Government Reverses Ban, Agrees to CNRP March
The Ministry of Interior announced Tuesday in a last minute meeting that it would allow the opposition CNRP to take 1,000 people through the streets of Phnom Penh to deliver a petition to the U.N. and eight foreign embassies during its three-day mass demonstration that starts today. The meeting at Phnom Penh City Hall came a day after Interior Minister Sar Kheng issued a statement calling on City Hall to come to an agreement with the CNRP to provide secure passage through the city for members of the opposition to deliver a petition calling for foreign embassies to intervene in the current political deadlock. City Hall had previously maintained that the CNRP would not be allowed to march during its demonstration, while opposition leaders repeatedly said such a decree had no legal legitimacy and would not be respected. A statement released during the meeting Tuesday and signed by Phnom Penh municipal governor Pa Socheatvong duplicated much of Mr. Kheng’s statement Monday but specified that 1,000 people could now march through the city. … Emerging from the three-hour meeting at City Hall just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, CNRP lawmaker-elect Kouy Bunroeun, who has taken a lead role in negotiations with the CPP government of Prime Minister Hun Sen since the disputed election, said that CNRP and City Hall had agreed upon the times and routes for the marches that begin today. … Lawmaker-elect Mu Sochua, the lead organizer of the demonstration, was more emphatic about the opposition’s predictions. “We asked for 5,000 and we plan for 5,000. If they want to count 1,000, that’s up to them,” she said. … National military police spokesman Brigadier General Kheng Tito said that security would be put in place by the municipality to protect demonstrators as they march but that military police would be on call to enforce the agreement made Tuesday if necessary. “We will use police to maintain public order, but if police lose control we will send military police to crack down on the demonstrators until we win,” he said. …
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/government-reverses-ban-agrees-to-cnrp-march-45694/
