Piseth Pelika Bun Rany

O

NE year after the French magazine L'Express published the purported diary of murdered

actress Piseth Pelika, threats by Prime Minister Hun Sen's wife Bun Rany to file

a libel suit against the magazine have failed to materialize.

In the diary, a person identified by L'Express as the slain Pelika wrote in detail

about her extramarital affair with Prime Minister Hun Sen. She also hinted that the

affair was broken off at Bun Rany's insistence. In later sections of the diary the

actress wrote that National Police Director Hok Lundy had warned her that she might

become the target of Bun Rany's wrath.

Two months after the warning, Pelika was gunned down in broad daylight at Phnom Penh's

Orasey Market. She died in hospital after fighting for her life for seven days. Nobody

has been arrested for the murder and the police investigation has come to a standstill.

When the diary was published in L'Express, Bun Rany immediately threatened to file

law suits against the magazine in both French and Cambodian courts. L'Express answered

that the diary had been verified by handwriting experts as genuinely Pelika's and

that L'Express was sitting on further evidence to back the allegation of an affair

between Pelika and Hun Sen.

So far, Bun Rany has taken no legal action against L'Express.

Alain Louyot, editor of L'Express, says now : "Hun Sen and Co have threatened

many times to file law suits and we hoped that they would. Unfortunately, this never

happened because they understood that we were ready and able to prove that the truth

was on our side."

When the diary was published last year, Hun Sen adviser Om Yentieng spoke on behalf

of Hun Sen and his wife. However, when contacted this week he declined to comment

further.

"I am only an advisor; I cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the family,"

Yentieng said.

The Post printed the entire text of Pelika's diary in Khmer and English in late October

last year. It is accessible on the internet at www.phnompenhpost.com