Petition Rally for Prisoners’ Release Ends Peacefully
A week after they began their campaign, activists and rights groups handed out the last of their petitions to embassies across Phnom Penh on Wednesday, hoping to solicit the help of foreign governments in securing the release of 23 men arrested earlier this month at protests. The petition drive was broken up on its first day last week by Daun Penh district security guards, who grabbed 11 activists off the street and detained them for several hours. Wednesday’s march also turned tense when riot police blocked the petitioners’ way on Street 51, in front of the offices of the World Health Organization, and threatened to disperse them by force if the marchers did not take to motorbikes and tuk-tuks within 15 minutes. … With copies of their petition in hand, endorsed by nearly 200 mostly local nongovernment groups, the activists, rights workers and monks visited 19 embassies and two U.N. offices in all over four days of marching. … Besides the Burmese, Chinese and Vietnamese embassies, the group visited the embassies of Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore on Wednedsay. They also visited the offices of the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking. While most sent out an official to accept the petition, the Vietnamese Embassy was closed and the Philippines sent out a driver. The 23 detainees have all been charged with causing violence and destroying property and are awaiting trial. They were arrested during two days of garment workers’ demonstrations that ended on January 3 when military police opened fire into crowds of stone-throwing protesters, killing five and wounding more than 40. San Sokong, a lawyer for six of the detainees, said Wednesday that the Appeal Court had scheduled a bail hearing for all 23 men on February 11. Appeal Court Judge Khun Leang Meng said a bail hearing on that day was possible but not yet definite. …
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/petition-rally-for-prisoners-release-ends-peacefully-51135/
