Former Cambodian opposition MP shot dead in Bangkok ‘assassination’

Lim Kimya, a former member of Cambodia’s National Assembly with the now-exiled opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), has been shot in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, in an attack labelled an “assassination” by former colleagues.

Lim Kimya, 74, was shot dead shortly after taking a bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Tuesday evening with his French wife and Cambodian uncle, The Bangkok Post reported.

The CNRP confirmed Lim Kimya’s death in a statement, saying it was “deeply shocked and deeply saddened by the brutal and inhumane shooting” of the former CNRP member of Kampong Thom province.

Despite threats from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) under then-Prime Minister Hun Sen, the former opposition MP, a dual Cambodian and French national, reportedly continued to reside in Cambodia.

The Cambodian Supreme Court in 2017 dissolved the once incredibly popular CNRP and banned all of its political activities. In Australia, the United States, and other places where Cambodian diaspora communities are based, the party still exists as a group. In a statement shared on social media, the CNRP described Lim Kimya’s killing as an “assassination”.

(1/2) Bangkok’s Chana Songkhram Police Station has released more CCTV footages showing a suspect who brazenly shot and killed Lim Kimya, a 74-year-old Cambodian-French political activist. #bangkok #assassin #thailand pic. twitter.com/x2ObMIZob9

The political party is “closely following the murder case and calls on the Thai authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation,” the statement read.

Thailand’s Metropolitan Police Bureau is searching for a gunman who fled the scene on a motorbike, The Bangkok Post reported.

Authorities in Thailand have been urged by human rights organizations to launch a swift and thorough investigation.

Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director Elaine Pearson said the “cold-blooded killing” sent a message to Cambodian political activists that “no one is safe, even if they have left Cambodia”.

Cambodian activists are being spooked by the cold-blooded killing of a former opposition leader in downtown Bangkok, which sends a chilling message to them. No one is safe, no matter how they leave. https://t.co/x5FUl1PM6M

Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA), said the killing had “all the hallmarks of a political assassination”.

In a post on social media, Robertson stated that the direct impact will be to “severely intimidate the hundreds of Cambodian political opposition figures, NGO activists, and human rights defenders who have already fled to Thailand to escape PM Hun Manet’s campaign of political repression in Cambodia.”

Hun Sen’s son Hun Manet succeeded his father as prime minister in August 2023, appointing him as the nation’s new leader.

Hun Sen demands a victory day crackdown.

The anniversary of Lim Kimya’s death on January 7 was Victory Day for the ruling CPP, which commemorates the 1979 invasion of Phnom Penh by Vietnamese troops supported by a small contingent of Cambodian soldiers.

Since then, the country has remained under the iron-fisted rule of Hun Sen and now his son, Hun Manet, with little room for political opposition.

At a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the anniversary, Hun Sen called for a new law to brand people who wanted to overthrow his son’s government as “terrorists… who must be brought to justice”.

After a general election in which the ruling party was almost defeated by the CNRP, Lim Kimya was elected as an opposition member of Cambodia’s parliament, which had led to little effective political opposition to the CPP since 1979.

After decades of Hun Sen’s hardline rule, the opposition had a chance to win over the electorate and sway the public’s desire for political change.

The CNRP was once viewed as the only viable rival to the CPP and a potential election winner, but it was disbanded by Cambodia’s politically aligned judicial system in 2017.