After Park Cleared, CNRP Leaders Called to Court

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, municipal security guards and men in plainclothes, wielding steel bars, metal pipes, batons, sticks and axes, forcibly cleared hundreds of demonstrators from Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park, where the opposition CNRP has been protesting against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen for three straight weeks. Demonstrators, including monks and women, were indiscriminately beaten as they ran away. The move by the CPP government came one day after its security forces shot dead at least five, and injured more than 20, protesting garment workers, armed with stones, sticks and crude Molotov cocktails, during clashes in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said the park had to be cleared to restore public order in the capital city, which has been host to daily protests marches and mass demonstrations in recent weeks. … Long Ry, a lawmaker and head of security for the CNRP, stepped onto the main stage, took the microphone and told people to take what belongings they could and get out of the park. Once the park was cleared, the security guards and thugs, along with municipal police, began tearing down the tents and staging that has been erected in the park over the past three weeks. They also knocked down a Buddhist shrine in the center of the park. Demonstrators moved to surrounding streets as military police sealed off the entry roads to the park. At 1 p.m., the men who cleared the park and police continued to tear down structures at the park as three small Chinese-made military helicopters flew overhead. … City Hall released a statement Saturday morning, signed by Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong, saying that CNRP demonstrations and marches would no longer be tolerated by the municipal government. “Some protesters who come out of Freedom Park, including monks, have done illegal activities and provoked along the streets, factories and other state institution, without control and with no responsibility from the demonstration leaders,” the statement says, citing the country’s laws on peaceful demonstrations. “Based on this situation…the Phnom Penh municipality has decided not to allow the CNRP to continue demonstrations at Freedom Park or marches along the streets in Phnom Penh starting from January 4, 2014, until security and public order is guaranteed.” … Also Saturday, Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued summonses for CNRP president Sam Rainsy and vice president Kem Sokha to appear in court on January 14 over their role in the demonstrations that turned violent. … Mr. Rainsy told reporters at the CNRP’s Phnom Penh headquarters Sunday morning that he and Mr. Sokha would heed the summons, as they have not been involved in any illegal activities. “I will go to court on the 14th. I have done nothing wrong, so I am not afraid,” Mr. Rainsy said. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said that he did not believe that the opposition leaders would be arrested before they were called to court for questioning.

 Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/security-guards-police-clear-freedom-park-50086/