FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2006
AS-155-2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
CAMBODIA: Support for rights of workers to march
On 20 June, Touch Naruth, the police commissioner of Phnom Penh, and Kuoch Chamroeun, governor of Meanchey district, led a mixed police force of 200 men armed with riot shields, truncheons and electric batons, some with AK-47 rifles, to break up a march of up to 1500 workers in Cambodia. The workers, from two garment factories in Meanchey district on the outskirts of Phnom Penh–Golden Crown and South Be–were about two kilometres distant from the factories and were marching towards the National Assembly in the city centre when intercepted. They were marching to request that the government oblige the company which owns the factories to comply with an order from the Labour Arbitration Council that a sacked trade union official, Heang Ren, be reinstated. The police beat the workers with truncheons and stunned them with electric batons, reportedly causing four to be seriously injured. Another 15 sustained minor injuries. The police also banned journalists from the operation area and attempted in vain to confiscate a camera from one who succeeded in getting through and taking pictures.
The police chief claimed that the march was stopped because it was illegal. The action was needed, he said, to “ensure security” and “prevent traffic jams” in the capital. He added that he would be blamed by “top leaders” if he did not take any steps to deal with it.
Brutal attacks on peaceful protesters in Cambodia have been increasingly justified in recent years on spurious grounds of security, traffic flow, public order and vague notions of legality and illegality. None of these reasons are legitimate. The targets of assault have in every case been marching peacefully and legally, and in an orderly manner. In late April, for instance, the authorities banned marches on International Labour Day, May 1, on the same pretexts. Yet when people defied the ban and forced their way from the outskirts of Phnom Penh to rally in front of the National Assembly, there were no disturbances to security and public order, nor any traffic jams.
Police actions against peacefully organising and marching workers violate the rights of freedom of expression and assembly guaranteed and protected by the Cambodian constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cambodia is a party. By assaulting the workers without cause the police have also violated the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Cambodia has also joined. And they have broken the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which is an integral part of the Cambodian criminal law. Furthermore, Touch Naruth violated this same code when he invoked fears of being blamed by his superiors for ordering the violent crackdown.
The Asian Human Rights Commission supports the legal action being launched by the Cambodia Confederation of Apparel Workers Democratic Union, which organised the rally, against the police and district governor, and appeals to the courts to uphold the fundamental rights of the Cambodian people against groundless attempts to delimit them for stated reasons of security, public order, traffic movement or otherwise. The courts must severely sanction persons attempting to restrict these rights. This lawsuit should go all the way to the Constitutional Council in order that it affirm these fundamental rights and declare unconstitutional an outdated law, adopted during the communist era, which restricts public demonstrations. That law is irrelevant and under any circumstances is due to be replaced by one that will reaffirm these rights.
