Why was a Cambodian opposition politician killed in Bangkok?

It had all the hallmarks of a merciless and professional execution.

Near a famous temple in Bangkok’s historic royal district, a man is seen on security camera video parking his motorcycle, removing his helmet, so his face is clearly visible, and calmly walking across the street.

A few minutes later a shot is heard. Someone falls down.

The killer walks quickly back to his motorcycle, seemingly dropping something as he does, and drives away.

The victim was Lim Kimya, a 73-year-old former member of the Cambodian opposition party. CNRP, which was banned in 2017. He was hit in the chest by two bullets, according to Thai police. He had just arrived in Bangkok with his wife by bus from Cambodia.

An officer tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“He was brave, independent,” Monovithya Kem, daughter of CNRP leader Kem Sokha, told the BBC.

“No one but the Cambodian nation would have wanted to kill him.”

Lim Kimya had dual Cambodian and French citizenship, but chose to stay in Cambodia even though his party was banned. The CNRP – Cambodia National Rescue Party – combined two opposition parties, and in 2013 it came close to defeating the party of Hun Sen, the self-proclaimed “strongman” who ruled Cambodia for nearly 40 years. before giving birth to his son Hun Manet in 2023.

After his call in the 2013 election Hun Sen accused the CNRP of treason, shutting down and subjecting its members to laws and other means of torture. In 2023, Kem Sokha, who had already spent six years under house arrest, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Assassinations of high-ranking politicians, while not uncommon, are not uncommon in Cambodia; in 2016 a prominent opponent of Hun Sen, Kem Ley, was shot in Phnom Penh and in 2012 an environmental activist. Chut Wutty was also killed.

From the video of the security camera, the Thai police have already identified the killer Lim Kimya as a former Thai army officer, who now works as a taxi driver. Finding him should not be difficult.

However, whether the killings are fully investigated is another matter.

In recent years many freedom fighters fleeing oppression in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand have been returned after seeking sanctuary, or in some cases killed or disappeared. Human rights groups believe there is an unwritten agreement between the four neighboring countries to allow security forces to target border protesters.

Last November, Thailand sent six Cambodian dissidents, along with a young child, back to Cambodia, where they were quickly imprisoned. All were recognized by the United Nations as refugees. Earlier in the year Thailand also sent a Vietnamese Montagnard activist back to Vietnam.

In the past Thai activists have been abducted and disappeared in Laos, suspected by the Thai military operating outside their borders. In 2020 a young Thai man who fled to Cambodia, Wanchhalerm Satsaksit, kidnapped and missingagain considered by Thai workers.

Cambodian authorities did little to investigate, and announced last year that they had closed the case. It is possible that the same will happen in the case of Lim Kimya.

Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates in Thailand said:

“Dissidents and refugees are being sold for political and economic support by neighboring countries. The growing trend of international repression in the Mekong region must be stopped.”

When the US and UK-educated Hun Manet succeeded his father as Cambodia’s prime minister there were speculations that he would rule with a light hand. But opposition figures are being prosecuted and imprisoned, and the few remaining places for political cooperation are on the verge of being closed.

Since his retirement, Hun Sen’s image continues to haunt his son’s administration; now he wants a new law to be established that anyone who wants to remove him from his position is a terrorist.

Thailand, which fought hard for, and won, the seat of the UN Human Rights Council this year, will now be under pressure to show that it can bring justice to those behind such an attack on the streets of its capital.