2007-02-27PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Fifty Cambodian Buddhist monks protested outside the Vietnamese embassy on Tuesday, calling on the communist-run nation's visiting president, Nguyen Minh Triet, to allow greater freedom of religion.
More than 100 riot police armed with electric-shock batons and AK-47 rifles lined up outside the compound as officials tried to persuade the saffron-robed monks to leave.
One civilian bystander was arrested for shouting.
"I don't understand why police caught me just because I was expressing my opinion against arresting monks," 24-year-old Phat Ha told Reuters as he was led away.
The monks accused police in southern Vietnam of arresting and disrobing nine ethnic Cambodian Buddhist monks.
"We want the Vietnamese authorities to give them the right to practice Buddhism," one of the monks, Hol Pirom, told Reuters.
Triet was due to meet King Norodom Sihamoni on Tuesday at the start of a two-day state visit to its Southeast Asian neighbour.
He will also hold talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla who fled to Vietnam in the late 1970s before returning with the 1979 invasion that brought an end to Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror.
Appointed prime minister of the Hanoi-backed regime in 1985, Hun Sen has been criticised frequently by nationalists as being pro-Vietnamese. However, he says he is merely normalising relations with one of his country's most important trading partners.
Vietnam denies accusations by international human rights groups that it represses human rights and religious freedoms. The government has an official policy of a citizen's right to "belief or non-belief".
More than 100 riot police armed with electric-shock batons and AK-47 rifles lined up outside the compound as officials tried to persuade the saffron-robed monks to leave.
One civilian bystander was arrested for shouting.
"I don't understand why police caught me just because I was expressing my opinion against arresting monks," 24-year-old Phat Ha told Reuters as he was led away.
The monks accused police in southern Vietnam of arresting and disrobing nine ethnic Cambodian Buddhist monks.
"We want the Vietnamese authorities to give them the right to practice Buddhism," one of the monks, Hol Pirom, told Reuters.
Triet was due to meet King Norodom Sihamoni on Tuesday at the start of a two-day state visit to its Southeast Asian neighbour.
He will also hold talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla who fled to Vietnam in the late 1970s before returning with the 1979 invasion that brought an end to Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror.
Appointed prime minister of the Hanoi-backed regime in 1985, Hun Sen has been criticised frequently by nationalists as being pro-Vietnamese. However, he says he is merely normalising relations with one of his country's most important trading partners.
Vietnam denies accusations by international human rights groups that it represses human rights and religious freedoms. The government has an official policy of a citizen's right to "belief or non-belief".
4 comments:
Appointed prime minister of the Hanoi-backed regime in 1985, Hun Sen has been criticised frequently by nationalists as being pro-Vietnamese. However, he says he is merely normalising relations with one of his country's most important trading partners.
Question: What is the sufficient ballance of trading partners for Cambodia, Mr.Premier?
I see only VN can benefit from this tradepartnering; and VN will offer aide in return to lure your brain...
Now we see the fact that this government of see pee pee care only their boss vietnam, not Khmer any more, so wake-up people and change this fucking moron leaders.
Shot them (Fake Monk), shot them,
shot them, don't let them
(diseases) spread beyond Vietnam.
MOTHER FUCKER VIETNAM TOOK KHMER KROM NOT ENOUGH YOU EVIL NATION YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE EVERYTHING WHEN YOU PUT ARMIES NEAR THAILAND's border .DON't forget INTERNATIONAL COURT HAS KNOWN YOUR MIND .I WAS BORN 1960 I LOVE TO SEE THE LAST DAY OF EVIL NATION RUIN YOU ARE DAM EVIL NATION.EASANEE
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