Thayer Consultancy Background Brief:

ABN # 65 648 097 123

Cambodia and Arms Smuggling
Carlyle A. Thayer
December 15, 2020

We are looking into the case of Wan Kuok Koi who was sanctioned by the U.S. last
week. He is a former Macau triad boss who is establishing businesses around the
region, including Cambodia, under the banner of the "Hongmen" secret society.
See: https://vodenglish.news/us-sanctions-ex-macau-triad-boss-with-business-in-
cambodia/.
When Wan was arrested in 1999 prosecutors alleged he was setting up a weapons
factory in Cambodia.
See: https://apnews.com/article/290a19aec5769635730d4c0119959bb7,
and https://www.scmp.com/article/279254/broken-tooth-planned-arms-factory-
prosecutors.
We request your analytical input into the following issues and questions:
Q1. How common or unusual would weapons smuggling from Cambodia have been
in the 1990s?
ANSWER: During Vietnam’s invasion and occupation of Cambodia (1978-89) small
arms flooded into the country to equip so-called non-communist resistance groups
such as the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front and military forces loyal to
Norodom Sihanouk. China provided arms to the Khmer Rouge with the cooperation of
Thailand.
In 1991, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) assumed
control until elections were held in May 1993. During this period, UNTAC attempted
to disarm and sequester the various armed forces linked to political parties prior to
the elections. The Khmer Rouge refused to take part in the elections and their armed
forces retained their weapons. Non-communist forces withdrew from UN
cantonments with their weapons.
In 1992-93, UNTAC also launched a drive to secure small arms that were widely
available in the country. This program reportedly took control of 320,443 weapons,
leaving between 22,000 and 85,000 unregistered weapons in circulation.
In 1996, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka managed to acquire SA-7 surface-to-air missiles
from Cambodia that were the same model possessed by the Royal Cambodian Armed
Forces.
 2

In other words, in the 1990s Cambodia was awash with small arms. In 1998, one in
three households owned a registered fire arm for a total number estimated between
249,000 and 515,000 weapons. Experts estimate that eighty percent of Cambodia’s
small arms were smuggled into Thailand.
In 2006, small arms worth US $14 million were legally imported to Cambodia. This
figure rose to US $34 million in 2010 and US $67 million in 2013.
Today, Cambodia ranks second among Southeast Asian nations in the number of
firearms per 100 head of population after Thailand. It also ranks fifth in the number of
unregistered firearms in Southeast Asia after Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and
Myanmar.
This past decade there have been a number of high-profile arrests of persons involved
in smuggling arms from Cambodia into Thailand destined for Myanmar. For example,
in mid-2017 Thai authorities discovered a pickup truck loaded with weapons in Trat
province. The vehicle was owned by a Thai Air Force officer who reportedly acquired
the weapons from a Cambodian police official.
In September 2018, nineteen persons were arrested in Cambodia and charged with
arms smuggling. Cambodian government officials claimed the smugglers belonged to
the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF). A spokesperson for the KNLF denied this.
Q2. Was arms smuggling controlled by senior military officers, or was it conducted at
a lower level?
ANSWER: The evidence for public cases of arms smuggling is equivocal. In some cases
Cambodian and Thai police and military officers were involved; other cases involved
retired Cambodian and Thai police and military officers as well as army deserters.
Q3. Why did Cambodia become the centre of arms smuggling – then as well as now?
ANSWER: Cambodia was a buyer’s market because of the availability of small arms,
continued unrest in the countryside, lax laws (customs declarations do not request
information on the end user or the intended purpose of the weapon), and poor
governance/corruption from the 1990s to the present.
There was a major political crisis in 1997, often described as a “coup,” that was
precipitated by smuggling arms to aid an armed “militia” group hostile to Hun Sen. A
bloodbath ensued and many members of the National Assembly fled the country. In
other words, domestic turmoil created an environment ripe for arms smuggling.
Q3.- Has Cambodia taken any international initiatives to curb arms smuggling in
Southeast Asia?
ANSWER: In 2016, Cambodia successfully proposed the establishment of an ASEAN
Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime Working Group on Arms Smuggling
(SOMTC WG on AS). The Working Group was established in 2018 with the purpose of
providing:
A platform for ASEAN Member States to collaborate on capacity building,
training and sharing of information related to combat arms smuggling. It is also
a platform for ASEAN Member States to: (a) discuss and adopt a coordinated
approach to deal with arms smuggling; (b) follow up on relevant
 3

recommendations on arms smuggling from other ASEAN-related fora; (c)

explore the need for Cambodia’s draft on ASEAN Convention against Arms
Smuggling and ASEAN Plan of Action against Arms Smuggling; (d) develop,
implement and monitor Work Programme to Combat Arms Smuggling; and (e)
engage Dialogue Partners on arms smuggling collaboration
The scope of the Working Group on Arms Smuggling includes six areas:
• To facilitate information sharing on arms smuggling related issues such as
trends, best practices, and new techniques and tools;
• To establish regular points of contact for arms smuggling cooperation;
• To develop capability building and training initiatives;
• To identify critical areas for collaboration within ASEAN Member States and
with Dialogue Partners, on arms smuggling;
• To explore possible collaboration with strategic private sector partners; and
• ASEAN Cooperation to stop the cross-border flow [of] illicit firearms.

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, “Cambodia and Arms Smuggling,” Thayer

Consultancy Background Brief, December 15, 2020. All background briefs are posted
on Scribd.com (search for Thayer). To remove yourself from the mailing list type,
UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject heading and hit the Reply key.

Thayer Consultancy provides political analysis of current regional security issues and
other research support to selected clients. Thayer Consultancy was officially
registered as a small business in Australia in 2002.