked my bike and walked inside the temple when I got that funny feeling that maybe I should have locked my bike against a tree rather than merely locking the wheel against the frame. This was the first time I only had my bicycle locked against itself and sure enough, as I walked out of the temple, I saw little kids who stood around with the banner that they were from an orphanage carrying my bike away. I yelled at them instantly, so they dropped the bike and bolted away. It was particularly disappointing since only minutes prior I had donated money to their orphanage as that’s what they were there for. Needless to say, I left that temple instantly even though I have only seen a small part of it.
Photo: Preah Khan Temple Where Fake Orphanage Kids Tried to Steal my Bike
A few days later, I had the bicycle lock keys stolen. I know I should have kept it on my chain along with other keys, where it’s much safer than loosely in my pocket, but it was becoming inconvenient as I rode the bike everywhere so I kept using the keys all the time and pulling the whole bunch on a chain became troublesome. Luckily, when a person who was suspiciously getting close to me unexpectedly left, I checked to see whether I still had all of my belongings and as I saw missing keys, I went right to my bike which was still there (in my vicinity all the time), took it to the shop to pay 2000 riel to get the old lock sawed off and spent additional 5000 to purchase a new, vastly superior lock. Unfortunate event, but I still ended up with little loss so I wasn’t making much of it.
Phnom Penh
It wasn’t until the time to renew my visa came. I wanted to combine it with a short trip to Phnom Penh. My stay in the nation’s capital started with a boy of about 10 years of age trying to steal my wallet. Cambodians, even though skilled thieves are not very smart and he failed to put two and two together so my wallet stayed safely fastened to the chain with the keys on the opposite end. I’ve worn my wallet on the same chain for 20 years and have never had my wallet, or my keys stolen thanks to it. I would have to be either unconscious or threaten with lethal force to lose it. The boy used the moment when I was posing myself to take a picture of hundreds of motorcycles taking off at the traffic lights, pulled the wallet out of my rear pocket and bolted off only to have the wallet ripped out of his hands by the chain that remained sealed in my other pockets thanks to a bunch of keys attached to it. Even though I was focused on the photo I was about to take, I still could feel the wallet coming out of my pocket so I don’t know how exactly he thought he was gonna be successful with this pull. What do you do with a 10 year old when you catch him stealing, though?
Photo: I Was Posing to Take a Photo of the Phnom Penh Traffic When a 10 Year Old Attempted to Steal my WalletPhoto: My Wallet and My Keys Are Connected With a Chain Making Them Difficult to Steal
Violent Crime
I only had three days to spend in Phnom Penh, but the crime was persistent. The day prior to my intended visit to the immigration office, I was jumped by a man a block away from the riverside, not far from FCC. He came running from behind me and skilfully snatched at my bag in an attempt to steal it. Not willing to part with my $1,600 laptop inside, I managed to grab at the strap as the bag was leaving me and started to fight back for it. It was followed by the thief yelling something in Cambodian, after which I saw several dozen men with metal rods, knives and machete loom out of every direction running towards me. I don’t know what that man yelled at them, but he obviously abused the fact that I was a foreigner so he said something in a language I couldn’t understand to set those people against me. And they surely did.
I have never run that fast in my life. I don’t even know how I escaped getting killed there that day, but I counted my blessings and when the following day came, instead of going to renew my visa, I went to the Vietnamese Embassy and got myself a visa to Vietnam so I could leave Cambodia instantly. I called people from the village where I was volunteering that I would not be back, because I feared for my life and that instead I was going to Vietnam. As I was riding the bike back to my guesthouse from the Vietnamese Embassy, I saw a group of people standing around a bullet riddled body along the road. I didn’t have the camera with me to take pictures of it as I rode across Phnom Penh to spend my whole day dealing with the visa situation, but this has added a seal of approval to my decision to leave the country. Besides, where there is one dead body in Cambodia, there are also people with deadly firearms. I wouldn’t want to join the dead man by being next with a bullets in my head.
Vietnam vs Cambodia
Vietnam was a whole different world from Cambodia. It was a breath of fresh air I desperately needed. Not only has it helped me to relax and get over the terrible experience from Cambodia, it was also a place where locals respect tourists (unlike it is in Cambodia). I could walk into a supermarket, do my thing and walk out – there would be locals there, but no one would start whistling at me from across the street, clapping hands at me and yelling like I’m a cheap whore. It was unbelievably liberating to have this type of treatment after a month of abuse in Cambodia. There were locals out there, but they were minding their own business, leaving me alone to enjoy my time at my own pace.
Then I would go for a walk (I have explored entire Ho Chi Minh on foot) and there would be tens of thousands of motorcycles passing by me every minute, yet I did not get any of them in my face every 3 seconds like it is in Cambodia. It was incredibly refreshing. When I went to highly touristed places, that’s where I would occasionally get asked whether I wanted a ride on a moto, but when I said “no”, it was a “no” and I was not bothered by that person anymore. That’s again unheard of in Cambodia. But what I really liked is that even beggars in Vietnam have respect. Cambodia is the only place I know of where a 10 year old kid would say “Fuck You” straight to your face if you don’t give him any money after he asked for it.
From the beginning I could not understand why treatment of tourists in Vietnam was so different from Cambodia, even though they are so close to each other. Why did people in Vietnam leave me alone? Vietnam is not that rich either and unlike Cambodia, they don’t enjoy extra millions from tourist revenue because they don’t have anything equal to Angkor to attract mass numbers of tourists there. And then it all came together.
I noticed that Vietnam was abuzz with construction. There was work in progress everywhere I looked. People were not bothering me, simply because they were involved with their own lives. Millions on motorcycles are either on the way to work or from work. Unless they are on the way to school or from school or on the way to get something for the family. Either way, they are involved with their lives. They work to provide for their families and as such, they don’t have time or interest to bother tourists. They actually appreciate them and are grateful when they visit their country. I have also encountered unconditional help in Vietnam, which something that doesn’t exist in Cambodia, but that’s a whole different story.
Back in Cambodia
I got caught between a rock and a hard place though. I left Cambodia because it was unsafe and too much crime was being committed against me too often. However I did spend a month there building upon something, using my own finances and knowhow to improve the living conditions of people in a remote village but with my premature departure I left it unfinished. I knew that many people whom I started helping would fall back into poverty if I abandoned them before my work has been finalized.
I started to feel the sense of responsibility for being the only hope for a better life these villagers had, so I decided to give Cambodia another go. I thought – since it was Phnom Penh where my life was put in danger in a violent crime attempt, if I stayed away from there, I should be fine.
More Theft
So I came back to Siem Reap and commuted every day 12 km each way to and from the village which is close to Sras Srang moat, not far from Banteay Kdei temple within the Angkor area. I continued teaching English there for free and started a campaign to raise funds for the purchase of solar panel to electrify the village while preserving the environment. All was fine again for about a week, until we went to celebrate some occasion close to that traffic circle, by the entertainment park in Siem Reap.
