CAMBODIA'S RENEGADE POLICE CHIEF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PHNOM PENH 001509

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCOR KJUS CB
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA'S RENEGADE POLICE CHIEF


Classified By: A/DCM Margaret McKean, Reason 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. On August 2, an arrest warrant was issued
for Heng Pov, the powerful former Phnom Penh Municipal Police
Chief and Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of
Interior, who reportedly was tipped off of the impending
arrest and fled the country by the time the RGC moved to
arrest him. Since that time, the Cambodian media has covered
the RGC's charges of corruption and murder against the former
MOI official, as well as Heng Pov's counterclaims against
Cambodia's National Police Chief Hok Lundy and Cambodian PM
Hun Sen. Press reports have focused on Heng Pov's colorful
career and speculation as to whether the charges against him
have been fabricated for political reasons. Most agree that
Heng Pov's abrupt fall from grace reflects a power struggle
with Hok Lundy, who considered Pov a rival. Reaction to Heng
Pov's statement (issued through his lawyer) in Phnom Penh has
elicited little more than a shrug; sources claim that Pov's
accusations reflect what most people already considered
common knowledge. The PM is reportedly furious with Lundy
for having failed to arrest Heng Pov before the renegade
police chief revived allegations against senior RGC officials
that Hun Sen would prefer remain dormant. The political
opposition, on the other hand, is enjoying the renewed
spotlight on the unsolved politically motivated crimes over
the past decade. End Summary.

Heng Pov: Good Cop, Bad Cop
--------------


2. (SBU) Since late July, one of Cambodia's most senior
police officials has remained outside the country in
Singapore while the RGC frantically has tried to have him
returned to face charges of assassination, attempted murder,
and corruption. Following the issuance of an arrest warrant
on August 2, the government claimed that Heng Pov was wanted
for the April 2003 murder of Phnom Penh judge Sok Sethamony,
the attempted murder of a military police official (Lt.
General Sao Sokha),illegal confinement of a female suspect,
and attempted murder of Kim Daravuth, the Director of the
Cambodian electricity utility. During a search of Heng Pov's
residence, the police confiscated over USD 300,000 (of which
a portion -- USD 30,000 was claimed to be counterfeit USD
money) and a range of weapons. The police also froze a
Canadia bank account reportedly in Hang Pov's name that
contained roughly USD 1 million. Heng Pov's wife explained
that the money confiscated from the family residence was
derived from the sale of a Phnom Penh property and operating
funds for her import business. (Note: The wife is a
well-known businesswoman who imports food products from
Singapore for hotels in Siem Reap. End Note.) She claimed
to know nothing about the counterfeit money the police
alleged they discovered at the residence.


3. (U) Since the story broke, the media have followed the
RGC's attempts to have Heng Pov returned from Singapore,
where the ex-police official retained the services of an
Australian lawyer. In addition, there have been lengthy
pieces detailing Heng Pov's career as a police official,
which date back to the 1980s, through his work as chief of
Cambodia's anti-drug unit in the 1990s, and more recently in
conjunction with his tenure as Phnom Penh police chief.
Relatives and friends of Heng Pov portray him as a good cop
who bucked the system and refused to play along with the
corrupt regime led by Hok Lundy and the government led by PM
Hun Sen.


4. (C) In countering the RGC's list of alleged crimes
committed by Heng Pov, the former MOI official issued his own
statement in which he detailed allegations linking Hok Lundy,
other senior MOI officials, as well as the PM to virtually
every major unsolved political killing since the early 1990s.
For Hok Lundy, Heng Pov added the crimes of passport fraud,
drug trafficking and money laundering. Heng Pov's statement
has been picked up by the press in Cambodia as well as the
opposition press. Heng Pov also provided an interview to
L'Express, a French news organ with links to the Sam Rainsy
Party. (Note: A French Embassy official confirmed that Sam
Rainsy's wife Tioulong Saumura has a sister who works for
L'Express, which often runs anti-RGC material. End Note.)

Fall From Grace
--------------


5. (SBU) Heng Pov's relationship with Hok Lundy has been
turbulent for some time, and the former police official has
had contentious relations with other senior police officials
in the past. Mok Chito, the head of the penal police in
Phnom Penh, has had a poor relationship with Heng Pov since
the early 1990s, when Heng Pov accused Chito of killing

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protesters during the lead up to and after the 1993
elections. In 1998, Chito accused Heng Pov of the attempted
murder of a newspaper editor. Heng Pov has also had a rocky
relationship with military police commander Sao Sokha, who he
accused of drug trafficking as well as killing FUNCINPEC
loyalists during the 1997 coup.


