Having lived in Kampot, I can speak from experience that it is the quintessence of small towns. Add to this fact that the expats make up a small and often insular community. Yet, it is also nice and cozy and often friendly, especially I still have friends there who I remember with great fondness; but there is also plenty of strange insularity and secretiveness, as is evidenced by the fact that Scobienz and Gavinmac faced banning from the local noticeboard as soon as they signed on to query about the strange deletions regarding the tragic incidents described in this thread. I too have suffered at the hands of these zealous moderators: I too was banned, right after I posted a story from the "Cambodia Daily" about the young Russian-American-son-of-an-Ivy-league-professor who was arrested for dealing 450 grams of marijuana; my post was promptly deleted within two hourss and the boy was able to buy himself out of jail inside 5 days... (All kinds of drugs in Kampot are nothing new, please don't kid yourselves -- for years and years and years and years!)
Most people are banned from Kampot noticeboards simply for NOT PHYSICALLY living in Kampot: once the moderators become aware that you are no longer living in Kampot any longer, and you post, they simply ban you. It happened to Ms. M, who was and is a regular return visitor to Kampot, and who used the board to conduct business... But since she spends most of her time in Sihanoukville. AND she is outspoken.... Well, they banned her... Really, that is how narrow and silly they are!
Anyway, getting back to the reason, I think, that they want to suppress all discussion of the goings on about town is that the town is SO SMALL, you don't really need a noticeboard to find out what is happening; everyone knows right away by simply talking to someone, anyone, the next day. Also, there are many complicating factors. There are many in Kampot who pretend that everything is rosy, and ignore the truth of what is really going on, in part because they are eager participants in the general mayhem. A lot of stuff happens in and around Kampot that you will never learn anything about. When I attempted to enlighten the populace by writing nasty letters to the newspapers in the city, in particular, about the pedophile orgy scene, I was quickly run out of town by the local police. They came to my house and asked me to leave town. No shit. Some local expats, who had lived there a long time were instrumental in having me run out of town... One of these dipshit yokels, a bald-headed Brit thug, confronted me at a bar one day when I returned to visit during the writer's festival several months ago. Well, this guy had lived there for SEVENTEEN years, managing a hotel, without once EVER actually leaving Kampuchea; can you imagine that? Why did he need to have me run out of town? Because, according to his provincial meathead philosophy, "You do NOT meddle in the affairs of the local Khmers," -- especially, that is -- the mafia and their select and generous farang clientele... Hmmm... Don't talk to me about Kampot. You see how they censor everything instantly on their noticeboards. They don't want to face reality, they want to quietly and tacitly accommodate the mafia, and the rich-rich white farang fat-men who do as they please, and the rich young farang orgiasts, and the poor ones as well, eager as they are to earn easy cash from the rich old/young bastards and visiting professionals from England, France, Australia, America, wherever.
( Anyway, the Facebook forums are all lame in Cambodia. Have a look at the Sihanoukville Expats' forums. They are mostly just buy and sell old junk, or an advert promoting this or that clone bar selling gravy and potatoes, etc, etc... I am sure, if you were to post any real news about dying drug addicts or corrupt cops in Sihanoukville, you would soon see your posts deleted, too... )
Think about this: a Khmer female friend of mine from Kampot just asked me last week to lend her a lot of money. Why? She needs it to "guarantee her job security" at a local government office where she works as a steno. Lend her 3 years salary all at once so they can pay it back to her little by little? Corruption is the lifeblood of this country, and the rich take advantage of the poor as a matter of everyday policy...
Face it: until the people get an education and stand up for truth and face the illiterate thugs who call themselves police and responsible ministers of state -- they who repeatedly demand money for nothing -- nothing will change here.
( NOTE: this post will be deleted tomorrow morning... sorry... )