Ballots and Bullets

Pol

itics in Cambodia can be a lethal business. In recent months, unknown assailants have murdered nearly a dozen people in what appear to be political vendettas. Last week, popular singer Touch Srey Nich, 24, was leaving a flower shop in Phnom Penh when four gunmen on motorbikes—two in military uniform—opened fire, killing Touch's 62-year-old mother and leaving the singer with multiple gunshot wounds to the face. (She is now in critical condition in a Bangkok hospital.) Touch is known by many as the "voice of Funcinpec"—the royalist opposition party—and her rendition of Funcinpec's anthem receives constant play on the party's radio station, Ta Prum. Just three days before the attack, Chou Chetharith, a journalist at Ta Prum, was fatally gunned down in another motorbike hit outside the station.

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Few countries have a political divide like Cambodia's. In the '90s the nation was ruled by two Prime Ministers and two Cabinets, with power split between Funcinpec and the Cambodia's People Party (headed by current Prime Minister Hun Sen). That divide still splits the country: a national election in July left Hun Sen short of the parliamentary support he needs to rule—under Cambodia's constitution, the National Assembly can't convene without a party or coalition controlling two-thirds of the votes. So far, his attempts to form a coalition have fallen through.

The Prime Minister was quick to disavow the killings, blaming them on unnamed opponents whom he accused of trying to discredit him. The shootings, he said, were "premeditated in nature, with an aim to serve a political purpose, stir up security and blame the government." He has made little secret, though, of his disdain for Funcinpec. Two days before the slaying of journalist Chou, Hun Sen singled out the party's radio station for criticism, accusing it of insulting his own party. He warned Funcinpec that it should monitor its media "to avoid any conflicts."

Although the murders remain unsolved, they have clearly spoiled hopes of an end to the political stalemate. A meeting organized by King Norodom Sihanouk to help break that impasse was called off after Chou was killed. In an article that King Sihanouk wrote for his website last week, he lamented, "Our country has become, alas, a country with neither faith nor law."