Photo: My Cell Phone Was Stolen by an Organized Group of Thieves While We Were Leaving This Concert in Siem Reap
At one point when we were leaving, the street got extremely congested with traffic and we had to push through a group of people which was further congested by food carts on wheels. I had my camera with me and since I felt three young men pressing at me from behind and poking at my beg, I held the bag firmly with my arm, shoving my other arm inside the bag to hold firmly onto the $5000 camera. These young men kept pressing on me from three sides which appeared as though it was on purpose, but I assumed they were in a rush to get through so I didn’t make a big deal out of it and just continued guarding the camera inside my bag. Then at one point the pushing stopped and the boys were gone. I figured they must have changed their plan as these food carts truly kept everyone stuck and gave up on getting through quickly.
The moment I got out of there, I found the cell phone missing from my pocket. I immediately realized what the purpose on pressing on me and poking at my bag was and realized that teamwork and stealing skills of Cambodians are not as backwards as everything else. They work as a team and know very well how to keep you distracted and focused on something while someone skilled at withdrawing things from pockets does what they are best at. This was a painful experience and took me a while to get over with. It was extremely disappointing as I spent a lot of money in Cambodia, brought in some more from other sources, invested a lot of time and effort to improve the lives of people here and this is what I was getting in return.
Murder Attempt
My faith in Cambodia was broken and despite trying hard, I was having troubles recovering from the disappointment cell phone theft had brought upon me. But the biggest hit was yet to come. A couple of days after my cell phone was stolen, I was riding to the village from Siem Reap where I was staying. It’s a 45 minute bike ride (when you step on it and ride swiftly) and I was almost there. Literally, I only had about 2 more minutes before reaching the turn off to the village.
Feeling good that I was almost there, I saw that man crossing the road. I steered in the opposite direction of his walking, but he seemed to have stopped instead of continuing walking so we could safely dodge each other. As I was getting closer, he snatched at my bag I had hung on the handlebars and pulled at it in an attempt to steal it which was followed by a swing of a machete.
Photo: Camera Bag Attached to Handle Bar Gears Look As Though It Was in a Basket
I have a bicycle with gears. Unlike most Cambodian bicycles, it does not have a basket above the front wheel. However I have been using gear shifts on both sides of my steering bar as hooks on which to hook my camera bag. So instead of having it strapped around my body, I had it safely hooked on the gear shifts as the bag has a handle which is just wide enough to stretch on both hooks. I realized that when I hooked my bag on the handle bars like that, from a distance it could look like it’s actually a bag placed loosely in the basket which is a standard part of most bikes in Cambodia. That is likely what the man who snatched at it was thinking.
Photo: Bag Handle Stretches Just Enough to Go Over The Gears to Stay Safely Attached to the Bars
I cannot describe the horror of the experience. The man grabbed at my bag and yanked at it to run away with it, the bag remained safely attached to my steering bar, but it jerked my bicycle which I had at good speed causing me to fall and nearly splatter on the road. A swing of his machete followed and missed my torso by an inch. Had this one landed, I would have disappeared out of all knowledge like British student Eddie Gibson who came to Cambodia and was never heard from again.
This was a direct murder attempt with intentions to rob me off my bag which I have only avoided by a miracle. The man who attempted to kill me couldn’t have known whether there was anything of value in that bag, but since I was a foreigner and had a bag in an area surrounded by jungle and there were no other vehicles on the road which otherwise sees a fair deal of traffic, he took the opportunity and tried to kill me to steal it. Had he succeeded, he would have just dragged my bloodied corpse into the forest so it rots there until the end of days. Unhindered, the man would be free to continue roaming the roads with his machete waiting for his next encounter.
My guardian angel was by me that day, though. The yank resulted in a complete loss of balance but I have somehow managed to stick my foot down and not splatter, but in that process I scratched it quite badly and bled (especially from the heel) like a stuck pig. I could not believe this. I was almost in the village. Given the proximity to the village, I assumed it could have been either a person from the village I haven’t met yet, or someone who lived reasonably close. Why would they otherwise roam around in the neighbourhood?
When the villagers saw me all bloodied and trembling with fear following the near death experience, they asked me what happened and I told them. They also wanted to know what the man who tried to kill me looked like to possibly identify him, but given that I almost died not expecting it, I was so shaken, the last thing I had on my mind was to take a good look at the guy. Plus, I still had the memory of my last altercation I had with a man who tried to steal my bag in Phnom Penh and that ended up with a group chasing me with deadly weapons. This man tried to kill me. Hurting or not, as soon as I was able to get back on the bike, I darted right off from there not looking back, as if I confronted him, he would likely continue swinging the machete until a hit that disabled me was delivered.
Cambodia IS Dangerous
This basically concluded my stay in Cambodia. I immediately started making plans to change my return ticket to leave asap but Korean Air proved excessively difficult to accommodate such requests when they are made outside of the country of origin. This kept me in Cambodia for a few extra days. I stayed mostly locked in, as from my personal experience, Cambodia is extremely dangerous.
I have been half way across the world, but it took a country like Cambodia for a man to fear for his own life. And these are by no means isolated incidents. Since I have been volunteering within Angkor area and close to one of the main temples (on short circuit which is done by most people who visit the park), I got a chance to meet many tourists with horror stories. It starts with seeing people carrying disposable cameras and asking them why the hell would they come all the way to Angkor with this piece of plastic – and hearing answers that this was their only option since their camera along with the money and passports were stolen, all the way to girls walking out of the temple scared to death, crying because they were just raped inside.
Is travel to Cambodia safe? No it is not. Cambodia is one of the most dangerous destinations in the world, period!
Is Travel to Cambodia Safe? How to Draw Your Own Conclusions
So the question that comes to mind is – then how come there are so many people who insist that Cambodia is safe? Well, at this point, instead of trying to raise any more points to prove my case over theirs, I will leave it up to you to make your own mind up and decide for yourself whether Cambodia is safe or not. And in order to come to such conclusions, you need to know what the people who live in Cambodia are like.
One of the most obvious things I noticed right upon coming to Cambodia are countless banners warning tourists to stay away from child sex tourism. It is forced into everyone’s face by banners throughout the country to a point that it becomes ridiculous. Even if you are someone like me, who would not only ever consider sex with a child, but would not even have it cross their mind, by being constantly reminded about it, it almost seems as though Cambodia wanted to introduce itself as a country with striving sex tourism.
