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Cambodia Police Use Water Cannons on Protesters Protest Turns Into Clash With Police In Cambodia
(about 9 hours later)
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Riot police fired smoke grenades and water cannons on Sunday at rock-throwing opposition supporters in the capital who vowed to continued their protests against the government until a post-election deadlock was resolved. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Cambodia’s political deadlock turned violent on Sunday as opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the streets of Phnom Penh, leaving at least one person dead and several injured, according to journalists and a Cambodian human rights organization.
At least one police officer was injured. Most of Phnom Penh was calm, however, after about 20,000 protesters gathered at a city park earlier in the day to keep up their push for an independent investigation of the results from the election in July. The violence came during a day of mass protests in the capital of Phnom Penh led by Sam Rainsy, a former finance minister and the leader of the opposition to Cambodia’s authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen.
The opposition says the ballot was marred by irregularities that robbed it of winning a majority of seats in Parliament, accusations the ruling party denies. Security forces used tear gas and water cannons against protesters and fired their weapons into the air, according to Ou Virak, the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. The circumstances of the death of the opposition supporter were still unclear, Mr. Ou Virak said.
Although the city government allowed Sunday’s rally to go ahead at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park, the authorities warned protesters to stay off the streets. Thousands of people marched across various parts of the city anyway, and the police appeared to be under orders not to intervene. The opposition is protesting alleged cheating in the country’s July elections and has vowed to step up demonstrations across the country unless an independent committee is formed to investigate the reports of widespread irregularities.
At one spot along a river in eastern Phnom Penh, about 200 demonstrators gathered on one side of a barricade of barbed wire and roadblocks that had been erected to keep them away from the Royal Palace. An effort to break the deadlock by King Norodom Sihamoni failed Saturday after Mr. Sam Rainsy and Mr. Hun Sen met for less than half an hour on Saturday.
When the protesters refused to disperse and began jeering, the police fired water cannons and smoke grenades, prompting demonstrators to riposte with rocks, shoes and other objects. One officer was hit in the head with a piece of iron. Further meetings — and further protests — are planned for Monday.
Shortly after, the leader of the opposition, Sam Rainsy, arrived and condemned the violence. He urged the crowd — which had by then swelled to nearly 1,000 people — to stay calm and return to the main protest site at Freedom Park. The opposition’s first major protest on Sept. 7 proceeded without violence. In a country with a history of political violence, opposition leaders had gone to pains to emphasize the peaceful nature of their campaign.
The mass rally came one day after Cambodia’s king brought Prime Minister Hun Sen face to face with Mr. Sam Rainsy for the first time in years, urging the two rivals to resolve their conflict over the election results peacefully. No agreement was reached, but the two are expected to meet again Monday. On Sunday, protesters were angered when security forces tried to disperse them from one spot along a river in eastern Phnom Penh. According to The Associated Press, about 200 demonstrators had gathered there on one side of a barricade of barbed wire and roadblocks that had been erected to keep them away from the Royal Palace. They threw rocks and shoes at security forces, and one policeman was hit with a piece of metal, the news agency said.
Political analysts said the weekend protest was mostly aimed at appeasing angry supporters and strengthening the opposition’s hand in the negotiations. Although demonstrators are pushing for an independent investigation of the election results, the government has no legal means of meeting the request now that the outcome has been ratified. Most of Phnom Penh was calm, however, after about 20,000 protesters gathered at the city’s Freedom Park earlier in the day.
“Their ballots were stolen, and they are asking for justice,” Mr. Sam Rainsy said of his supporters in a speech at Sunday’s rally. The new session of the National Assembly is scheduled to begin Sept. 23, but the opposition has said it will boycott parliamentary proceedings until the issue of vote fraud is resolved. Cambodian and foreign vote-monitoring organizations say the government has not responded to requests about irregularities, including a very high number of temporary identification cards issued around the time of the election.
He said the protest, initially planned for three days, would continue until the opposition’s demands for justice were met. According to official results that were ratified earlier this month, Mr. Hun Sen’s party, the Cambodian People’s Party, won the election by a relatively slim margin over Mr. Sam Rainsy’s party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party. Mr. Hun Sen’s party received 68 seats in the National Assembly, and Mr. Sam Rainsy’s party 55. By law, Parliament has to convene within 60 days of the July 28 election.
Fears of violence have risen amid a visible increase of military forces in the capital since the election and the discovery on Friday of explosives planted near Freedom Park.
Official results announced last weekend gave Hun Sen’s party 68 seats in the National Assembly and Mr. Sam Rainsy’s party 55 — a drastic opposition increase from the 29 seats it won in the previous election.
On Saturday, King Norodom Sihamoni also urged lawmakers from both parties to attend the opening session of Parliament on Sept. 23. The opposition has said it would boycott the session, and Mr. Sam Rainsy repeated that promise on Sunday.