UN Envoy Asks Cambodia to Lift Demonstrations Ban

A U.N. rights envoy suggested Thursday that Cambodia lift a ban on public gatherings in the capital imposed amid a violent crackdown on demonstrators a month ago. Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s global Special Rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly and association, made the suggestion to Foreign Minister Hor Namhong in Phnom Penh while on a three-day visit to Cambodia. … Kiai’s trip comes less than a month after police shots during a crackdown on striking garment workers left five dead in what rights groups have decried as the worst state violence against civilian in the country in years. Kiai’s trip, which also included a meeting with opposition CNRP deputy chief Kem Sokha on Thursday, is an unofficial academic visit made on the invitation of civil society groups, rather than an official reporting visit organized by the government. … Kiai met with the Coalition of Cambodian Workers’ Democratic Union earlier in the week and is expected to meet with land rights activists from Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake community on Friday, the Cambodia Daily reported. …

Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/rapporteur-02062014181843.html