Photo: Child Sex Tourism is Advertised All Over Cambodia
I have spoken with countless people, including the police officers and while there definitely are occasional cases of tourists sexually abusing children in Cambodia, these cases are very sparse. Vast majority of all sexual abuses of children are done by local men – the same men who are responsible for an infamous title attributed to Cambodia – the rape capital of the world. Rapes are extremely common in Cambodia and not only are they never punished, they are never even reported because for one – the police force is a joke and secondly, it is socially and culturally unacceptable for a girl to admit that she had a pre marital sex, even if she was violently forced into it. To sum it up – excessive number of Cambodian men are a bunch of sexually abusive characters who don’t stop at nothing. Not even when it comes to helpless children. This is important to understand when coming to Cambodia and you are unsure after hearing one side claiming that Cambodia is safe, while another claiming that it is dangerous. Just take into an account that it is a country of rapists and draw your conclusions from that.
Photo: Boys and Girls in These Pictures Were Recruited by Khmer Rouge To Act as the Killing Machines. Today They Are 30 Years Older
Aside from being a country of child rapists, Cambodia is also crammed with former Khmer Rouge henchmen. These killing machines who were enlisted as young children to kill on daily basis are now in their 40s and 50s and are as used to kill as they were in their early teens. Just because they took off their Mao hats and put on fake designer shirts it doesn’t mean they forgot how to pull the trigger or hack a head off. Having killed dozens of people since they were kids and never facing any repercussions or punishment for it, these people are all over Cambodia and still have the same guns and explosives they were given when they were recruited to kill. Unpunished and allowed to live freely after countless murders, these men and women are but a small part of a large group of armed and dangerous killers Cambodia is full of. Regardless of whether you believe those who say that Cambodia is safe or those who say that Cambodia is dangerous, by visiting Cambodia you will be entering a country where Khmer Rouge murderers roam freely, equipped with uncontrolled and regulated military grade weapons. Instead of believing one side or another, draw your own conclusions based on facts. Take a close look at the type of people who make up much of the society and the picture should be quite clear.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The very first thing you notice upon your initial encounter with native Cambodians is that they are extremely pushy and aggressive. The very second thing you notice is that Cambodians are extremely rude and take great joy at making tourists feel uncomfortable. They take great joy at other people’s misfortune and/or suffering regardless of whether they are foreigners or fellow Cambodians, but the joy of laughing at foreigners and making them feel uncomfortable with purposefully loud remarks aimed at their person is a double score.
You know the “10 points” joke we make in western countries? It refers to the GTA style computer games and you use it while driving. If you’re on an open road with no other vehicles ahead of you and an elderly person comes grinding slowly across the road, you make an inappropriate remark that you have “10 points” right ahead of you. It implies that if you floored the gas pedal and pancaked the elderly, you’d earn yourself sweet-arsed 10 points. As it goes, if it’s an elderly person with a walker that crosses the street, then you’re looking at scoring mighty “15”.
Something of that sort happens as a daily routine among Cambodians. Locals of this country are the laziest people in the world who refuse to go to work and instead spend their entire days bored out of their minds, sitting on their motorcycles, killing time by entertaining themselves any way they can. But by just sitting outside with nothing to do, their only source of entertainment are people who come into view.
Photo: Groups of Lazy, Bored Out Of Their Minds Canbodians Can Be Found on Every Corner
If something you’d normally consider a “not a big deal” happens to you – for example if you were pulling smokes out of your pocket and the box fell on the ground so you’d have to bend over to pick it up – you’d hear those locals laugh out loud like they’re watching Tom and Jerry. It was nothing worthy of mentioning that happened to you and in all other countries you would just pick it up and go without anyone ever winking an eye, but that’s not the case of Cambodia. Cambodians are extremely malicious and any chance to laugh at another that offers itself is taken a complete and thorough advantage of.
Now, if something more noteworthy happens to you – you slip and fall, for example – then the bored-out-of-their-minds Cambodians will explode with laughter. In any civilized country people would either try to help you or if you can help yourself, they would pretend that they didn’t see your misfortune so as not to make you feel uncomfortable, but that’s not the case of Cambodia. Locals here take great joy at making everyone and everything feel uncomfortable and will not miss out on any opportunity to show how rude and spiteful they are.
But it doesn’t end there. Cambodians will also laugh at you when they should be the ones to be laughed at. For example if you come to a store and there is nobody to serve you. Or imagine you are riding a bicycle, you get to a gate you need to get through in order to get somewhere but you can’t get across because lazy Cambodians who are killing time have their motorcycles parked there. They will loudly laugh at you for their own stupidity, for not realizing that they are blocking a passage by unqualified parking.
And as mentioned with the “10 points” example above, just as you get 15 points for running over an elderly with a walker, they feel extra entertained when they see a foreigner in a tight situation.
But scoring up foreigners doesn’t end with the lazy types who sit around whole day. This principle also applies to road crossing itself and since Cambodia is known for having the worst drivers in the world with sidewalks blocked up with motorcycles forcing you to walk on busy streets, you will have thousands of bikes and cars to dodge each time you decide to take a walk. And if you take into account the traffic rules of Cambodia, as a pedestrian, you are on a complete end of the traffic food chain with absolutely nobody paying any respect to you. It will be your responsibility to watch out for the traffic which will come at you from all sides, including the sidewalks. Yet as a foreigner, if you fail to keep a keen eye on traffic to safely dodge the vehicles, it will be like scoring mighty 15 for running over an elderly with a walker. In Cambodia, hitting a foreigner is like hitting a jackpot on a VLT.
Yet this is all still something you can avoid. What you can’t avoid in Cambodia is being continuously and uninterruptedly harassed by the Tuk Tuk drivers, touts and other scam artists. They are all extremely aggressive and don’t take “No” for an answer. I’ve been all over South-East Asia but no other country has scam artists who are this much in your face and this ruthless. You will have to deal with hundreds of them every day, oftentimes approaching you with deliberate intentions to make you feel pressured. If there is a group of a dozen Tuk Tuk drivers one right next to another, even though they will all hear you say “No, thank you!” to the first one, they will still each get in your face as though this will ever make you reconsider not riding with any of them.
But this is only the beginning. After politely responding that you were OK and didn’t need anything today, you will have them say something to each other in their native tongue loud enough to ensure that you can hear it and will have themselves one hell of a laugh to make you feel as uncomfortable as possible. If this discomfort results in you tipping over a curb or anything of sorts, this will be again like scoring the mighty 15.
If you make a local friend of opposite sex with whom you will go somewhere, hostile Cambodians will continue making extremely rude remarks both at you and at her (or him, if you’re a girl with a local male). Then you will know clearly how rude they really are because your companion will be targeted as well and they will tell you what remarks were used.
Of course, rudeness of Cambodians doesn’t end there. You will be stared down on every step of your stay in Cambodia. The more dangerous an individual, the more they will stare you down, laugh at you in front of your face and otherwise look for (provoke) trouble. Cambodians do not care about being friendly. They are only falsely friendly when there is a chance to easily make money off of you. Discrimination in Cambodia is prevalent and the locals will do anything to make you feel out of place. As sad as it is, it’s time that someone called a spade a spade.
