City Hall Bans Monks From Marching to National Assembly
Phnom Penh City Hall issued a letter Monday banning a group of monks who have marched cross-country to mark International Human Rights Day from completing the final leg of their journey, in which they had hoped to hand petitions to lawmakers at the National Assembly on Tuesday. Five groups of marchers converged on Phnom Penh on Monday, the penultimate day of a 10-day walk along the country’s main arterial roads, bearing petitions with hundreds of cases of human rights abuses collected along the way. … Last night, the Venerable Bun Buntenh, who heads the Independent Network for Social Justice and helped organize the march, said he was considering how to deal with City Hall’s directive. “They have prohibited us from walking [to the National Assembly] so we need to decide whether to confront, whether to negotiate,” he said. “They say we can stand at one place, but we do not accept. It is International Human Rights Day, and it is a basic human right that the government is trying to violate.” …
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-bans-monks-from-marching-to-national-assembly-48959/
