Mr Lim Kimya, 74, refused to flee Cambodia even after former Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened to make opposition MPs live in “hell”.
Lim Kimya, a former member of Cambodia's National Assembly and the now-disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was shot dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok, in what he called an “assassination” by his former colleagues.
According to The Bangkok Post, 74-year-old Lim Kimya was shot dead shortly after arriving in Thailand by bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Tuesday evening with his French wife and Cambodian uncle.
The CNRP confirmed the death in a statement, saying it was “suddenly and deeply saddened by the brutal and brutal shooting” of Lim Kimya, who had served as a member of the CNRP in Kampong Thom province.
The former opposition MP, a dual citizen of Cambodia and France, says he continues to live in Cambodia, as many other opposition politicians have fled, seeking political exile elsewhere due to threats from the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) under then-Prime Minister Hun Sen. .
The once popular CNRP was disbanded in Cambodia with all its political activities banned by the Cambodian Supreme Court in 2017. The party still exists as an organization in the Cambodian diaspora in Australia, the United States and elsewhere. In a statement shared on social media, the CNRP described the killing of Lim Kimya as “murder”.
(1/2) Bangkok's Chana Songkhram Police Station has released CCTV footage of the suspect who shot and killed Lim Kimya, a 74-year-old Cambodian-French politician.#bank #killer #thailand pic.twitter.com/x2ObMIZob9
— Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) January 8, 2025
“The CNRP strongly opposes this barbaric act, which is a serious threat to political freedom”, he said, adding that the political party “closely follows the murder case and calls on the Thai authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation”.
Thailand's Metropolitan Police Bureau is searching for a gunman who fled on a motorcycle, The Bangkok Post reported.
Human rights groups have called on Thai authorities to investigate quickly and thoroughly.
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 leave Cambodia”.
The brutal killing of a former member of the Cambodian opposition in Bangkok sends a sobering message to Cambodian activists that no one is safe, even after leaving Cambodia. https://t.co/x5FUl1PM6M
— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) January 8, 2025
Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates (AHRLA), said the killings were “all the hallmarks of political murder”.
“The direct result will be the further intimidation of many Cambodian political dissidents, NGO activists, and human rights activists who have already fled to Thailand to escape Prime Minister Hun Manet's campaign of political repression in Cambodia,” Robertson said in his post. media.
Hun Sen's son Hun Manet became the leader the new leader of the country succeeding his father as Prime Minister in August 2023.
Hun Sen calls for a crackdown on Victory Day
The assassination of Lim Kimya took place on January 7, the anniversary of the victory of the CPP in power, which is the day when the Vietnamese army, with the help of a small group of Cambodian soldiers, entered Phnom Penh and overthrew Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.
Since then, the country has remained under the iron rule of Hun Sen and now his son, Hun Manet, has no chance of political opposition.
At Tuesday's memorial service, Hun Sen called for a new law to list his son's coup plotters as “terrorists … who must be tried”.
Although there has been little political opposition to the CPP since 1979, that almost changed in 2013, the year Lim Kimya was elected as an opposition member of Cambodia's parliament following a general election in which the ruling party was narrowly defeated by the CNRP.
The opposition has stepped into the field of mass mobilization for political change after years of Hun Sen's tumultuous rule.
Although the CNRP was once a rival to the CPP and an electoral winner, it was dissolved by Cambodia's politically-affiliated courts in 2017.
Many opposition leaders and supporters fled into exile amid Hun Sen's arrest, vowing to make their lives “hell”.