The rule of Khmer Rouge ended more than 30 years ago, but the genocide in Cambodia continues. Even though Pol Pot, the leader of Khmer Rouge is dead, Hun Sen, one of former Khmer Rouge henchmen keeps his legacy alive. Hun Sen’s genocide may not as fast paced as Pol Pot’s was, but with more than a million people killed as a result of Hun Sen’s rule, it is clear that only the names have changed, the oppression remained the same.
Photo: Skulls of People Killed During the Khmer Rouge Genocide from Wat Thmei, Siem Reap
The rule of Khmer Rouge caused an international uproar and had to be buried. This was a cue for Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party to enter the scene and gain control over shaken and divided nation. Hun Sen killed or silenced everyone in his path until his grip on power was iron strong, continuing with the genocide right where Khmer Rouge had left off.
Ta Mok
30 years later, people are still being killed, opposition is still being silenced and Hun Sen is in no rush to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders. Ek Choeun, aka Ta Mok, aka Brother Number Five, aka Butcher – one of Khmer Rouge’s most prolific killers remained a powerful figure until 1999 when he was apprehended but his trial was being purposefully delayed.
Duch
Kang Kek Iew, aka Duch – the infamous leader of the Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21) in Phnom Penh, under whose command at least 14,000 Cambodians and 8 Westerners were brutally tortured and eventually killed spent several years after fall of Khmer Rouge roaming freely throughout Asia, working as a teacher in Thailand and China. He resurfaced in Cambodia as a new-born Christian and became a lay pastor until the 1999 interview with investigative photo-journalist Nic Dunlop in which he disclosed the details of Khmer Rouge atrocities. Duch surrendered to Cambodian authorities following the publication of the interview but the trial has been dragging with no sentences being handed down.
Being former Khmer Rouge and closely identifying with the genocide, Prime Minister Hun Sen wanted to prevent the prosecution of his fellow Khmer Rouge comrades and declared that in the name of national reconciliation it would be best to bury the past and let the Khmer Rouge generals live freely until an old age has taken them. If it weren’t for strong international pressure, neither Ta Mok, nor Duch would have gone to prison. Yet the only reason Hun Sen decided to please the international community was so it continues supporting his corrupt government with billions of dollars from taxes of western taxpayers. In his undying selfishness and greed, he agreed with imprisonment of his Khmer Rouge comrades. But prosecution and sentences are still being delayed.
Duch has been a bit of a pain in the neck for Hun Sen and his corrupt government as of late, though. Stating that he feels sorry for his deeds as a leader of S-21 Tuol Sleng prison camp he is determined to go all out, dusting off a bunch of closeted skeletons with a tell-all. These types of confessions could bring the likes of Nuon Chea – second in command and Pol Pot’s right hand – into a spotlight, for ordering Duch to kill US citizens Michael Scott Deeds and James Clark along with six other westerners and burn their bodies with tires so there are no bones left.
Nuon Chea
Unwilling to prosecute Nuon Chea, Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to forsake the prosecution of this man who’s known for having been the second worst Khmer Rouge. Nuon Chea was allowed to live freely after his atrocities until 2007 when as a result of international pressure, he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Just as it goes in Cambodia, no sentences have been handed down in his case. Meanwhile, the genocide continues.
Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary was also granted freedom until 2007 when international community put too much pressure on Cambodia for not prosecuting the Khmer Rouge criminals. Considered to be one of Khmer Rouge’s worst, Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in absentia along with Pol Pot after the overthrow of Khmer Rouge in 1979. Jokingly enough, he was pardoned by Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk in 1996.
Khieu Samphan
Even though Pol Pot was officially the leader with executive power over Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan bore the title of the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea. That would make him the leader on paper, but in reality the real leader was Pol Pot. He enjoyed undisturbed freedom until 2007 and made his first appearance at Cambodia’s genocide tribunal in April, 2008 in which his defence lawyer claimed his client was never directly responsible for the genocide.
Pol Pot
As the leader of Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot was directly responsible for the Genocide in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million people died as Pol Pot’s people tried to cleanse Cambodia according to the Maoist ideologies. After the invasion of Cambodia by the Vietnamese army lead by the Khmer Rouge traitor, current Cambodia’s prime minister Hun Sen, Pol Pot fled to the jungles near the border with Thailand and operated Khmer Rouge from there. Up until 1997, Khmer Rouge was recognized by the United Nations as the rightful government of Cambodia. Pol Pot died a year later, on April 15, 1998 in his home while under house arrest, but lived to be a mass murderer until the end of his days. Son Sen, life-long right-hand of Pol Pot and eleven members of his family were executed upon Pol Pot’s orders on June 10, 1997 following the speculations that Son Sen was trying to make a settlement with current Cambodian government.
Hun Sen
Perhaps the most notable Khmer Rouge henchmen, especially considerable for being still alive and still in control of Cambodia is Hun Sen. This mass murderer has blood of more than million people on his hands and an overall horrible human rights track record. Under his rule, the genocide in Cambodia is still ongoing, only now it took a sneakier, more sophisticated form. Hun Sen removes everyone in his path and strengthens his grip on power with the use of power. He is one of the most dangerous criminals in the world today but his genocide is so clever, instead of facing international condemnation, he enjoys international aid that amounts to billion US dollars a year. This money, which comes from the pockets of western taxpayers is sent to Cambodia to help weak economy but ends up laundered in the pockets of Hun Sen and people close to him. Meanwhile, direct opposers of Hun Sen are silenced while millions of Cambodians live on less than $1 a day, completely deprived of health care and education.
Khmer Rouge Today
Khmer Rouge is dead – on paper. But thousands of henchmen recruited as children to kill dozens of people on daily basis are now in their 40’s and 50’s and are all over Cambodia. These people still possess military grade weapons and explosives that float around Cambodia uncontrolled and unregulated. With the police force being as corrupt as the government that controls them, crimes don’t get investigated, unless it somehow affects the senior officials. The Khmer Rouge henchmen are out there, all over Cambodia ready to off anyone for $50. Or for free, if you piss them off or get in their way. Your body would be thrown in the jungle where wild dogs would eat it to the bone. Noone will ever hear from you again and noone in Cambodia will care. After you have been offed, the Khmer Rouge assassin that murdered you will wait around for his next $50 job.
Photo: Used to Kill from an Early Age, These Young Khmer Rouge Henchmen Are Now Middle-aged Men and Women
Interpol’s Most Wanted Fugitives
More than a hundred of Interpol’s Most Wanted Fugitives are former Khmer Rouge killing machines who are allowed to roam Cambodia freely and call it home after their government refused to bring them to justice. Thousands more call this country their home and just as their “Most Wanted” comrades, they are as dangerous and as used to kill and get away with it. They’ve been killing since they were 14 and never faced any repercussions for any life they took. Do you think much has changed now that they are 45?
