U NG Samy is a soldier. From time to time the CPP governor of Battambang likes to
dress in his former uniform.
When he went to visit the front line a few days before the last dry season offensive
in January he would encounter his friends and former colleagues.
Along Route 10, he discussed strategy with post commanders and checked whether they
had everything they needed. He made sure to bring along mosquito nets, packaged noodle
soup or kramas that soldiers would need.
After discussions were over, Ung Samy and the soldiers would celebrate the beginning
of the dry season offensive with rice wine and a bottle of Hennessy.
Samy insisted that others in his administration did the same at other military bases
in the province.
The Battambang provincial governor recalls proudly his first occupation. "I
have been a soldier for more than twenty years," he said. "Don't fight
me. I would never be scared to fight back."
Ung Samy seems a man of few words. He lets others speak about him. In Battambang
he is surrounded by a legend which says he entered the town before the Vietnamese
forces in January 1979. Some citizens view him as Battambang's liberator from the
Khmer Rouge.
Some members of the CPP call him the "stable man". His short, stocky physique
no doubt enhances an aura of authority.
"I used to work with him," said one CPP civil servant. "He has little
education but good character and he is firm. He never changes. He obeys the orders
given from the top."
Samy comes from a village near the border of Svay Rieng and Kompong Cham provinces.
He is a nephew of National Assembly chairman and CPP stalwart Chea Sim, and for that
has received a lot of respect from the people surrounding him.
In 1987, Ung Samy was appointed governor of the province after having worked with
the regional military forces.
Prior to the 1993 elections, UNTAC accused Samy of involvement in extra-judicial
killings against members of Funcinpec and BLDP and asked for his removal, a move
with which the CPP was opposed to complying.
UN documents also accused Ung Samy of involvement in the S-21 group that was allegedly
responsible for murders, intimidation, and torture during UNTAC and afterwards into
1994, accusations Samy steadfastly denies.
