Security for Demonstration Brings Parts of City to Standstill

Parts of Phnom Penh came to a standstill Sunday as security forces closed off major and minor roads with razor wire and metal barriers and at one point even denied an ambulance access to a local children’s hospital. The measures were put in place for the first day of the opposition CNRP’s planned three-day demonstrations against contested election results. The barricades were deployed across the city, including multiple spots along Sisowath Quay and Norodom Boulevard, the roads around the Royal Palace, every road connected to the Independence Monument area and every road linking Norodom Boulevard to Street 51. Pol Sam Oun, a police officer stationed at a major roadblock on the corner of Norodom Boulevard and Street 294, said orders had been given to roll out the barricades to facilitate smooth access for demonstrators to Freedom Park, where the CNRP had planned a three-day camp-in. “We blocked the road to stop the protesters going onto different streets. If we open all of the roads, it would be anarchy—that’s why we do this, it’s to help get them to Freedom Park and so there are no traffic jams,” he said. But people around Phnom Penh on Sunday said the measures had the opposite effect on traffic, blocking many from reaching their homes, schools and offices. … Two hours earlier, panicked military police had run up the riverfront tourist strip, exhorting shop owners to pull the shutters down over their shops. “It’s a big problem: No customers, no money,” one store owner on Sisowath Quay said, predicting losses of about $200 during the course of the day. “They ran up to us telling us they were scared there would be thieves,” he explained. The Akreiksat ferry port connecting Phnom Penh to Kandal province, which lies near Koh Pich, was also forced closed Sunday, with a security guard at the port saying it had been closed since 6 a.m. and had no immediate plans to reopen. … An ambulance transporting children was stopped at a roadblock near Wat Ounalom in Daun Penh district for about 20 minutes, before turning around and heading back to the oversaturated hospital it had departed from. Kantha Bopha hospital director Denis Laurent said that hospital staff regularly transport 50 to 60 sick children from Kantha Bopha 2 near Wat Phnom to Kantha Bopha 4 at the Royal Palace—which has 200 more beds. … Military police spokesman Kheng Tito said that ambulances were “not supposed to be” in that area and denied that police patrolling barricades would have blocked the ambulance from passing. “We allow them to enter. We never stop the ambulance be- cause they are the most important,” he said. “The ambulance [chose] not to enter by itself—they might have been afraid, and they did not want to enter.” Mr. Tito said that the barricades would remain in place until demonstrations ended and that people living and commuting in Phnom Penh “have to under- stand about the importance of security and public order.”

 Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/security-for-demonstration-brings-parts-of-city-to-standstill-42383/