Cambodian Authorities Violently Disperse Protests Over Shooting Death

(Radio Free Asia) – Authorities in Cambodia’s capital on weekday violently cracked down on a bunch of protesters exigent justice for a person shot dead once police opened fireplace at the sidelines of associate opposition rally last month, witnesses aforementioned.

Security forces forcefully distributed dozens of villagers and monks UN agency had gathered at the landmark Wat Phnom Buddhist temple to perform a conventional ceremony and prayers for Mao Sok Chan, a 29-year-old father of 4 killed on Sept. fifteen throughout clashes at a key intersection close to the Kbal Thnal Bridge in national capital once a mass demonstration command by the Kingdom of Cambodia National party (CNRP).

“Security forces United Statesed violence against us,” complained Tep Vanny, a community leader within the Boeung Kak space in national capital wherever villagers are evicted to form method for luxury development comes. “One of them hit ME till i used to be virtually unconscious,” she told RFA’s Khmer Service.

Protest organizer Phea Sothea expressed regret that security forces “abused” the people’s right to freedom of assembly.

The gathering started off peacefully however “transformed into a violent confrontation with security forces, leading to a minimum of 5 individuals, as well as one foreign freelance journalist, receiving minor injuries,” the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) aforementioned in an exceedingly statement.

Organizers command the ceremony sooner than a march to a national capital court to submit a petition occupation for associate investigation into the death of Mao Sok Chan, UN agency was shot within the head amid clashes within which 9 others conjointly were wounded once police opened fireplace within the Sept. fifteen incident.

The authorities haven't disclosed details of the investigations into Mao Sok Chan’s case quite one month once his death.

The petition had conjointly entailed enlarged independence of tv stations, removing censorship and permitting stations to “accurately report the $64000 events that occur in Cambodian society,” the CCHR statement aforementioned.

“The organizers were prevented from closing their plan” by security forces in Daun Penh—a key district in Phnom Penh—who discontinuous  the cluster at Wat Phnom.

“They refused to permit the participants and monks to perform the ceremony for mister. Mao Sok Chan and tried to confiscate the group’s materials,” the statement aforementioned. “The security forces conjointly tried to seize the cameras of journalists and observers UN agency were observation the event.

The confrontation escalated once the participants tried to safeguard their materials and instrumentality, CCHR said.

Part of the cluster later managed to tolerate the court a petition with thumbprints from concerning five hundred individuals seeking justice for Mao Sok Chan and compensation to his family.

His married woman Cheav Sokvy aforementioned she was defeated that the authorities had not discharged the findings of the investigations quite a month once her husband’s death.