HE Fires, Suspends, Reinstates General

BY KHUON NARIM | JULY 1, 2016 | អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

In the space of 24 hours, Prime Minister HE fired, suspended and then reinstated a three-star general in the Interior Ministry’s immigration department, who berated a traffic police officer who pulled him over for running a red light earlier this week.

On Monday, traffic police officer Sout Kanha uploaded a video to Facebook that shows an altercation between himself and Lieutenant General Mam Srimvanna, a dep­uty director of the immigration department, after he pulled the official over for driving through a red light in Phnom Penh earlier that day.


Lieutenant General Mam Srimvanna, left, poses with traffic police officer Sout Kanha yesterday in a photograph posted to Prime Minister HE’s Facebook page.

In the video, Lt. Gen. Srimvanna is seen speaking to a superior on the telephone, complaining about the fact that he has just been pulled over and referring to the police officer using the pejorative “ah,” which is considered offensive when used in an unfriendly manner.

“After turning at a traffic light, a traffic police officer saw a big car pass, but the police officer did not catch the big car. He said, ‘I don’t want to catch the big car, I want to catch your car,’” Lt. Gen. Srimvanna can be heard saying.

After hanging up, the official turns to Mr. Kanha and says: “You don’t know me.”

Mr. Kanha replies sarcastically. “Now, I want to tell you that I am a low-ranking officer, and if you want to fire me, it’s OK. I will accept my mistake if you fire me because you have already called my superior and I am a low-ranking officer,” he said, before the general and his driver get back in their Toyota RAV4 and drive away.

In his Facebook post, Mr. Kanha explains how he did, in fact, end up getting suspended from his unit following Lt. Gen. Srimvanna’s phone call, and called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng to come to his aid.

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