Cambodian troops in riot gear break up factory strike
Reuters | 2 Jan. 2014
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| Photo: Think Progress |
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian troops armed with batons and
rifles broke up a protest on Thursday by textile workers demanding a
doubling of wages as part of a nation-wide strike by unions allied with
the main opposition party.
Witnesses said around 100 soldiers wearing riot gear and carrying
assault rifles used force to clear hundreds of workers protesting
outside their factory about 20 km (12 miles) west of the capital, Phnom
Penh.
"Soldiers beat up everyone," said labour rights activist Chhorn Sokha
of the Community Legal Education Center. "They had sticks, electric
batons, slingshots and stones."
At least 10 protesters were detained and it was not known yet how many were hurt, she added.
The clashes mark a violent turn after two weeks of relatively
peaceful strikes, marches and demonstrations of unprecedented scale in
Cambodia. Security forces, which have a reputation for zero-tolerance,
have so far exercised restraint.
The garment workers, whose industry is a major employer worth $5
billion a year to the economy, have joined protests led by the
opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which says it was
cheated out of more than 2 million votes in an election last July.
The CNRP has courted some 350,000 garment factory workers with the
promise of a minimum monthly wage equivalent to $160, a proposal
dismissed by the government as unsustainable.
Their support for the CNRP represents one of the biggest challenges to the 28-year rule of authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
He has been credited with steering Cambodia away from being a
war-scarred failed state to a promising frontier market, but opponents
say his power comes not from the people, but from the sway he has over
independent institutions and allege he rigged the election, which he
denies.
The strike has blocked roads briefly in Phnom Penh and threatened to
cripple an industry that is the biggest foreign currency earner for
Cambodia, one of Asia's poorest states. The government offered on
December 24 to raise the minimum wage from $80 to $95, but the unions
have rejected that.
Gap Adidas, Nike and Puma are among big brands that outsource
manufacturing of footwear and apparel to Cambodian factories, in part
due to the cheaper labour costs than China.
these are underpaid poor soldiers ...they have their relative and friends are working with low pay
ReplyDeletethey have to help them out of this poverty .. shit government
Hun sen got vietnamese &Thai Ying lak behind him.Now America turn the blind eye to the cambodian tragedy.We cambodian people now appeal to our friend Indonesia to come &rescue us as soon as possible to crackdown the evil hun sen .May GOD ALLAH help us we pray you my holly GOD.
ReplyDeleteDear Bun Thoeun,
ReplyDeleteYes, agree with every input of your comments throughout Khmer blogging sites. Thank you for your intelligence and consideration. We Khmer help each others. The evil Vietnamese masters and evil members, especially evil and criminal PMs: Nguyen Tan Dung, Pham Van Dong, evil and criminal Presidents:Truong Tan Sang, Nguyen Phu Trong, Nguyen Sinh Hung, Nguyen Thien Nhan, Nong Duc Manh and so on who are the followers of Satan or evil monster Ho Chi Minh, have been afraid of being exposed to their committed crime against Humanity in front of the International Community Courts. That is why they (evil Yuon/Viet) have using someone else like evil Yuon/Vietnamese dog Hun Sen to commit crimes for them in order for them (evil Yuon/Viet masters in Hanoi) to come clean without bloods of innocent Khmer/Cambodian people in their hands. Of courses, those evil Vietnamese/Yuon masters are Khmer/Cambodian killers, starting from the world war I as Indochina Federation, by killing and terminating Khmer/Cambodian race and other ethnicity.
We need to expose those f*cking Yuon/Vietnmaese masters in Hanoi listing above and their evil nation more and more to the International Stage and making them more criminal Vietnam nation as the evil monsters and parasites the planet.
They are very dangerous to us Khmer/Cambodian people including Thai even neighbors in Southeast Asia.
Yes, evil Yuon/Vietnamese masters in Hanoi have trying to set themselves quiet and in secret ways by not showing their criminal minds and evil killers as you have heard the Killing Fields in Cambodia (1975-1979) initially started by those evil Yuon/Vietnamese masters in Hanoi and they were actually Angkar Leu/Cap Tren, also known as Ko Purp Te Ong (occurred in Khmer Krom/Southern Cambodia - now South Vietnam).
During the French Colony back then, they used tactic plans by putting the broken glasses in steaming rices to feed French Soldiers to kill French Soldiers. Then the evil Yuon/Vietcong masters accused Cambodian/Khmer people as the scapegoats to kill French Soldiers back then during French colony. That is why the French gave the land of Khmer Krom/Southern Cambodia to evil Yuon/Vietnam masters.
Let's stop right here. Let Khmer readers, foreign readers and Khmer abroad figure out and find out....
Khmer Yeurng (member of Khmer Teang Os Snear)