US: Notorious Cambodian Police Chief in US for Counter-Terror Talks at FBI

Top story: the top criminal Mafia of Cambodia will meet FBI on April 19 for the first time to discuss counterterrorism.
State Department Should Cancel Hok Lundy’s Visa

(Washington, DC, April 16, 2007) – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on April 19 is scheduled to host Cambodia’s national police chief for discussions on counterterrorism, even though Hok Lundy has been implicated in what the FBI itself has classified as a terrorist act, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch called on the US State Department to cancel his visa. The FBI invited Lundy to Washington for talks on bilateral counterterrorism cooperation.

“Hok Lundy’s alleged involvement in political violence and organized crime in Cambodia means that the FBI should be investigating him, not hosting him,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Aside from his boss, Prime Minister Hun Sen, there is hardly anyone in Cambodia who has shown more contempt for the rule of law than Hok Lundy.”

Lundy has been implicated in a number of serious human rights abuses. According to information Human Rights Watch has shared with the US government, Lundy was part of a conspiracy to carry out a grenade attack on opposition leader Sam Rainsy in March 1997, in which 16 people were killed and more than 150 injured. The FBI officially classified the grenade attack as a terrorist act.

During the July 1997 coup, in which forces loyal to then co-Prime Minister Sen ousted then co-Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, Lundy commanded battalions loyal to Sen that were implicated in extrajudicial killings. More than 100 opposition party members and supporters were the victims of extrajudicial killings, and dozens of opposition supporters fled into exile.

Human Rights Watch’s investigations support allegations that Lundy ordered the extrajudicial killing of the deputy Minister of Interior Ho Sok, a senior Ranariddh loyalist, shortly after the coup. Sok was shot just down the hall from Lundy’s office in the Ministry of Interior compound. The official explanation was that unknown armed persons forced their way into the heavily guarded compound, shot Sok, and then successfully fled. Lundy was never investigated for the killing.

Lundy has also been implicated in drug trafficking, the return of refugees to countries where they faced persecution, and human trafficking. Two US Drug Enforcement Agency officials and a former US ambassador to Cambodia have confirmed to Human Rights Watch that the US government is aware of Lundy’s involvement in drug trafficking.