Cambodian human rights chief says “Black Monday” campaign be quelled

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Cambodian human rights chief says “Black Monday” campaign be quelled

PHNOM PENH: The head of Cambodia Human Rights Committee has said that the civil society-backed “Black Monday” campaign needs to be quelled because it has the potential to flare up like the violent Veng Sreng Boulevard minimum wage protests in 2014, according to The Phnom Post Online on Friday.

Keo Remy who was named the CHRC president in May told the media after giving a lecture at the Royal University of Law and Economics that although the campaign seemed to be small now, it had the potential to get bigger if the authorities didn’t “keep it quiet”.

Citing the Veng Sreng Boulevard incident and the Naga Bridge beatings, he said: “Therefore, we need to keep it quiet in order to avoid similar turmoil again.”

In January 2014, security forces opened fire on a rioting crowd of minimum wage garment protesters at Veng Sreng Boulevard, killing five of them. Six months later, an opposition rally near the Naga Bridge turned violent and several Daun Penh district security guards were viciously beaten up. The beatings followed months of brutal crackdown by the guards on the nonviolent opposition protesters.

Remy went on to snub at the opposition whose acting president Kem Sokha is holed up to escape arrest on a sexual charge, saying the government’s role is to enforce the law.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/cambodian-human-rights-chief-says-black-monday-campaign-quelled/

-- Thai PBS 2016-06-25