Yet More Preparations by HE for a Peaceful Election
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:12 am
90's amnesty poster
This has always worried me in Cambodia. There were so many guns around in the past, and what with all the lack of police up until the mid 00's the gun amnesties that ran in the late 90's were bound to more or less fail. Vigilantism being rule of law up till that time. I can still remember the reports in the paper advising such groups that they should try and take at least one policeman with them on their 'rounds'.
Also, lets not forget the psychological effect of having your own government slaughter a third of the population by one way or another.
If I was a Cambodian, I'd want a gun. Especially if I couldn't or didn't want to run.
It's not the pistols I'm so worried about, it's the larger semi- and fully automatics like the AK's that i'm sure were buried for a Rainy day so to speak.
Looks like HE is having another go now. It also seems like certain authorities have been handing out licenses to the wrong people.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/22082/ ... l-weapons/
War Declared on Illegal Weapons
Khmer Times / May Titthara Tuesday, 01 March 2016 190 views
Sao Sokha, the commander-in-chief of the military police, has ordered his units to crack down on illegal gun ownership, pledging to resign his post if he is unable to reduce the prevalence of arms. Speaking at the Royal Gendarmerie’s annual meeting on Monday, he ordered his units to void illegitimate paperwork as soon as possible, and to arrest those who had signed off on illegal purchases.
“Illegal gun owners are a problem, but another problem is the people who signed the license to give the guns to the owners. If the law allows putting those people in jail, we have to arrest them and put them in jail. If not, they will sign papers for anything,” said Gen. Sokha.
He added that military and police forces, as well as civil servants, had been authorizing the use of guns in their departments. He said that from now on, institutions not authorized by law to use weapons would not be able to do so.
“We have to find the people who used the guns and people who signed the papers, take them for questioning and take action following the law,” he said. “If not, why am I wearing four stars under my shoulder and in charge of my position?”
Gen. Sokha added that he will stand up to high-ranking government officials. “I don’t want to talk about a gunfight. I’d rather say that I’m ready to drop my general stars if I can’t do it,” he said.
He called on the units of any high-ranking government official issuing illegal licenses for gun ownership to void the paperwork as soon as possible, threatening arrest if they fail to do so.
“Nowadays, gunfights could happen in any circumstance, and the police and gendarmerie cannot control it all,” Gen. Sokha said.
Mr. Sokha’s new focus on gun ownership follows a December 22 meeting between the judiciary, police and the court on cooperation between law enforcement agencies in order to strengthen public security. At that meeting, Mok Chito, the deputy chief of the National Police, said the Ministry of Interior would this year begin to register all gunshot cartridges at crime scenes in order to better track weapons and bring illegal gun owners to justice.
Thon Samon, the president of the Fire Department and Gun Control at the Ministry of Interior, declined to comment yesterday. Dok Santha, the deputy president of the department, also declined to comment, calling new gun control efforts “an internal matter.”
According to a report published by the Ministry of Interior in 2014, there were 35,807 registered guns in the country, of which nearly 60 percent were pistols. Among those pistols, nearly one in five were registered for private use.
According to Article 488 of the Criminal Code, the “production, import or export and stocking” of weapons without authorization carries a two to five year prison sentence.