Dangerous Cambodia
Cambodia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Judiciary system is corrupt, the police force is a joke and only installed to shelter the illegal activities of their government. All that while serial killers with millions of guns available to them hang around in all areas.
Khmer Rouge is dead – on paper – but don’t let its demise fool you. The genocide in Cambodia continues unhindered with armed, middle-aged men pulling their weapons out when they don’t get their way. To give false perception of a safe country so the influx of hard currency that tourists bring doesn’t stop, the corrupt government skews the crime statistics and it does seem to be working. No one would dare to travel to Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge years, yet even now, more than 30 years later the country remains as dangerous as it was in the late 70’s. Violence is still part of the nation’s culture, only since the fall of Khmer Rouge, it hasn’t been making international headlines.
While 12 million Cambodian live on less than $1 a day, a handful of people are extremely rich. There is no middle class in Cambodia – only too many extremely poor and a few extremely rich. The Rich Cambodians are richer than can be explained in words. Prime Minister Hun Sen, who took control over Cambodia by mercilessly removing anyone standing in his path became the youngest and wealthiest premier in the world when he was only 33 years old. After killing more than million people, Hun Sen is right up there with world’s most vicious dictators, second only to Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin.
By privatizing Angkor Archaeological Park to keep near a billion US dollars in direct revenue it generates a year for themselves, and by illigal logging and further exploitation of country’s natural resources to keep billions of dollars these generate for themselves, the corrupt government of Cambodia strips their own people of any share in wealth historical, cultural and natural resources of Cambodia provide. These resources should and do belong to all Cambodians, yet the revenue, even though it’s more than one could fathom ends up in pockets of the rich. In a country of estimated 14 million people, a few dozen are extremely rich and extremely powerful. The rest are either barely scraping it or completely unable to make ends meet. Let’s take a closer look at rich Cambodians:
British “The Sunday Times” recently published an article on children of rich Cambodians and high lifestyles they get to live. Their parents are the senior officials of the world’s most corrupt government with pockets so fat they don’t know what to do with all that money, so their children get to spend it. And as is obvious from the article, they do enjoy the privileges of wealth and are not afraid to flaunt it. You can check out the full article on the following link:
There are two countries in Cambodia. One is real Cambodia – full of underprivileged and impoverished people whose first thought of the day is the worry about whether they will have enough rice to feed the family with today. In this Cambodia, 8% of children die before the age of 5 deprived of medical care and any real chance to live decent lives.
The other Cambodia is the country of the rich. It houses a handful of people who keep billions of dollars generated by illegal logging, smuggling, land grabbing and corruption for themselves. Through systematic exploitation of historical and natural resources which should benefit all of Cambodians, this handful of people strips the public of any share of the profits their resources generated and finance their super high lifestyles with it. These rich Cambodians made themselves untouchable as military, police and justice system are all controlled by them to do as they are told.
Children of Rich Cambodians are sent to study at prestigious foreign universities and are given all the money in the world to enjoy themselves any way they please. They wear military VIP stickers on their car’s dashboards which gives them complete immunity. The police won’t touch them and if they get involved in an accident or other dispute, it will always be that other party’s fault.
The life of Rich Cambodians is sweet. Living in heavily guarded Tuol Kuok district in Phnom Penh, rich Cambodians have all the money in the world and keep the power tightly among themselves. Meanwhile, foreign governments keep sending more and more funds which Cambodian government relies on when planning their annual budgets. Why would they bother including money generated by Angkor Archaeological Park or extensive deforestation into the budget? Foreign governments blindly send them money, so they can keep profits from Angkor and illegal logging for themselves. Afterall, their children like to drive half million dollar cars and go on exotic vacations countless times a year.
Cambodia has vast gas and oil deposits but has not started exploiting those yet. Oil rich economy could send a wrong signal to foreign governments that the country makes enough money and doesn’t need donations to plan out a budget anymore. Whereas by keeping the majority of its population below the poverty line by stripping them of the profits generated by their historical and cultural resources, Cambodia appears poor with slow economy so leaders of western countries spinelessly send support funds to strengthen the Hun Sen’s iron grip over the country.
Hun Sen doesn’t have any formal education, yet he’s planned this one out well. Khmer Rouge is dead, but his new, modern version of it with complete control over a nation including merciless removal of any and all opponents puts Khmer Rouge to shame. And while Hun Sen’s opponents are being silenced, his loyalists grow richer by the hour. Ordinary Cambodians have no chance at real freedom for as long as this corrupt government is in power. But with their firm grip over country’s military with all generals being close allies of the prime minister, it would take international military intervention to remove this totalitarian government from power. However, seeing how Hun Sen has it all well played out, it’s not gonna happen anytime soon. He keeps 3/4 of his populace extremely poor so foreign countries feel sympathy and instead of coming with force to remove the dictator, they send annual fundings that reached one billion US dollars in 2009.
Meanwhile, ordinary Cambodians are driven from their lands at gunpoint by government controlled soldiers or military police. Rich Cambodians have it all, the rest of the population has nothing at all. I wonder how much will foreign donations grow into by 2010. Yet the saddest part is – chunk of my own taxes will be in it!
Aside from ripping the people of Cambodia off by giving control over Angkor Archaeological Park to a private company, the corrupt government of Cambodia lead by the extremely dangerous dictator Hun Sen also rips people off by excessive deforestation and illegal logging. Angkor Archaeological Park attracts millions of foreigners to Cambodia, resulting in near billion dollars in direct revenue, yet most of it gets lost in a black hole controlled by the corrupt senior officials. Angkor is a historical and cultural heritage of all Cambodians, yet ordinary people do not see a penny out of the money it generates. Through Sokimex, private company with close ties to the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), Angkor was privatized, taking the heritage away from the people and into the hands of the elite.
Likewise, Cambodian rainforest which is the largest remaining lowland evergreen forest in mainland Southeast Asia is a natural resource of all Cambodians, yet through illegal logging the corrupt government of Cambodia ensures that ordinary people don’t reap any benefits from their rich natural resources.
Photo: As an Environmentalist, The Abuse of Cambodian Trees Makes Me Very Sad
The deforestation in Cambodia continues at unprecedented rate that has no match anywhere in the world. This deforestation continues while foreign governments, which sent upwards of one billion of taxpayer’s dollars to Cambodia in donations each year, do absolutely nothing to intervene.
