LTO Cambodia: CNRP Demonstration v.2: Day 1

Sunday, September 15, 2013

CNRP Demonstration v.2: Day 1

Flashing '7' at Freedom Park

Today was the first day of the CNRP's planned multi-day mass demonstration protesting the election results, demanding justice and an independent investigation of the election results. The demonstration in Phnom Penh was based out of Freedom Park, but unlike the previous demonstration, Freedom Park was set up for a multi-day event with people staying the night, and protestors marched outside the Freedom Park area. In my estimation there were at least 25,000 people in the Freedom Park area midday today, perhaps significantly more, and more protestors were on the riverfront and in other areas.

Police presence around the city was much heavier today than it was for the last demonstration. Roads were blocked with concertina wire blockades across town making travel difficult, and PMs (gendarmes) and riot police in full gear were visibly out in significant force. There was at least one violent confrontation between police and protestors during the day today, taking place on the riverfront (Sisowath Quay) in front of Wat Ounalom. Protestors broke through street barricades and police fired smoke grenades and shot water cannons to drive protestors back.

A few photos from today:

Crowd cheers speaker at Freedom Park.

In the days before the protest was to begin, the CNRP prepared Freedom Park for protests and for overnight campers, erecting tent roofs along the sides, taping off walkways through the park, bringing in bottled water, etc. This video of Freedom Park was taken in the mid-late afternoon, the day before the protest.

This video was taken at Freedom Park during the afternoon today, standing in about the same place as I did for the video above that I took yesterday. Unfortunately I seem to have rotated the opposite direction.

Protestors at Freedom Park, mid-afternoon.

Some shops, especially those near the Freedom Park area and on the riverfront, remained closed and barred in anticipation of possible violence.

Meanwhile down at the riverfront, things weren't going quite as peacefully. There had been a stand-off between police and protestors for much of the afternoon. Earlier the police had fired smoke grenades and water cannons to disperse protestors, but the stand-off continued. Here demonstrators carry street barricades and throw them in the river.

One of the demonstrators pointed out this (spent?) smoke grenade sitting on the ground amongst the protestors, fired earlier by the police. He made it a point to tell me "it is from Vietnam," which, upon inspection of the label, it clearly was.

Onlookers climb the Techo statue on the riverfront to get a better view of the standoff between protestors and the police.

Riot police stand the line on Sisowath Quay near the FCC, several deep, ready to confront protestors that they are facing. Behind them are several ranks of PMs, waiting to back them up.

The standoff.

Protestors facing police from the other side of the barbed wire barricade. In an amazing display of non-violent protest technique, as the protestors grew angrier and closer to the barbwire yelling at the police, protest organizers linked arms in front of the protestors and gently (and successfully) ushered them back away from the barbed wire line and confrontation, calming them a bit as well.

On the riverfront, speaking though a megaphone at the police.

Sam Rainsy arrives on the riverfront and manages to calm his people and get the police to relax and remove the barricade, essentially diffusing the stand-off.

At Freedom Park, around 8:00PM. Most of the protestors from Phnom Penh had gone home, leaving the Park mostly empty. A couple/few thousand people, most from the countryside, remained and will spend the night at the Park. It was drizzling a bit when I was there and people clustered under the tented areas, eating dinner and socializing. Some, including this fellow, were working hard to keep political spirits high.

Food vendor and tent at Freedom Park.

Ready for the night in Freedom Park.

Breaking news from the late evening today: There are reliable reports that a protestor was killed and others wounded this evening in a confrontation with police at the Kbal Thnal overpass in southern Phnom Penh.

2 comments:

Bill HerodSeptember 16, 2013 at 6:40 AM
Great reporting - Thanks for this!
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AnonymousSeptember 16, 2013 at 11:30 PM
Certainly looked like a peaceful demonstration. The contract between the families with kids protesting and the barbarians dressed in helmets and shields is telling. A bit to much testosterone on the barbarian side of the barbed wire.
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Cambodia

Cambodia is Srok Khmer, the 'Land of the Khmer,' the primary ethnic group in the area since at least the Neolithic and an Indian influenced civilization with origins near 2000 years old. Centered on the lower Mekong and tributaries the Khmer people have dominated the region for millennia. From 2nd century AD Khmer kingdoms rose and fell, culminating in unification and the 500 year reign of the Angkorian Empire, the builders of the temples of Angkor near Siem Reap. The Empire stretched from Burma to the ocean. But by the 1400s Cambodia fell to centuries of change and decline squeezed between the expanding Siam and Vietnam. Colonized and by the French in the 1860s, independence 90 years later in 1954, a brief post-colonial 'golden period' under Sihanouk, coup in 70, civil war, fall to the communist Khmer Rouge in 75, 3 years 8 months 20 days of madness, Vietnamese rescue in 1979, occupation, low level war and international sanctions in the 80s, the UN, ostensive democracy and an adventure party destination in the 90s and now mainstreaming, tourism, rapid development, rapacious capitalism and NGOs, missionaries and other international busybodies aplenty.

Southeast Asia

As the term implies, Southeast Asia encompasses the southeastern corner of the Asian continent, loosely speaking, the area between India, China and Australia. It is made up of two distinct regions: the mainland zone, a bulbous peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, bounded by China to the north and India to the west; and the insular (island) zone in the Pacific Ocean. The name 'Southeast Asia' is a comparatively recent invention, first coming into use into the 20th century and still a bit indefinite in definition. Mainland Southeast Asia is generally considered to include Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and peninsular Malaysia. The mainland is sometimes referred to as Indo-China though Indochina (Indochine) also designates the 19th/20th century French colonial conglomerate of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sitting south of the Tropic of Cancer, most of mainland Southeast Asia lies in the hot, humid tropics and sub-tropics with a climate dominated by a monsoon cycle which divides the year into two distinct seasons: a dry season and an extremely wet monsoon season. Much of the mainland is mountainous and thickly jungled, with large river systems and wide, low-lying, flood-prone plains, much of which is, in modern times, deforested and blanketed with geometrical rice paddies. Several major river valleys including the Mekong River, the Red, Ma and Ka rivers and the group of rivers draining to the Chao Praya Delta played host to the rise of early civilization in the area. The Mekong River is one of the world's greatest rivers, the seventh largest on the planet, and since pre-history has been closely associated with the land of the Khmer.