6. (SBU) The in-fighting within the MOI between Heng Pov
and other officials, however, was never enough to keep Heng
Pov from continuing to advance in his career. Before he was
removed as police chief of the Phnom Penh Municipality in
January 2006, Heng Pov had developed a close relationship
with Hun Sen and had become a senior advisor on security
matters to the PM, which reportedly enraged National Police
Commissioner Hok Lundy. As the senior police official for
Phnom Penh, Heng Pov placed many of his friends and
associates in key positions, and had developed a following
more loyal to him than to Hok Lundy -- according to a former
international police advisor. Although Hok Lundy succeeded
in firing Heng Pov from the top police slot in Phnom Penh,
the PM and DPM Sar Kheng reportedly refused Lundy's request
to remove Heng Pov from the government. Heng Pov received an
Undersecretary of State position in the MOI, but had little
authority and virtually non-existent portfolio. He also
retained his title as advisor to the PM.


7. (SBU) Following Heng Pov's removal in January 2006,
rumors circulated that Hok Lundy was preparing to develop a
series of criminal cases against the former police chief. In
February, the police arrested some of Heng Pov's former
subordinates in the Phnom Penh police; six were convicted of
killing a female detainee held in police custody in 2005.
Although the six officers confessed to the crime, they
reportedly did not implicate Heng Pov in this case. The
warrant for Heng Pov was issued in conjunction with the
testimony of one of the six men, who testified in court to
having killed a Phnom Penh judge on Heng Pov's order. (Note:
Interestingly, after the officer who accused Heng Pov of
issuing the order was turned over to Prey Sar prison, he
escaped and has disappeared. End Note.) Heng Pov fled the
country shortly afterwards, and many in Phnom Penh speculate
he was tipped off in advance by friends in the MOI.

The Aftermath and Hun Sen's Ire
--------------


8. (C) A senior MOI official told A/DCM that he and others
discussed the Heng Pov case before the RGC issued the
warrant, and reportedly urged DPM Sar Kheng to reconsider the
wisdom of arresting Heng Pov. The same official noted that
Hok Lundy had bungled the arrest and allowed Heng Pov to
escape. "Who would issue an arrest warrant without knowing
in advance where the person would be at the time the warrant
was issued so that he could immediately be detained?" he
wondered aloud. A man like Heng Pov had many friends inside
the RGC, would hear of the warrant, and had the means to
escape quickly, he added. Another MOI official says he just
does his job and is keeping his head down for the moment.


9. (C) On August 18, rumors circulated from the MOI of an
angry phone call from the PM to Hok Lundy over the latter's
handling of the Heng Pov case. The Prime Minister was
reportedly furious that Hok Lundy not only allowed Heng Pov
to flee the country but that the National Police Commissioner
has so far been unable to convince Singapore police
authorities to detain Heng Pov and remove him to Cambodia.
In the meantime, the former Cambodian police chief has
released his statement with the list of crimes associated
with Hok Lundy and the Cambodian PM. Lundy had reportedly
promised the PM that he would return from Singapore with Heng
Pov before the latter had an opportunity to go public with
his accusations against the RGC.


10. (U) Embassy soundings on reaction to Heng Pov's
statement indicate that the former police official's version
of events is not news. An ADHOC official commented that the
allegations are not new and corroborate what many in civil
society have suspected all along concerning
politically-motivated killings in Cambodia. Kem Sokha,
director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR),
agreed that the contents of the statement did not divulge
anything new, but he did not necessarily believe that
everything was true. He offered that the utility of the
statement was that it should be used to spur the government
to reopen the investigations of the cases with an eye towards
solving them to avoid continued suspicion that RGC leaders
were behind the actions. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy told
A/DCM that he received security threat information on
occasion from Heng Pov in the past -- as Heng Pov wrote in
the statement, and always heeded the police official's

PHNOM PENH 00001509 003 OF 003


advice. Rainsy added that he was not in a position to assess
the veracity of anything further in the statement, but also
called on the RGC for a complete investigation of the
allegations. Finally, Rainsy warned that Heng Pov would
"almost certainly" be killed if returned to Cambodia, as the
RGC could not afford the spectacle of a public trial.

Comment
--------------


11. (C) The RGC clearly miscalculated in its handling of
the Heng Pov case. If the government had been prudent, they
would have not allowed Hok Lundy's personal vendetta against
the former police official to override a careful weighing of
the pros and cons associated with Heng Pov's arrest and
trial. No matter how one examines this issue, Cambodia's
government still looks bad when its top police officials are
launching serious accusations and countercharges against one
another that go back more than a decade. At the very least,
the RGC looks bad for having such an incompetent and
unprofessional police force -- and not doing anything about
it over these many years. At this stage, the RGC remains
focused on securing Heng Pov's return to Cambodia from
Singapore. As for the allegations contained in Heng Pov's
statement, the RGC managed to ignore them in the past until
public attention subsided, and will likely try to do the same
now -- despite calls from civil society that the unsolved
killings be resolved and those responsible be brought to
justice. End Comment.
MUSSOMELI