President and Vice-President of Rad (r)

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Subject: Re: President and Vice-President of Radio Free Asia block investigation of criminal assault committed by RFA Cambodian section Director against broadcaster during meeting

On Thu, 23 Jul 1998 01:41:51 GMT, FreeLao@xxxxxxx*** (Lao Houn Mai) wrote:

>President and Vice-President of Radio Free Asia block investigation of criminal assault committed by
>RFA Cambodian section Director against broadcaster during meeting
>
>On 1st June 1998 a violent assault was committed by the Acting Director of the Cambodian section of
>Radio Free Asia, Mr Vuthy Khin Huot, against a broadcasting member of the section in a politically
>motivated attack, according to reliable sources who for safety reasons cannot be identified.
>
>The attack took place during a staff meeting in the Cambodian broadcasting section in the late
>afternoon in Washington DC, and evidence indicates that it was carefully prepared in advance. The
>disturbance was witnessed by the Tibetan section of RFA, and by various members of other sections.
>In the attack, after unsuccessful attempts by Mr Huot and Mr Poly Sam to provoke the victim using
>verbal abuse and intimidation, Mr Huot tried to throw a mug of boiling water into the victim's face.
>Mr Huot was restrained by fellow members of the Cambodian section and ultimately forced out of the
>room, saving the victim from serious injuries. 
>
>The attack followed months of serious intimidation and verbal abuse of the victim by both Mr Huot
>and Mr Sam, and the day after the attack the victim made a formal request to the Vice President of
>RFA Mr Dan Southerland for rearrangement of the weekend shift teams which would have required the
>victim to work with both Mr Huot and Mr Sam. The victim reasonably considered that his safety was
>seriously at risk, yet the Vice President of RFA refused to allow the change, thereby putting the
>safety of a worker directly at risk. Furthermore in the seven weeks following the incident Radio
>Free Asia has taken no disciplinary action whatsoever against Mr Huot. Despite the presence of such
>a large number of witnesses, it appears that RFA has made no attempts to investigate the matter. It
>also appears evident that RFA have used their very high level political connections to stall a
>police investigation. Key witnesses have never been interviewed by the police, even though an
>official report of the crime was made. 
>
>The attack follows an eight month long campaign of intimidation and harassment waged against the
>victim by RFA President Richard Richter and Vice President Dan Southerland in an attempt to force
>the victim to resign. In an earlier incident, Mr Dan Southerland arranged for broadcast files to be
>deleted from the victim's computer by technicians in an attempt to accuse the victim of misconduct;
>however the astuteness of the victim resulted in evidence that the files were deleted at the same
>time that the technicians were operating the computer.
>
>Related problems exist in other sections of RFA. A talented young Stanford educated member of the
>Korean section of RFA was fired by Dan Southerland after she filed charges of sexual harassment
>against the Director of the Korean section. Her case against RFA was prosecuted by the Equal
>Employment Opportunities Commission, who have complained of the misuse of high-level political
>connections by the senior management of RFA in the case.
>
>The Burmese section of RFA recently broadcast wholly unsubstantiated and malicious allegations that
>the Nobel Peace Prize winning Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi has had an affair with a journalist
>during her many years under house arrest. The allegations appear to have been fabricated by the
>repressive military regime to undermine her international image.
>
>A talented member of the Lao section has also recently been fired on absurd and trumped-up
>allegations, again following many months of politically motivated harassment by the Director of the
>section Mrs Viengsay Luangkhot Sananikhone, who is very closely linked to the communist regime in
>Laos and who has major financial interests in protecting the communist regime.
>
>The Vietnamese and Chinese sections of RFA also have serious political problems.