Police block Kampuchea Krom petition march

[geovalin]

Dozens of riot police with shields and batons blocked the road in front of Wat Chas pagoda yesterday to prevent a march by the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community and Khmer Youth Alliance for Democracy to the National Assembly to submit a petition. The petition, which was allowed to pass through the blockade in a vehicle with Thach Setha, president of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community, requests the government set June 4 as a national holiday of remembrance to mark the day the French gave Cambodia’s Kampuchea Krom territory to Vietnam.

 

The blockade did not lead to any clashes, but a young man, Meng Chheang, was briefly detained for handing out copies of the petition to fellow activists. “It’s not right for the authorities to block a peaceful march,” Mr Setha said after delivering the petition. “It was to be a peaceful march without affecting public order to hand in a petition, but there was obstruction. This petition was made for the whole nation, and was not about political gain.”

 

City Hall advised the organisers of the march on June 19 that they would not be allowed to proceed because the march would affect public order.  “You do not have to march on the public road to submit petitions to the National Assembly,” City Hall spokesman Met Meas Pheakdey said yesterday. “They can just simply go there without marching.”

 

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