Illegal logging is part of a large scale asset-stripping operation pulled on the people of Cambodia by their own, corrupt government. While Cambodian forests continue to get ransacked, small group of people keeps the profits leaving ordinary people with no improvement in quality of their lives, even though the forest also belongs to them. However from my own standpoint, from a standpoint of a Canadian taxpayer whose taxes are in part used to support this corrupt government instead of imposing sanctions on it for ongoing destruction of fragile Cambodian environment – I’m pissed.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates, Cambodia lost 29% of its tropical forest between 2000 and 2005. International experts tend to agree that illegal logging took even faster pace after 2005, when Global Witness – the London, UK based activist organization which monitored Cambodian forest for 12 years was expelled from the country. Global Witness accused Cambodian government of excessive deforestation when permits and licenses to cut trees were given to friends and relatives of high Cambodian officials. As a result, they were driven out of the country.
Cambodian government, the most corrupt government in the world only cares about themselves and their own bank accounts. They are willing and ready to exploit any and all of the resources the country has without using any fraction of it to help ordinary people. And what do the foreign governments do about it? Give them more money, money of their own taxpayers so Cambodian elite can strengthen their grip on the economy and further slow the alleviation of poverty and protection of the environment.
As I’m writing this, dozens of Cambodian trees were mowed down to satisfy the greed of the Cambodian elite. Illegal logging and excessive deforestation are here to stay and will not stop unless this government is stripped of power. Sadly, they will not let go without a bloodshed.
The roots of the political and government corruption in Cambodia go deep. In its purest form, the world’s most corrupt governments exploit country’s natural and historical resources for their private benefits. Resources of each country should be used to benefit all of the country’s citizens but instead they are used to fund exclusive lifestyles and power-grips of the select few while ordinary people are abandoned to living in poverty. The government of Cambodia took the idea of corruption a whole step further and aside from feeding their own bank accounts at the expense of the people, it also uses the poverty instituted and maintained by their own corruption as a store front that attracts donations from developed countries.
Corrupt Cambodian Leader
Dictator Hun Sen, the prime minister of Cambodia and one of the most dangerous criminals on this planet responsible for torture and deaths of thousands of people surrounded himself with personal allies who stuff money that should go to the treasury to provide for the people, into their own, deep pockets. Hun Sen has been murdering people since his young age and has no problem living with blood on his hands. Everyone daring to oppose him is removed, while his closest compatriots reap the benefit of billions of dollars Cambodia generates every year. The economy is purposefully kept stagnant so the people remain poor, while select few enjoy lifestyles beyond imagining, staying completely and entirely untouchable by law.
Millions of Victims
Dictator Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party have more blood on their hands than just blood of those killed directly upon Hun Sen’s command. There are millions of lives lost to Hun Sen’s greed by the extent to which Cambodian corrupt government diverts revenues away from the people. Cambodian public is deprived of health clinics and educational resources keeping them in the dark about the diseases and their possible prevention. As a result, millions of Cambodians who are not part of the elite die way before their time. According to the demographic statistics from the CIA World Factbook, marginal age in Cambodia is 22.1 years (21.4 years for males and 22.8 years for females) based on the data from 2009. CIA World Factbook also ranks the degree of risk of major infectious diseases in Cambodia as “very high”. It is because Cambodian government is the most corrupt in the world and only cares about their own pockets, not public health so people die way too young.
Estimated 12 million Cambodians live below the line of poverty. One by one they will die, indirectly by the hand of their corrupt government that deprives them of basic health care and availability of safe food and water. During the course of my stay in Cambodia I had made valuable friends, but our friendships didn’t even last until my departure. They died before I could move on.
Western Sponsorship of Cambodian Corruption
In 2009, Cambodian government received $1 Billion in donations from western governments. This money which comes from taxes paid by people like you and me was given to the Cambodian government as funds for reconstruction of the country and alleviation of poverty. After decades of such yearly donations, the efforts to alleviate poverty and accelerate the development of Cambodia have failed. Corrupt Cambodian government receives the money, but it is laundered (usually via dubious property purchases) to make it impossible to trace and once safely untraceable, it ends up in the bank accounts of corrupt senior officials close to Hun Sen. All efforts to alleviate poverty in Cambodia are thus hindered, completely wasting tax-payers money.
Exploitation of Resources
Through its cultural and historical heritage at Angkor Archaeological Park Cambodia attracts millions of dollars in easy revenue. Through the use of country’s natural resources, billions more are earned. If there were no corruption in Cambodian government, and if the government utilized the monies it collects through tax programs, customs and its historical and natural resources, reforms could be implemented that would vastly improve country’s economy and alleviate much poverty even without foreign monetary assistance. For now, deforestation continues at a rate not seen anywhere else in the world while all of the proceeds are kept by the corrupt Cambodian elite.
Unfortunately, at present time, funds from international donors are not used to help the people in Cambodia, but are instead diverted to the pockets of the Cambodian elite close to the prime minister Hun Sen. Cambodian leaders are plain and simple stealing from the people of Cambodia and even though most ordinary people are well aware of it, the riches accumulated by the senior officials as well as their firm grip of Cambodian military forces makes any real chance of change nonexistent. All opposition, people who dared to point fingers at Hun Sen or any of his close men were silenced, imprisoned, assassinated or simply disappeared without a trace. Uprisings are suppressed with military force to send a clear message that the power is firmly in the hands of Hun Sen and anyone looking to take it away from him will face the barrel of a gun.
Corrupt Cambodian Judges
The corrupt government of Cambodia likes how untouchable they are and enjoys their unlimited and undisputed power their positions provide. Judiciary system of Cambodia is not independent. It is owned and controlled by the government. Judges are appointed based on their political affiliations. Corruption can be found in all walks of life in Cambodia, but with the justice being part of the corrupt government, nobody has any real chance at freedom or justice and no signed contracts or land titles have any value as it’s always and only he who has better connections that wins the case.
Corruption Office
To add insult to injury, there is an anti corruption office on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh, nation’s capital city. I can only imagine what the purpose of an anti corruption office would be – to decide who is going to be fined and who will not be touched, based again on connections of the person who is complained against. Fighting corruption with corruption must be the biggest joke and the biggest insult ever. People running the anti-corruption office are appointed by the government based on their political affiliations. They are owned and controlled by the corrupt Cambodian government and are clearly there only to ensure that there appears to be an institution that fights corruption, but their decisions are the decisions of the government. Would you dare to report corrupt senior elite member to such anti-corruption office?
Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index
According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Cambodia remains one of the world’s most corrupt countries yet over the last few years, the ratings of the country rose a little bit. People behind the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index must have missed something or got bewildered by skewed statistics or sweet talking of the Cambodian government. Nothing has changed about Cambodia. The government here is as corrupt as ever – actually no! It’s more corrupt. It’s stronghold gets mightier every day as does its grip of the military and its accumulated riches. This government is so corrupt, thinking that after all the murders and abuse they would magically turn around and become nice officials willing to give the power to the people is laughable.
