On Labor Day, Peaceful Protests Met With Violence

On Labor Day, Peaceful Protests Met With Violence

 

By The Cambodia Daily | May 1, 2014

 

A peaceful Labor Day demonstration of workers calling for better living conditions and independent courts was violently dispersed Thursday morning by district security guards, municipal police and men in plain clothes, who beat protesters, journalists and bystanders with batons, wooden sticks and crude metal poles.

Shortly after 9 a.m., opposition leaders Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha and Mu Sochua addressed about 700 workers and opposition supporters who had gathered near the Naga Bridge on Norodom Boulevard. After speaking for about 20 minutes, the CNRP group departed down Russian Boulevard. 

Daun Penh district security guards attack a man on his motorcycle on Street 51 in Phnom Penh shortly after opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha departed from the area during their International Labor Day march through the city on Thursday. (Siv Channa)

As the crowd thinned out between the bridge and nearby Wat Phnom, truncheon-wielding security guards set upon the crowd, indiscriminately beating protesters, passersby on motorbikes and journalists filming the violence. The remaining crowd fled to surrounding gardens.

Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor for local rights group Licadho, said that more than 100 Daun Penh district security guards were ordered to attack the protesters.

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