Students Urge All Sides to Keep Election Protests Peaceful

More than 200 students and opposition supporters marched Sunday around Phnom Penh’s Wat Phnom with flowers in hand, urging parties to refrain from violence during Saturday’s protest against last month’s contested national election results and for recent incitement charges against two students to be dropped. The morning march, organized by a group of like-minded friends via Facebook, came amid the opposition CNRP’s preparations for mass protests set for Sep­tember 7, the day before the National Election Committee is to release final results almost certain to show a win for the ruling CPP. The opposition says it will go through with the demonstrations unless the government agrees to an independent investigation of the election, which both parties claim to have won but remains mired by reports of widespread irregularities. … Heng Samnang, one of the organizers of Sunday’s march, said he expected the protests to remain peaceful but worried that the government will plant people in the crowds to stir up trouble. … Mr. Samnang, a law student at the National University of Management, said the group planned to spread its message of non-violence by handing out lotus flowers to police and soldiers around the city over the next few days. That same activity got four people arrested on August 15, including a pair of students. Though the four were soon released on bail, they remain charged with incitement. The government accuses them of having links to a U.S.-based group of dissident Khmer-Americans that the government has branded a terrorist organization, though rights groups and lawyers say it has no evidence of criminal intent or behavior. …

 Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/students-urge-all-sides-to-keep-election-protests-peaceful-41556/