Buddhist monks and supporters face off against security personnel during a Khmer Krom protest in Phnom Penh yesterday. Vireak Mai
Clash at Vietnam Embassy
In a sharply worded statement, the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom
Penh condemned a protest that took place in front of its building
yesterday morning, saying demonstrators interfered with Vietnam’s
sovereignty and internal affairs.
Several demonstrators and at least one security guard were injured
during clashes when about 200 members and supporters of several Khmer
Krom organisations gathered outside the embassy.
Participants demanded a formal apology from embassy spokesman Trung
Van Thong for commenting last month that the Kampuchea Krom territory
belonged to Vietnam long before France officially granted it the land in
1949.
“Despite being restrained by relevant authorities of the Royal Government of Cambodia, the demonstration still took place and seriously impeded the operation of the Embassy,” the statement released yesterday afternoon reads.
“The Embassy considers this move an act of intervention into the sovereignty and internal affairs of Viet Nam.”
Protesters led by the Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and
Students (FCIS) arrived at the embassy at about 7am and were greeted by
about 200 security guards and military police. Authorities kept them
from demonstrating in front of the building.
Security guards and military police forcefully used shields and
batons to disperse the protesters, who were marching in two groups
towards the embassy from opposite sides.
A second clash occurred at about 9am when protesters tried again to
advance on the building. Banging their batons against their shields to
warn demonstrators before they attacked, authorities again used force,
but were met by volleys of rocks thrown by members of the crowd,
injuring at least one embassy security guard.
The iron gates in front of the embassy were closed to keep the group outside. By noon, the demonstrators had dispersed.
Several participants decried the authorities’ violent response and
their inability to hold their planned protest in response to Van Thong’s
comments on Radio Free Asia last month that “France did not cut
territory of Khmer Kampuchea Krom and give it to Vietnam, but Kampuchea
Krom had been a Vietnamese territory for a very long time”.
Monks
stand at a barricade yesterday in Phnom Penh during a demonstration
demanding the Vietnamese Embassy apologise for a statement made by one
of its officials. Vireak Mai
“We just gathered in the area outside the embassy; that is Khmer
land,” FCIS director Mao Pises said. “But the authorities cracked down
and beat us.”
Despite Pises’ reasoning that the group was not doing anything wrong
as it was not encroaching on Vietnamese territory, Phnom Penh City Hall
spokesman Long Dimanche said the municipality had forbidden the
demonstration during a meeting and in an official letter.
The Vietnamese Embassy’s statement complained that the demonstration
was “contrary to the laws of the Kingdom of Cambodia, which stipulate
‘Cambodia does not allow any force or any individual to use its
territory to counter any other country’.”
Neither Van Throng nor any other spokesperson for Vietnam’s embassy could be reached yesterday.
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan refused to comment on the
embassy’s statement, telling a Post reporter that he did not want to
create any conflict.
“The government as well as the local authority . . . don’t want to
see anything happening, anything provocative,” said Siphan, who
emphasised close relations between Cambodia and Vietnam. “Everyone
should respect the law.”
No arrests were made at the demonstration, and the Phnom Penh
municipality has no intention of opening any investigation into the
protest, Dimanche said.
“I don’t have anything to investigate about this matter,” he said.
“[Placing security guards and military police at embassies] is what City
Hall does in order to protect foreign embassies in Cambodia.”
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