Praying For Prisoners…
About 50 members of the Civil Society Organisation, joined by 23 monks from the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice (IMNSJ), monitored by nearly as much press and human rights observers, defied the demonstration ban in Phnom Penh by praying at the Preah Ang Dongker pagoda on the riverside to ask for the release of 23 workers, activists and union leaders who were arrested during the violent crackdown of striking workers by the army on January 2nd and 3rd which saw 5 workers killed by bullets and numerous wounded.
According to the Cambodia Daily, and in a revealing attitude about the authorities’ position regarding the responsibility of the deaths, Brigadier General Keng Tito, the military police spokesperson, simply dismisses a request for assistance by Richard Rogers, a lawyer appointed by the opposition CNRP to investigate the possibility to file a complaint at the ICC in The Hague, by saying: ‘We will not cooperate with a foreigner’…
