Khmer Krom monks clash with Cambodian police over Hanoi statement

8 July 2014
Radio Free Asia
Constitution and rights / Government / International relations / Law and judiciary
Adhoc / Cambodia National Rescue Party / CNRP / Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and Students / Ho Chi Minh City / Human Rights Watch / Khmer Krom / Mam Sonando / Mao Peises / Riel Khemarin / Trung Van Thong

More than a hundred monks and students from Vietnam’s Khmer Krom ethnic minority living in Cambodia clashed Tuesday with riot police and security guards in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh as they marched to demand an apology for statements by Hanoi claiming historic ownership of disputed territory. Police used batons to disperse the protesters, who responded by hurling stones, sources said. Several marchers were injured in the clash. Speaking at Tuesday’s rally, Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and Students president Mao Peises rejected a Vietnamese diplomat’s statement made to the Cambodian media in June that Khmer Kampuchea Krom, a region comprising much of present-day southern Vietnam, belonged to Vietnam even before it was officially ceded to it by France in 1949. …

 Richard Finney
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/clash-07082014164311.html