R ESIDENTS in Phnom Penh's western suburbs awoke to a new kind of anarchy on July
7, the morning after government troops had finalized their operation against the
forces of disorder.
Troops loyal to Hun Sen, distinguished by red ribbons pinned to their breast, roamed
the area, looting from markets, shops and the houses of people living there.
"The leaders should realize this is the result of war. You can start it but
you can't stop it. Now, they're making a war against the people, not against enemy
soldiers," said one resident of Boeung Salang district, just west of Dangkor
market.
Standing next to his weeping mother, the man pointed to the bent bars of a window
where soldiers had attempted to force their way into his family's house. Two spent
bullet casings lay on the ground, after the looters had eventually shot through the
front entry lock.
Inside, the house was in disarray. Clothing spilled from cupboards, papers and books
were strewn across the floor, furniture lay upended. A television, a video player,
a computer and a radio cassette player had been claimed as the victors' booty.
"I tried for years to save for these things, now I don't even have a stove to
cook on," said the resident.
"Have some water, it's all I have left," he added forlornly.
Most of the district's residents had left their homes under instructions from soldiers
as fighting intensified on the afternoon of July 5. Returning two days later, they
were stopped at gunpoint from entering their homes while soldiers completed their
ransacking of the unoccupied houses.
"When they've got everything they let you back in. They steal everything that's
worth something," said one local.
At the time of the Post's visit, sporadic shooting could still be heard in the area,
as soldiers kept residents at bay. One soldier explained that the gunfire was the
result of the military's effort "to protect a motorbike store from the people".
Standing next to the soldier, his brother, a government official, laughed and contradicted
his sibling: " I don't think so. I think the soldiers are taking them for themselves.
Everything belongs to them."
Asked why the government troops were looting the area, his brother, the soldier,
said "That's their victory - to take things".
"We do whatever the commander orders, we have to listen to our commander,"
he said, claiming that soldiers were looting on the orders of their superiors.
Cyclos passed by piled high with household goods, a stony-faced soldier atop each
one. Other soldiers sat astride liberated motorbikes, towed by their comrades. One
soldier unloaded a gleaming blue moto from a cyclo and deposited it at a friend's
house. He hurried away. Going back for more, said neighbors.
The trail of pillage continued around St 271, which skirts the western edge of Phnom
Penh. Along this bumpy dirt road a stream of civilians and soldiers mixed together
hauling lengths of pilfered plastic pipe by any means possible - moto, remok, handcart,
or simply tied to their waists.
A kilometer from where St 271 meets the intersection of Pochentong and Kampuchea
Krom, Heng Ly motorbike market was a scene of frenzied activity, as local people
joined with soldiers in looting the last remains of the market.
"They have taken it all, this is all that's left," said one shop owner
nervously guarding the remnants of her market store. "Just let it be. We have
no choice," she added in resignation.
A burnt out tank stood at the crossroads of Pochentong Street and Kampuchea Krom,
a blackened testament to the failed attempt of Funcinpec troops to punch their way
into the capital.
Meters away, the Thai-owned Isuzu car dealership had been relieved of its stock of
vehicles. Troops led by Pun Pheap, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla now loyal to CPP,
had driven away ten pick-up trucks and four land cruisers, estimated at $200,000,
according to Yos Seha, the sales manager.
"I was here but I couldn't do anything. If I said anything they would have shot
me," he said. One hundred generators had been taken from a shop next door, before
police fought off the marauding soldiers to save the rest of the stock.
One witness in the area overheard the looting soldiers at Isuzu calling to their
comrades for help on ICOM radio after they experienced difficulty in driving away
their prizes.
"I don't know how to start this car, maybe it's broken down," said one
soldier, according to the source. "No, it's a new car," replied his interlocutor.
The conversation proceeded with advice on how to start the vehicle and put it into
gear, according to the eavesdropper. As the stolen car moved off jerkily down the
road, its driver was heard expressing a desire to visit Lucky Market.
At the corner of Kampuchea Krom and St 263, soldiers struggled to tie a third motorcycle
onto an armored personnel carrier. Hundreds of motorbikes had been plundered from
a distributor earlier that day, according to the soldiers.
"This is not a coordinated operation," said the commander. "Some of
our soldiers don't have motos and they need them, so we are taking them by ourselves.
One goes in and gets the moto and two guard. That's how it works. This is not an
operation."
Further ahead, along Pochentong Blvd all the way to the airport, soldiers were doing
a busy trade, selling stolen motos to local people.
Military vehicles of every kind - tanks, APCs, trucks and jeeps - crawled past, laden
with the fruits of victory. Motos with refrigerators and air-conditioners strapped
to the back weaved their way through the heavy traffic.
At petrol stations along the road - Total, Shell, and Caltex - the pumps had been
blown away and enterprising soldiers had stationed themselves at the exposed tanks,
accepting money from civilians to siphon off petrol.
Parked inside the Total station were two Renault military trucks which soldiers diligently
loaded with stock from the petrol station. Last year France donated a total of eight
Renault trucks as part of its military assistance to Cambodia.
The rear building at Cambodia Garments factory lay in ruin, devastated by a fire
caused by shelling on Sunday morning. In front of the factory military police were
hard at work, loading boxes of clothes onto their jeeps.
Civilians were clambering around the main gate, trying to get inside. The military
police fired warning shots to deter the civilian looters.
"The civilians go to steal things and then the soldiers go along and start shooting.
The civilians run away and the soldiers steal from the robbers. All the people -
civilians, military police, soldiers, police - they all steal together," said
one man.
Asked whether he thought they were doing anything wrong, he shrugged his shoulders
and said, "It's difficult to say."
At Pochentong airport itself, mayhem reigned. On Monday soldiers were seen towing
away a green tourist bus, duty-free stores were emptied of their contents and the
lounges were stripped.
The following day civilians moved in and began dismantling the terminal itself. Doors
and air-conditioning units were unscrewed, electrical wiring was ripped from the
walls.
"I asked one guy at the gate, 'Can I go in?', and he said, 'Yes, sure, go ahead.'
By the time we got there it was a hardware store. There's no airport there now, They'll
have to rebuild it," said one witness.
Meanwhile, in the center of the city, troops systematically looted the residence
of Prince Ranariddh and the home and party office of Khmer Nation Party leader Sam
Rainsy.
According to independent observers, the plunder of the Funcinpec and KNP buildings
appeared to be an organized operation. One soldier identified himself as under the
command of National Police Chief Hok Lundy.
Civilians, held back at nearby checkpoints, saw soldiers taking furniture and household
goods and stowing them on waiting cyclos.
"They took everything that wasn't nailed down," said one observer.
In a speech broadcast on national television July 8, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen,
who is also joint commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forrces, expressed
his regret for the looting which overtook the capital in the wake of the conflict.
"About the anarchy that happened yesterday, on this occasion I join in sorrow
with the people who suffered from the anarchy, looting, robbery, and kidnapping for
ransom in some areas of Phnom Penh," he said.
Hun Sen attributed the cause of the looting to "anarchic groups and forces"
and to "bad men" but did not directly acknowledge the involvement of government
troops in the plunder. Nevertheless, he said that the military had been ordered to
return to their bases.
