RT @ doyle_kevin 11:07 AM Just spotted pick-up truck with heavily armed troops moving through Phnom Penh, MPs moving near Freedom Park protest site. Something is up!

RT @MuSochua 11:16 AM Very heavy police numbers surrounding #Freedompark now

RT ‏@instupor 11:28 AM Military riot police move in to block streets off Freedom Park

RT @doyle_kevin 11:30 AM Appears to be start of police and military police operation to clear Freedom Park of opposition supporters

RT @instupor 11:31 AM

People fleeing freedom park

RT @instupor 11:34 AM

The announcer is urging people to leave and they are running like hell

RT @doyle_kevin 11:35 AM Brutal attack on monks and women as police clear Freedom Park. Indiscriminate violence

RT @instupor 11:35 AM Not just MPs but black shirts with red bands. Hard to control thugs

RT @instupor 11:37 AM They are tearing down structures in park. People's belongings left behind in haste

RT @doyle_kevin 11:41 AM Thugs with metal bars and steel pipes beat monks and women to clear Freedom Park of peaceful protesters - sickening

RT @instupor 11:47 AM Thuggery pure and simple. Let's call it what it is - a tragic end to a 20 year experiment in democracy.

RT @doyle_kevin 11:48 AM Gov't thugs in plain clothes and armed with steel pipes and batons destroy roof over Buddhist altar at Freedom Park. Hard to believe

Terrible. Be safe!

RT @doyle_kevin 11:53 AM Acting Phnom Penh Police Chief Mok Chito flanked by officers with AK-47s. Takes loudspeaker to stop video cameraman on nearby rooftop

RT @instupor 12:00 Speakers just pushed off the stage. I guess destruction of private property OK if government is doing it.

Kevin Doyle ‏@doyle_kevin 3 min

Just received report - Unconfirmed - that arrest warrants have been issued for opposition part leaders

Julia Wallace ‏@julia_wallace 5 min

All roads to Freedom Park are now blocked off by military police. They say "No journalists allowed to enter. My boss has given orders."

Abby Seiff ‏@instupor 2 min

Rong Chhun reportedly among those tapped for arrest.

RT ‏@doyle_kevin 12:03 PM Must be 300 thugs in park destroying stage, tents under which people had sat during demo, which started Dec.15

RT @doyle_kevin 12:09 PM Just received report - Unconfirmed - that arrest warrants have been issued for opposition part leaders

RT @doyle_kevin 12:10 PM Just heard one of the gov't thugs clearing Freedom Park say humorously to his partners: "this is democracy."

RT@instupor 12:15 PM Military helicopters - two - flying over Freedom Park

I have an unconfirmed report from Khmer friends at the site, that there has been one civilian death.

The Cambodia Daily ‏@cambodiadaily 26 s

Police Kill 5 During Clash With Demonstrators http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/military-police-kill-5-during-clash-with-demonstrators-50081/ …

The Cambodia Daily ‏@cambodiadaily 1 min

Security Guards, Police Forcibly Clear Freedom Park http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/security-guards-police-clear-freedom-park-50086/ …

RT @instupor 12:16 PM Those who have been camping here have lost everything - all their belongings left when they fled ruthlessly destroyed.

RT @doyle_kevin 12:17 PM 3 of the gov'ts new Chinese military helicopters circling over Freedom Park much to the glee of the thugs who just beat monks and women

RT@instupor 12:17 PM Unconfirmed that opposition deputy head Kem Sokha among those to be arrested.

RT @doyle_kevin 12:26 PM Just spoke to two men with steel bars who said they and 20 others were trucked in from Stung Meanchey area. Civilians+paid?

RT @instupor 12:31 PM Rumors going among rights workers that monitors will be arrested at Freedom Park. Terrifying message if true

RT @doyle_kevin 12:40 PM Helicopters are back buzzing what's left of Freedom Park. Thugs are searching belongings left behind by protesters. Looting the spoils!

