| Cashing in by Doing Good in Cambodia |
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| Written by Vincent MacIsaac | |
| Friday, 23 January 2009 | |
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A Canadian humanitarian group that launched a media and fundraising campaign claiming one of its members had been bludgeoned, robbed, stripped of his clothes and left to die in a Cambodian ditch is now asking that his family be left to "grieve in private" following complaints that nothing of the sort happened. The death of the man described in the Canadian media as "Smiling Jiri" has become a potent fundraising tool for the charity in a story that has rolled across both Cambodia and Canada, generating huge publicity and controversy, and apparently money for the charity. But the dead man, Jiri Zivny, may have died as a result of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident after a night on the town in the coastal resort of Sihanoukville, a magnet for sex tourists. Zivny, who died at the age of 43 in the neurological ward of Cambodia's best hospital, had no bruises or lacerations that would have indicated blunt force trauma inflicted by an assailant, doctors say. Traffic police in Sihanoukville reported that he crashed his bike into another motorcycle in the early hours of January 9. The driver of the other bike remains unconscious, police reports say. Hospital records show Zivny arrived at the emergency ward of Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh, at 11.35pm on January 10 via an ambulance from Sihanoukville. According to records, the ambulance driver wrote that the patient had been in a motorcycle accident. Zivny was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit and by 12.30pm he had been shifted to the neurological ward. There was no information on whether he had valuables or money on him when he was admitted. "I do not wish to carry on a dialogue about this situation. I have enough information to draw my own conclusions. So we will just leave it alone and the evidence of Jiri's injuries will be left alone so the family can grieve in private," Evelyn Picklyk, the founder and president of the Kamloops, British Columbia-based International Humanitarian Hope Society (IHHS) wrote in an email Wednesday morning. "I know you are trying to protect your country, but this story is going global and it will reflect very badly on your country," she said by telephone earlier in the morning, despite being informed repeatedly that she was speaking to a Canadian reporter. She was responding to an email and telephone call advising her that she and her group – which launched a campaign to raise C$100,000 to fly a comatose "aid worker" back to Canada for treatment – may have been misinformed about the care Zivny received at Calmette Hospital as well as the cause of his death. The email also requested detailed information about the individuals who had been supplying her with information from Cambodia. During a previous phone call Monday night, she acknowledged that the group's claims were based on "circumstantial evidence". "There were no eyewitnesses," she said. "We really don't know what happened," she added before requesting that further discussion be conducted via email because, among other reasons, her "phone might be tapped." However, on Wednesday morning she said she had photographic evidence that Zivny had been brutally assaulted in Sihanoukville. "The photos tell the story," she said. They show he had suffered blows to the side of his head as well as his face, she explained, although she declined to say who took the photos, when they were taken or how she obtained them. "Why do you want to know that?" she asked. During four interviews with doctors at Calmette Hospital between January 15 and 20, the doctors said that there were no physical signs that Zivny had been struck on the head. During the first interview, on the afternoon of January 15, doctors treating the patient allowed me to see him. If he had been struck on the face the wound had healed by then. Zivny died in VIP room No.3 of the neurological ward of the hospital later that day, at 5.15pm.
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reveal the true identity
written by buyer , January 12, 2010
To this day they did not reveal the true identity of Zivny's travelcompagnon mysterious Mr. Lauren and why they never even made an effort to support the victim (long sima) which got seriously hurt in the accident because of Zivny's irresponsable behaviour. Instead they went on to do what they're best at, to collect more funds for their own well beiing. shame on you mrs. and mr. picklyk. And don't ever tell anyone that you are following true christian values, because you are clearly not.
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louis vuitton
written by louis vuitton , October 22, 2009
vthe trackback for this article does not work.
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the truth finally surfaced
written by peter allmann , February 16, 2009
the cambodian police report was right, after all. surprised ? Maybe you should be more considerate next time you release your thoughts.
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check the full report on http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_...00659.html Someone obviously took the time and did a thorough research and voila: it turned out the "äid worker" was just a simple sex tourist like you and me. i can't believe the canadian authorities allow this örphanage tourist operator"to continue their dubious work. after all Mrs.Picklyk is the wife of evangelical Bible truth church's pastor. Instead of trying to find out the truth they did everything to cover up what was happening in Cambodia. To this day they did not reveal the true identity of Zivny's travelcompagnon mysterious Mr. Lauren and why they never even made an effort to support the victim (long sima) which got seriously hurt in the accident because of Zivny's irresponsable behaviour. Instead they went on to do what they're best at, to collect more funds for their own well beiing. shame on you mrs. and mr. picklyk. And don't ever tell anyone that you are following true christian values, because you are clearly not. report abuse
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written by Reung Puht , January 27, 2009
Who saw Jiri Zivny getting beaten after getting money from an ATM? Did his friends abandon him and later claim to have found him in a ditch. If someone foung Jiri in the ditch how did they know he was beaten after going to an ATM? The truth is that there aren't any ditches in Phnom Penh where someone might be left. Truth is that he was thrown to the ditch in Sihanoukville (230 kms south) where he crashed head on into a man who now is in Calmette Hospital (where Jiri died). It is not right for IHHS to create a story to collect $100,000. They should return the money they recieved and their organization should be stripped of it's charitable status.
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written by Jack Tomecruise , January 24, 2009
tss, tss, tss a little problem in your article you cannot prove anything
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so... report abuse
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written by PeterC , January 23, 2009
the trackback for this article does not work.
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Canadian charity tight-lipped over
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