The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand yesterday sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking him to ensure an adequate investigation is being carried out into the disappearance of veteran journalist and author Dave Walker in Siem Reap town on February 14.
“We recognize that as prime minister you have many other matters to concern you,” reads the letter, signed by FCCT Professional Committee chairman Dominic Faulder. “We would, however, request that you take a few moments to satisfy yourself personally that all Cambodian, police, military and intelligence resources are being adequately mobilized to take this investigation forward, and also that every effort has been made to tap outside assistance that might be helpful in resolving the case.”
A spokesman for Hun Sen declined to comment yesterday, saying he was in a meeting.
Walker, who worked in Thailand for years, disappeared from his Siem Reap guesthouse on February 14, leaving behind his passport, laptop, mobile phone and other belongings.
Siem Reap Provincial Immigration Police officer Yut Sinin said yesterday that his department was working on the case and had informed provincial police that Walker was missing.
Walker’s business partner Sonny Chhoun, who first reported the disappearance, said that there was still “no news”, but that immigration and military police officials had contacted him about the case.
Though the FCCT mentioned that Walker’s disappearance could have been motivated by ransom, or related to a project he was working on about ex-Khmer Rouge – scenarios that the FCCT acknowledged “remain speculative” – Chhoun said that, to his knowledge, Walker had not been working with any dangerous people.
