Generally Generous

Cambodia's Royal Armed Forces (RCAF) are made of up approximately 190,000 active and reserve military personnel. 

United States Forces count in at around 2,200,000 potential combatants- that is, US forces number more than 10 times that of Cambodia's. 

Yet, in 2010 there were more than 2,200 Generals in RCAF. That's a staggering 1,500 more than can be found within the US military.

1,500 more!

Or, put another way, US forces have 1 general for every 3,142 personnel, while Cambodian forces boast 1  general for a scarcely believable* every 86 personnel!

An acknowledgement by the military that the number of generals within its ranks was out of control resulted in a halt to further promotions in November of 2011. But last week 29 lieutenant-Generals were promoted to generals of the 4-Star variety.

That, of course, has nothing to do with Hun Sen wishing to shore up his support among the upper ranks of the force during these times of unrest.

* This figures appears so utterly ridiculous, I'm not sure, no matter much I do the research and the maths, that I believe it. 

Miltary Men Behaving Badly (2)

Unhappy at the noise revellers were making during a Buddhist ceremony in Oddar Meancheay province a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldier fired his AK-47 into the ground several times. The ricochets from the drunken trooper's weapon hit and injured three villagers.

Just another example of Cambodian Military Men behaving badly.

It appears likely that another thuggish soldier will largely escape punishment. Indeed, local military police commander, Nguon Thirith seems to think that their is little to worry about.

After all, he said, "...the villagers only suffered minor injuries."

Try telling that to the bloke shot in the thigh and the one who miraculously escaped serious harm when one bullet grazed his neck.

Another military leader claimed that the soldier had in fact been punished, "according to military law."

Predictably he wouldn't be drawn on what punishment had been handed out.

Cambodia Royal Armed Forces; a law unto themselves.

Cambodian Mad Men: Cambodian Bad Men (1)

The Cambodian armed forces have not been blessed with great leaders. And their modern day generals and colonels are just as likely to be found firing their weapons and injuring their mates in Karaoke bars, as they are shooting their neighbours because of a 'bad look.'  And you'll hear of them running drugs or pilfering Cambodia's ever-decreasing stocks of luxury wood, too.

That's no great surprise when promotions are attained by bribery and not on merit. This movement up the ranks of the incompetent, the mad, the bad and the just plain evil has been going on for decades.

Witness, for example, the case of Colonel Um Savuth, the commander of the 5th military region in the early 1970s.

'He was an astonishing personality, a thin, twisted man who walked with a long white cane, drove his jeep at terrifying speeds, and was nearly always drunk.

Early in his military career he had, in a moment of high spirits, ordered a subordinate to place a cat upon his head and then, from a considerable distance, shoot the animal off. The subordinate refused.

Um Savuth insisted that it was a direct order. The man pulled the trigger and a part of Um Savuth's head was blown away. Ever since, half is body had been paralyzed, and he had to drink quantities of beer and Scotch to kill his constant pain."

~Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, William Shawcross

Um Savuth continued to command and rose to the rank of Brigadier-general. Nevertheless, some in the US army claimed that he was "better drunk than most Cambodian officers sober."

Apparently the grog sometimes made him generous; in 1971 he wrote to President Nixon and offered Nixon his pet elephant "Khaat" as a gift.

Military Men Behaving Badly

Where is Khon Sokheng?

The ill-tempered, ill-disciplined officer with the Royal Cambodian Armed Force's paratrooper unit, Brigade 911, allegedly put a bullet in the neck of one of his neighbours nearly two weeks ago.

Brigade 911 haven't sacked him yet despite him being AWOL for that length of time, although they have attempted, at least publicly, to distance themselves from the rogue officer.

"“This was his personal issue; those hairs are on his head. It is not related with Paratrooper Brigade 911 at all,” said a brigade spokesperson.

It's doubtful that anyone within the brigade is actively searching for the officer, though; their history suggests they are more likely to be protecting him. We shall see.

Meanwhile in other recent news of members of the armed forces behaving badly:

>Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Captain Meas Piseth is wanted in connection with the savage beating of a prosecutor in Kratie Province.

>A military man has been charged with the rape of a 13-year-old family member.

>Soldiers in Battambang have been accused of stealing the local rice harvest.

>A military police is being held in custody after he fired shots in the air and savagely beat the manager and a security guard of a Pursat nightclub. Apparently the staff at the restaurant didn't prepare a table for him quickly enough.

Paratrooper Plugs Phnom Penh Neighbour

Enraged by a rude gesture, Khon Sokheng put a bullet in the neck of his neighbour An Bory and then scarpered on his Honda Scoopy. An Bory remains in a serious condition in a Phnom Penh hospital.

Local police are, they claim, looking for Khon Sokheng, but just how dedicated they are to his pursuit is of concern.

Royal Cambodian Armed Forces: Not afraid
 to put the boot in

For the shooter is an officer with the Royal Cambodian Armed Force's paratrooper unit, Brigade 911, and some in the Cambodian Armed Forces have a history of unpunished thuggish behaviour.

Making it even less likely that justice will be served is that Brigade 911 appears to be rotten from the top down; it was named in Human Rights Watch 2010 report as allegedly having a history of carrying out violent attacks and executions.

Worse the Commander of Brigade 911 is none other than Chap Pheakedei. He was implicated in the detainment, torture and disappearance of a number of soldiers loyal to the FUNCIPEC party during the time of the 1997 coup.

Despite this, and numerous other accusations of evil, Chap Pheakedei was promoted by Hun Sen to the rank of general.

"He is considered one of Hun Sen’s most loyal commanders and is a member of the CPP Central Committee," Human Rights Watch state in their report.

Loyal? No doubt, he is. But someone who should be the leader of, and an example to, armed men, he certainly is not.

Which brings us back to Khon Sokheng; with a boss and a unit that has acted with impunity it's little wonder the lower ranks also believe that they can do whatever the hell they like.

SOS Cambodian Free Speech

Armed police, military police and soldiers- more than twenty of them- stormed Thmarkol village, near Phnom Penh airport yesterday morning, and dragged away 8 villagers.

Their crime?

Frightened and scared for their futures- they have been threatened with forced eviction from their homes- they had painted SOS and displayed larges images of President Obama on the roofs of their houses.

Photo: www.telegraph.co.uk

 Theirs was a vain hope that the Obama would see their handiwork when he flies in Monday, and seek a solution for them.

But what else could they do? The courts don't work and it's the politicians themselves who are often at the forefront of the Cambodian land-grabs.

Held for hours in police cells the villagers were finally released after thumb-printing a document agreeing not to protest again.

Image by: SAMRANG PRING / Reuters

Soldiers with assault rifles are now posted at regular intervals along the road to the village. Just in case some folk don't get the message that there is now an all-out war against free speech in Cambodia.

See also: Phnom Penh's Penniless Pushed Out

Absconding Soldiers Causing Havoc

Armed robberies and murders are on the rise in Cambodia.

Police put much of the increase down to deserting soldiers; many of the deserters don't just leave their posts, they take their weapons and ammunition with them.

Apparently, 1,211 soldiers have absconded from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces this year alone and some of those are armed and causing havoc within their communities.