Corruption Law
One more thing about the government corruption in Cambodia. Due to international pressure, the government has approved what they call the “corruption law”. This came 15 years after it was first proposed, but if you ask any Cambodian who’s not a member of the ruling elite, they will tell you that there is a reason why it is called the “corruption law” – it is because it’s not meant to be an “anti-corruption law”. As something that could be expected from the world’s most corrupt government, the Cambodian corruption law is intended to iron net and protect corruption, not fight or eliminate it. Just as is the case with already existing anti corruption office in Phnom Penh, since it’s not an independent institution, but rather a government controlled body, the effectiveness of their actions is bound to be a joke. And so is the “corruption law”. After 15 years of building up the world’s most corrupt government but facing international pressure for it, Hun Sen came with an idea of introducing a law that will buy him extra time, while changing nothing about the way he manipulates the country. The corruption law will not address corruption in Cambodia, it will only make it more difficult to pinpoint and fight.
Ever since dictator Hun Sen’s Cambodian People Party (CPP) seized control over Cambodia in a bloody coup d’etat in 1997, the country has been topping the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index year after year for being run by the most corrupt government in the world. While Pol Pot, the leader of Khmer Rouge ordered to kill millions of people to secure his spot in the dictator’s heaven, Hun Sen took much more sophisticated approach and even though there is little difference between the results of his and Pol Pot’s actions, instead of causing international outrage, Hun Sen receives international aid.
For the likes of Hun Sen, killing people is business. He’s one of countless Cambodians who joined Khmer Rouge to torture and kill undesired individuals and for a few years he did just that. Little did Khmer Rouge know at the time that Hun Sen is a sneaky, self focused little bastard who will backstab his supporters and comrades for his own benefit. He went to Vietnam and started lobbying for backing to overthrow the regime he was part, but not a leader of.
After the Vietnam backed overthrow of Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen was appointed as Cambodia’s (at the time called Kampuchea) Foreign Minister. Even though not a full-on dictator yet, Hun Sen’s political career was already full of murder and torture. In 1987, Hun Sen’s led Cambodian Government was accused by Amnesty International of merciless torture of political prisoners. Thousands of Cambodians were treated with electric shocks, application of hot irons and brought on the brink of suffocation with plastic bags – following Hun Sen’s orders.
Power tripping Hun Sen continued to strengthen his position as a sole leader and dictator of Cambodia and managed to get the military commanders to join Cambodian People Party and ultimately become his ass-kissers. There was certain rivalry between the heir to the throne – Prince Norodom Ranariddh who was the First Prime Minister from 1993 until 1998 and Hun Sen who was his Co-Prime Minister resulting in bloody coup launched by Hun Sen to get rid of his rival.
Hun Sen’s coup d’etat resulted in deaths of at least 60 people and caused damage to Cambodian economy exceeding $76 million but the goal was accomplished. Through continuous and persistent removal of his opponents, Hun Sen sent himself on his merry way to become the sole leader and undisputed dictator of Cambodia with everybody else being his puppets on a string (either that, or systematically removed). Nearly 100 of Hun Sen’s opponents were murdered, tortured or never seen or heard of again within nine months of his military coup. Hundreds of others managed to flee Cambodia before they could be taken care of.
Hun Sen solidified his grasp on power and full control over Cambodia in 1998 with rigged elections, turning Cambodian People Party into the leading party with opposition suppressed or completely silenced. He’s been ruling Cambodia since, systematically strengthening his grasp over the nation, supported by US$5 billion in aid granted to Cambodia by western governments from the money of the taxpayers like me and you. In return, Hun Sen and his Cambodian People Party exploit natural and historical resources rights over which are given to private parties with close ties to his corrupt government.
Removal of Hun Sen’s opponents is ongoing. After topping his first premier Pen Sovann, Hun Sen then arranged to have Premier Chan Si offed in a Moscow hospital. Police General Heng Pov, also known for being the most corrupt police officer in Cambodia (being the most corrupt cop in the most corrupt country must be quite something) used to be Hun Sen’s advisor but after his fallout, he found himself in Cambodian jail where he sits without disturbing any more of Hun Sen’s peace. Heng Pov’s henchman Hok Lundi was killed in a dubious helicopter crash that was never investigated.
Hun Sen has become the world’s worst dictator and human rights abuser but his dictatorship is modern and sophisticated. Khmer Rouge took the wrong route and enraged international community. Cambodian People Party is like Khmer Rouge – it continues to kill its own people, but not by direct bullet in the head, rather by depriving them of education, healthcare and justice. Dumbed down, sick and morally exhausted population can’t threaten the position of a dictator, but it brings billions of dollars in humanitarian aid. Works well for Hun Sen. Khmer Rouge is outdated, Cambodian People Party is much more advanced version of it which instead of attracting condemnation of the international communities, attracts free money. Keep economy purposefully slow by giving all real money making opportunities to your supporters, it will keep the majority of the people deprived from any real chance to make it, allow their poverty and poor living standards be seen and then just watch foreign money roll in. While millions of your own people out there starve on less than $.50 a day, you and a handful of your close allies will drive a new $500,000 car each year while enjoying five star vacations in world’s poshiest resorts at least once a month.
This is real Cambodia and every single dollar you donate ends up in already unimaginably fat bank accounts of Hun Sen and his supporters. After decades of sending billions of dollars to elevate poverty in Cambodia, not one family has seen improvement in their living standards. The only living standards that continuously increase are those of Hun Sen and his approved few who have so much money they don’t know what to do with it anymore.
How is it possible that Cambodia makes billions of dollars from being home to Angkor Wat, additional billions of dollars as a result of excessive deforestation and mining, topped up with billions of dollars donated by western governments for government and administrative expenses, yet according to CIA world factbook, Cambodia’s external debts reached $4.127 in 2008? How is it possible that of 38,093 km of Cambodian roadways, only 2,977 are paved with infrastructure rebuilding taking near forever (Siem Reap to Poipet road took 8 years to finish. The road is 142 km long)? Yet military expenditures reach 3% of GDP.
Instead of allocating some of the resources generated by Cambodia to help alleviate poverty, dictator Hun Sen chooses to outsource mining and deforestation to foreign corporation in exchange for huge cuts from profits for himself. Thus natural resources which should belong to all Cambodians benefit only the elite lead by Hun Sen. Despite billions of dollars flowing in to Cambodia each year, living conditions for vast majority of Cambodians have not improved. Hun Sen is the prime minister and a sole dictator of Cambodia. If living standards of average people are the reflection of country’s leadership, then Hun Sen is a poor leader. Even after decades of his rule the poverty in Cambodia is as alarming as ever. So if Hun Sen is such incapable country leader, then why is he still prime minister? It’s because he’s a dictator. And as other dictators of modern times (Saddam Hussein, for example) he should be tried and have justice served upon him.
My first day at Angkor by bicycle taught me some valuable lessons and showed me what real Angkor is really like. It is not in my nature to sugar coat anything so I’ll say it how it really is. First of all, if you are into ancient architecture and find fascination with ancient Khmer civilization that was on top of the game in its time but then mysteriously vanished, then Angkor will blow your mind. However if you are not, every temple you visit after the first one will look the same.
