Union leader details beating by soldiers
Taking the stand for the first time since his arrest at a garment worker protest that turned violent in early January, union leader Vorn Pao told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday that he went to the protest only to make peace and was beaten bloody by soldiers for his efforts. Mr. Pao, president of the Informal Democracy of Economy Association, was one of 23 men arrested on January 2 and 3 at a pair of protests for higher garment sector wages and charged with causing or inciting violence and property damage. Military police shot and killed at least five people at the demonstration on January 3, where protesters were armed with stones, slingshots and Molotov cocktails. … At Tuesday’s hearings, the third in these trials, Mr. Pao said he was still suffering from the beating he received at the hands of soldiers—including members of the elite Brigade 911—who had been called in to suppress a protest outside the Yakjin garment factory on January 2. Pa Sopheap, a Prampi Makara district security guard, said four of his colleagues were injured when they tried to disperse the crowd. “One man was hit with a rock near his eyebrow by a monk and he needed four stitches, and another was injured in the right arm,” he said. …
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-details-beating-by-soldiers-59221/
