
Cambodia: Opposition leader vows to fight on despite shootings
Cambodia: Opposition leader vows to fight on despite shootings
Leader of the Cambodian opposition party Sam Rainsy held a press conference in Phnom Penh on Sunday during a ceremony to mark the deaths of five protesters killed when state security opened fire on a group of demonstrating garment workers, telling reporters that activists would continue to press forward against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
"A cultural revolution is taking place in this country," said Mr. Rainsy, the President of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). "You see that people now, they are no longer afraid. Of course, when they kill people, after a few days there's still some fear. But they cannot kill everybody, everywhere, all the time."
A scheduled march through the city was cancelled after a protest camp in the capital's Freedom Park was dispersed by military police and army officers, with local reports saying that Buddhist monks were amongst those violently expelled. The capital's governor has notified the CNRP that all marches and protest gatherings are now banned until the security situation improves.
"They [protesters] express their views," said Mr. Rainsy. "They criticise in public the CPP. They show their support for the CNRP. Otherwise you would not see hundreds of thousands people in the street. Actually, the real Parliament is in the street."
Today's cancellation comes ahead of the anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge government on January 7, an important event in the Cambodian calendar.

Cambodia: Opposition leader vows to fight on despite shootings
Leader of the Cambodian opposition party Sam Rainsy held a press conference in Phnom Penh on Sunday during a ceremony to mark the deaths of five protesters killed when state security opened fire on a group of demonstrating garment workers, telling reporters that activists would continue to press forward against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
"A cultural revolution is taking place in this country," said Mr. Rainsy, the President of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). "You see that people now, they are no longer afraid. Of course, when they kill people, after a few days there's still some fear. But they cannot kill everybody, everywhere, all the time."
A scheduled march through the city was cancelled after a protest camp in the capital's Freedom Park was dispersed by military police and army officers, with local reports saying that Buddhist monks were amongst those violently expelled. The capital's governor has notified the CNRP that all marches and protest gatherings are now banned until the security situation improves.
"They [protesters] express their views," said Mr. Rainsy. "They criticise in public the CPP. They show their support for the CNRP. Otherwise you would not see hundreds of thousands people in the street. Actually, the real Parliament is in the street."
Today's cancellation comes ahead of the anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge government on January 7, an important event in the Cambodian calendar.