Angkor Heat
I’m am used to riding long distances every day in all types of weather, facing the harshest of elements, but Cambodian heat is far more intense than heat of any other country I have previously visited. I spent 6 months on various islands of the Caribbean using bicycle as my sole means of transportation yet even though I was in the tropical climates with intense heat, it was nothing compared to Cambodia.
I met a guy from Vancouver, Canada who came to Cambodia from Indonesia and even though Indonesia is directly on the equator while Cambodia is much further north, he said Indonesia was just as hot, but Cambodian sun was way more intense.
An English fellow I met purchased a three day pass to Angkor and rented an air conditioned car to drive him from one temple to another so he got regular breaks from the sun and the heat yet he said he couldn’t do any more of it after one day. The heat was just way too intense to handle after he got out of the air-conned car space.
Angkor Touts
Cambodian sun will suck all energy right out of you within minutes, but there are far bigger dangers in and around Angkor that are far more difficult to deal with. Cambodian touts rely heavily on the sun which as I had mentioned sucks life right out of people leaving them completely burnt out after just a few minutes of exposure to it. The touts know that anyone who’s this exhausted can’t be 100% alert 100% of the time so they keep attacking all tourists with relentless intensity. All tourists are subjected to constant pressure from the locals so it’s only a question of time before one of them succeeds in taking advantage. If you’re lucky, it will only be money you will lose.
Combination of an extremely intense sun with inescapable heat wears everyone down way too much but constant pressure from the touts will force you to waste that little bit of energy you still have left on keeping them away. There is an endless supply of them. Once you shook one of them off, another three dozen will jump down your neck and won’t leave you alone no matter what you do. After they have pushed you to a point at which you believe it couldn’t get any worse, you will get a fresh score of them who will be twice as aggressive as the ones before. There is absolutely no escaping them and to constantly fight them off is extremely exhausting.
Angkor Crime
On top of touts and scam artists whose life purpose is to rip people off, Angkor is also full of extremely dangerous, violent criminals. Thousands of them possess weapons and explosive they’ve owned since the days of Khmer Rouge. The owners are for the most part former Khmer Rouge killing machines recruited as young teenagers to kill people on daily basis. They are used to drawing blood and seeing people die by their hand. They’ve been doing that since they were 14 and always got away with it. Little has changed since Khmer Rouge was suppressed. New, more dangerous form of it rules Cambodia today but for you as a foreigner, the most disconcerting part are the killing recruits who are nowadays in their forties and fifties and are as blood thirsty as they were when they were enlisted to kill.
The dangers of roaming through Angkor don’t end with former Khmer Rouge killing machines. Every Cambodian knows darn well that no crime against foreigners is ever investigated so all it would take it to butcher one with a machete and let them rot in the middle of the jungle where they will never ever be found. After one of those Cambodians got you, that will be the last time anyone has ever heard of you. Stray dogs will appreciate your maggoty flesh as they get treated like shit and are never fed by their masters so a little feast of this sort will surely do them good. BTW, Mahatma Gandhi once said that “you can judge a society by the way it treats its animals”. If that is true, than Cambodians are some of the most horrible people in the world. If you ever come to Cambodia, just take notice of how locals treat their animals and you still can breathe after it, remember the quote and draw your own conclusions.
Angkor Rapes
Despite obvious dangers, most visitors to Angkor will not experience problems as Angkor sees thousands of foreign visitors every day making violent crime in most areas difficult. That being said, wandering off populated areas or exploring temples solo is a very risky business. Yet it gets far worse if you are a girl. Cambodia is a rape capital of the world. Many, many and then some girls were raped in less frequented temples and none of it was investigated. Rape itself is the worst experience a girl could ask for during her travels, but getting raped in Cambodia also comes with additional, complimentary present – HIV!
None of the local girls dare to wander around after dark. They all lock up in their homes and always make sure a male they can trust, such as their brother is nearby because rape hungry Cambodians won’t stop at closed doors. Just about every Cambodian girl you ever get a chance to talk to has either already been raped or came this close to it. Shockingly, true Cambodian won’t shy away from any girl, regardless how young. Sexual abuse of children by Cambodian males is an every day thing and that also involves children who can’t even speak or talk yet.
When you are in Cambodia, it’s not about whether you will be a victim of crime, it’s about when. If you are lucky, you will come and leave before someone pulls it on you. That by no means that you only met nice people. That simply means that you didn’t give them a chance to attack you. If you keep your eyes open, you will see how just about every Cambodian will check you out closely, carefully estimating what the content of your pocket could be and how difficult it would be to gain control of it. They are extremely skilled in thievery and anyone whose observant enough will notice how they always check you thoroughly out for what could be stolen, even if it will not always lead to an attempt to steal. Intentions are undeniable, though.
Angkor Roads
Because Angkor is so overrun with tourists, you will be a difficult target for most fishy Cambodians even though they will relentlessly wait for their moment. This is the reason why most tourists get out of Cambodia unharmed. Many of them lack the ability to read people or are simply too dumbed down to see the obvious but to their credit, they will come back from Cambodia with naught but happy memories. Ignorance truly is a bliss. Perhaps the key to enjoying your stay in otherwise truly dangerous Cambodia is to party it out completely oblivious to dangers as unless you try to be an explorer, the likelihood of something bad happening to you is reasonably low.
However – and that’s a BIG however… even though you may avoid being a victim of violent crime Cambodia is so riddled with, there is one thing you will not avoid not matter what – getting killed in a traffic accident.
Cambodians are the worst drivers in the world with virtually no traffic rules in place (or enforced) whatsoever. Their desire to compensate for their hurting egos takes flight when they sit behind the wheel of a motorcycle or a car. It makes them feel empowered so they honk horns all the time to let everyone know that their macho ego is coming through and force themselves in with no respect for bicyclists or pedestrians. Yes, Cambodia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, yet despite of all that, their drivers are so awful you are in even greater danger from being killed by a vehicle each time you step outside the room than by a blood thirsty Khmer Rouge killing machine. Just imagine how horrible the road situation must be if it’s more dangerous than their uncontrolled guns and explosives possessed by the killing machines who have been killing since their early teens. This is what real Angkor is really like. Being a photographer and a journalist makes me to walk around with my eyes open. Sometimes I wish I was different so I could live with blissful ignorance, completely oblivious to all the dangers a countries like Cambodia represents. I’d come and leave and would just write about warm locals who were extremely nice to me, because I didn’t see that they were faking it to get money off of me. I’d write about helpful locals who showed me hidden treasures because I didn’t see they were setting me up but their plan was busted last minute by a group of Japanese guided tourists who showed up at what could have been the crime scene had they not been there.
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