Cambodia bans film about union leader's killing

Six years after an outspoken trade union leader was assassinated in daylight on the streets of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian authorities have banned a new documentary that asks probing questions about his murder and the role played by the highest levels of the country's political establishment.

The charismatic Chea Vichea, who campaigned for better wages and conditions for Cambodia's 300,000 garment workers, was shot in the head and chest at a newspaper kiosk that he visited every day in the country's capital. Amid an international outcry, two men, widely believed to have played no role in his death, were charged with his killing. They have since been freed on bail.

American journalist and activist Bradley Cox, who was living in Phnom Penh and who had previously met the union leader, rushed to the scene of the murder. In the subsequent years he carried out his own investigation into the assassination and concluded the two men charged were innocent. He also decided that Mr Vichea's killing could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the "highest levels" of the political establishment.

Unsurprisingly, the Cambodian authorities have not welcomed Mr Cox's film, Who Killed Chea Vichea? which was premiered last month at the Cannes Film Festival. When trade union members last month tried to show the film in Phnom Penh, riot police arrived and tore down the screen. The government has since cited a series of reasons why the film has been banned.

Speaking last night from Thailand, where he is currently based, Mr Cox said: "I gave a copy to the trade union people in Cambodia and they wanted to show it on Labour Day at the very place Chea Vichea was shot. But the police showed up and stopped it from happening. Depending on what day it is, the government has since given different reasons why the film is banned – that it has not be officially authorised, that it's an illegal import, that the Ministry of Culture has not seen it."

Mr Vichea, 36, was leader of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia and also had close links to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. At the time of his killing, Amnesty International said he was "a prominent and internationally respected trade union leader". It said his death was the latest in a string of politically motivated killings and that the investigation was inadequate.

As anger mounted in the days following the assassination, two men were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2008, Cambodian authorities reopened the case and subsequently the two men, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, were provisionally released by the Supreme Court.

While Mr Cox does not name any individual as being responsible for the union leader's death, he highlights what he and others involved in the movie say is an environment of utter impunity in which police and those directing them operate. Rich Garella, who formerly edited an English language newspaper in Phnom Penh and who is one of the documentary's producers, said there was "absolute impunity". "Time and time again it appears things happen to people who oppose the government and they end up dead," he said. "Those actually responsible are never caught. Everybody knows that this is the way it works."

The banning of the 55-minute film comes as the country's ruling Cambodian People's Party and the Prime Minister Hun Sen have been accused by human rights groups and opposition politicians of abusing a parliamentary majority to push through laws that limit freedom of expression.

The country's information minister and senior government spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, said he was not fully aware of the reasons for the ban. However it said it was in part related to allegations contained within the film that appeared to apportion blame on the government.