As garment sector strikes loom, soldiers watch over factories
Armed soldiers will continue to patrol Veng Sreng Street, the garment factory-lined thoroughfare in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district where military police shot dead five workers during a nationwide strike last month, until labor unrest in the garment sector subsides, the deputy commander of the military’s Brigade 70 said on Tuesday. Soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ Brigade 70 and Brigade 99, who openly carry AK-47 assault rifles and were first deployed to the area after last month’s lethal strike suppressions, have maintained an ominous presence along the street since a union-led boycott of overtime hours began Monday. “We deployed our forces to provide security both for the people and workers, and for the confidence of investors,” said General Hem Tha, the deputy commander of Brigade 70, when asked about the presence of his forces along the street Tuesday. “When the situation has returned to normal, we will return them to their units,” he added, declining to elaborate on how this would be determined. … Inside Canadia Industrial Park, which was at the heart of the protests on Veng Sreng Street last month, a unit from Brigade 99 has set up a small station in an alleyway between two factories. …
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-garment-sector-strikes-loom-soldiers-watch-over-factories-53275/