RT @instupor 12:45 PM They are running to Wat Phnom around the US embassy

RT @instupor 12:46 PM Many armed with metal bars. Beware if there, this will not end well. Likely the same hired thugs from September

RT @instupor 12:49 PM At least five trucks of MPs passed Wat Phnom where thugs headed now

RT @instupor 12:50 PM They are following them in now. Who knows what or who they are after

ADHOC-Cambodia ‏@ADHOC__Cambodia 5 min

RT @Preah_Ream: Official order from City Hall no more protests http://www.cen.com.kh/localnews/show_detail/19?token=YzdmZmUzNG … #Cambodia #ProtestsKH”

Casey Nelson ‏@LTO_cambodia 5 min

1998 http://www.garella.com/rich/camelect/srpdocs6.htm …

Same crackdown in 1998

http://www.garella.com/rich/camelect/srpdocs6.htm

Kevin Doyle ‏@doyle_kevin 4 min

Civilian thugs wearing red cloth armbands today. Troops loyal to Hun Sen who fought in 1997 to oust Prince Ranariddh also wore red armbands

RT @MuSochua 1:07 PM Brutal force used on peaceful protesters savagely beaten monks included.

RT @MuSochua 1:08 PM This is #Hunsen third hand

RT @instupor 1:22 PM Lots of angry passersby gathering at the blocked off edges on Norodom, shouting vitriol about Hun Sen and freedom. Not just young men either

‏RT@instupor 1:32 PM An old man just berated police for five minutes. "I am so sad to see this happen to my country. You are not Cambodian, you are Vietnamese"

RT @doyle_kevin 1:29 PM Reports of arrest warrants for 8 opposition party leaders in Cambodia following weeks of protests for re-election and resignation of Hun Sen

RT @camboguide 1:34 PM Obviously this was done to prevent possibility of a huge march tomorrow after this week's events. But #CPP has just lost the next election.

RT @julia_wallace 1:36 PM They are still trying to figure out how to evict this blind old woman who cannot walk from Freedom Park. pic.twitter.com/a3NufEiJ0K

RT@instupor 1:46 PM A rights worker said: well, better than 1998 when they just threw grenades in to break it. Truly sad that after 15 years that's only progress

RT @doyle_kevin 1:47 PM 15 years after PM Hun Sen crushed mass protests, he is at it again. Old-school style: thugs with steel pipes and military police with AKs.

RT @bartlettkate 1:45 PM No arrest warrants out for cnrp leaders, govt says, but they will be called to court for questioning #cambodia unrest

RT @vendredy 1:46PM 4 years on, #FreedomPark has turn into #OppressionPark. #PhnomPenh pic.twitter.com/OoXbWklg5d

RT @chadlaca 1:47 PM Amid rampant rumors of arrest warrants for both union and CNRP leaders, municipal court president pleads ignorance of any such plans. #ppp

RT @chadlaca 1:51 PM CNRP's Mu Sochua says party leadership gathered at party HQ. Of warrants she says "I don’t think it is a rumor. It is a matter of time."

RT @instupor 1:54 PM Brief fracas as man hands out flyer about the killers in Veng Sreng, MP moves in and most immediately tear it up and drive off.

RT @doyle_kevin 1:55 PM Razor wire barricades back up near National Library. Crowds of youths now jeering as riot police arrive in trucks. Anger is likely building.

RT @instupor 2:04 PM At my flat near Freedom Park, neighbors have cleared out their stalls and locked the front gate. Ditto the apts across the block.

RT@instupor 2:18 PM Armed MPs moving down street 108, appear to be surrounding a building. Everyone on street has fled

‏RT @instupor 2:20 PM People are being tasered as they move toward riverside

‏@instupor 2:23 PM About 40 have gotten off trucks and marching to riverside now. Some peeling off to clear side streets pic.twitter.com/f4sykQYEWI

RT @CambodianBem 2:11 PM Norodom at and North of independence monument nearly every other block military standing with automatic rifles...

RT @doyle_kevin 2:28 PM Soldiers are deployed near Phnom Penh International Airport

RT @instupor 2:45 PM Five military humvees just drove by. Heading toward Russian Boulevard

I'm in St 110 just two or three blocks away. All the chatter is about the situation. A truck just backfired and everyone jumped in reflex. The view seems to be that this will strengthen resolve and everyone will regroup tomorrow. Maybe not Freedom Park but somewhere. It doesn't look like this will snuff the candle.

‏Yes, that is the sense I am getting too. People talk about this being a replay of 1998 but it's not quite...people are braver now and dissent is less easily squashed.

Even the '98 crackdown was not a complete success. I remember the '98 demonstrations as a watershed, before them people lived in fear and didn't dare to talk politics, during them people found out their neighbors felt as they did, and for the first time experienced the exhilaration of speaking out. Even after the demonstrations then were brutally suppressed, things never went back to where they had been, from that time on people were more outspoken. And not just in PP.

Each go round, something is gained, though the process may take time.