Yet another march by the SL Garment factory workers who are on a strike since the month of August for a rise in wages. It turned very ugly this morning. Some members of the riot police forces who stopped the demonstrators at the Stung Meanchey bridge opened fire with their handgun when trying to push back the protesters, resulting in several injured and the death of 49 year old Seng Sokhon, a woman selling food from a street stall.
She had nothing to do with the demonstration. She was eking a living out of her small streetside restaurant…
Several alleged protesters were arrested inside the Stung Meanchey pagoda and brutally beaten by forces of the Gendarmerie.
See also HERE, HERE and HERE…
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Preah Vihear is the link… Today at 4:00PM (Phnom Penh time) the International Court of Justice will issue its verdict on the border issue between Thailand and Cambodia around the 11th century temple.
Will the weaponry rattle again? Will everybody stay calm?
The photographs from the previous tension are HERE…
Update at 17:31: Problem solved? Naaah, ‘course not… The ICJ rules that only the promontory near the Preah Vihear temple is definitely cambodian, not all of the disputed 4,7Km2…
So why did it take more than three years? This morning surveyors, appointed by the Phnom Penh Municipality, started measuring the surface of 32 houses which were not included in the 12,44 Ha promised by Prime Minister Hun Sen to the Boeung Kak lake community way back in August 2011, paving the way to a real land title and the monetary compensation promised just before the 2013 elections.
Reminder: in 2008 a 99-year concession was granted by then Governor Kep Chuktema for an undisclosed sum of money to Lao Meng Khin responsible for the Shukaku Inc. development company which promptly started pumping sand in the lake and evicting more than 3000 families, triggering a fierce resistance by those left over.
More on Boeung Kak lake HERE and HERE
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes and which reports on land issues in Cambodia since the year 2000 with texts by Robert Carmichael and over 700 photographs.
Both the SL Garment factory and the Boeung Kak lake communities held a demonstration today. The first are locked into an endless conflict with their direction about wages and working conditions, the second are stuck into a relentless fight to see their fellow land rights activist Yorm Bopha, whom they consider unjustly imprisoned, walk free.
See HERE or HERE for more on the SL Garment strike.
For more on Boeung Kak lake see HERE and HERE
Today is the last day in the closing arguments for ‘Case nr2’ at the ECCC or ‘Khmer Rouge Tribunal’, trying former Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea (initially there were 4 but Ieng Tirith has dementia and Ieng Sary died).
In ‘Case Nr1’, Duch, alias Kaing Guek Eav, was tried and sentenced to life after he appealed an initial 35 years sentence.
The verdict for Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea will be announced some time in the first half of 2014…
Three people will have been tried so far for only a few of the horrors committed during the Khmer Rouge regime during which over 1.7 million people died.
‘30 Years for a Trial‘, an ebook for the iPad is available for $5.99 at the iTunes bookshop HERE.
‘30 Years for a Trial’ is both a report on the trial of Duch, the infamous director of S21, a Khmer Rouge interrogation centre where 15,000 people were tortured and killed, and a photographic reflection on the difficulty of photographing the Cambodian genocide. With texts by Phnom Penh based journalist Robert Carmichael and photographs by John Vink it gives some graphical insight and background information on the first Khmer Rouge to be sentenced by the ECCC.
The ebook has nearly 400 colour and B&W photographs, a long text by Robert Carmichael, spread over 10 different chapters. It also includes a sound enhanced slideshow and one chapter where the complete take of a 5-minute confrontation with the accused is analysed, picture by picture.
For those of you who have upgraded their laptop or desktop Mac to the ‘Mavericks’ OS: YOU CAN NOW ALSO READ THE IBOOKS AVAILABLE ON ITUNES ON THE SCREEN OF YOUR COMPUTER, and not only on your iPad.
On the 35th demonstration for 2013 only that I took photographs of (not counting guest appearances during other demonstrations), members of the Boeung Kak lake community gathered in front of the Municipal Court to deliver evidence about the vicious crackdown by masked men, allegedly Phnom Penh Municipality Security Guards dressed in civilian clothes, on a vigil the community was holding on September 22nd.
Several members of the community, as well as human rights monitors and journalists, were injured that night.
More on Boeung Kak lake HERE and HERE
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes and which reports on land issues in Cambodia since the year 2000 with texts by Robert Carmichael and over 700 photographs.
The Borei Keila community, seeking a solution from the municipal authorities regarding their precarious habitat following their January 2012 eviction, marched to town hall again, following a rather predictable scenario: the community first pours through a roadblock set up by the police and then a roadblock set up by the community in front of the town hall is broken up by the police.
Shuffling, pushing, cursing, beating, it has become common. But today one man was arrested and brought to the police HQ on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. He was handled pretty roughly and even beaten up two or three times by the blue-clad municipal guards once inside the safety of the town hall compound.
More on the Borei Keila eviction HERE.
Posted Wednesday Oct 30, 2013, in
Latest Productions |
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The marches have been marched, the speeches have been spoken, the voices of the 6000 Riel-a-day people have been heard, the connection between people from the various provinces was warm and heartening. Those who were there during these three days will remember…
There was no violence, not even provocation. Order was maintained, even if the 20K crowd was big to handle.
Now it is back to the negotiations with the ruling CPP. What has been achieved? One thing is for sure: support for the CNRP goes on unabated.
The other 2013 elections photographs are HERE.
Posted Friday Oct 25, 2013, in
Latest Productions |
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