Cambodia opposition appeals for int'l embassies’ help

[geovalin]

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH

Opposition party MPs pushed ahead with plans to submit open letters to a number of embassies around Phnom Penh on Monday despite a series of blockades set up on the road to their headquarters that snarled traffic in the capital for several hours. The Cambodia National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) Deputy Director-General of Public Affairs, Kem Monovithya, had announced on social media yesterday that plans for a march through Phnom Penh would proceed “despite City hall objection”, but come nightfall the barricades had started going up.

 

They were erected along National Road 2 on Sunday night; a key arterial route in and out of the city, and home to the CNRP’s headquarters. By early Monday morning, the blockade choked the roads feeding into that point, causing tailbacks through parts of the southern end of the city for several kilometers (miles). The aim of the march was to deliver letters to some of the embassies representing the countries that signed the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement, which effectively ended 20 years of bloodshed in Cambodia and paved the way for United Nations-backed elections in 1993, as well as ASEAN-member embassies.

 

The CNRP claims that Cambodia’s ruling party has not upheld the values of the accord. Outside the CNRP offices, where deputy leader Kem Sokha has been holed up for weeks to avoid being hauled off to court in a prostitution case that critics say is politically motivated, supporters and monks gathered.

 

read more http://aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/cambodia-opposition-appeals-for-intl-embassies-help/641401