Protest turns violent

Workers from the Sang Vo garment factory protest to demand the release of a union representative in Kampong Speu province's Samrong Tong district yesterday. ( Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Thursday, 16 June 2011
Kim Yuthana
The Phnom Penh Post

A protest allegedly turned violent outside Kampong Speu provincial court yesterday after security guards confronted about 1,000 garment workers, who were demanding the release of an arrested union representative.

Free Trade Union representative Sun Pisey was arrested last Friday after allegedly scarring fellow Sang Vo garment factory employee Soem Voleak during a scuffle.

Sang Vo workers, who protested outside the court for a second day yesterday, said Sun Pisey was advocating the benefits of joining the union when Soem Voleak attacked him and was arrested because of his union affiliations.

Protestor Man Thavy claimed yesterday that security guards from Sang Vo hit her across the head with sticks as they confronted demonstrators. “I lodged a complaint to ... [the] district police chief to hunt for justice,” she said.

CCU Statement regarding the publication by CCHR and CLEC

Rong Chhun (L) and Chea Mony (R)

Click on the CCU statement in Khmer above to zoom in

Chea Vichea Film Prompts Questions in US

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Maryland
31 March 2010

Who killed Chea Vichea? The question remains unanswered not just for the man’s family but also American audiences who attended the premiere last weekend of a vivid film about Cambodia’s politics and the slain union leader’s struggle for labor rights.

“Who Killed Chea Vichea?” debuted at Maryland’s second Frederick Film Festival in an effort to attract international support for the cause of justice for workers and Cambodians.

Director Brad Cox said murders of unionists and journalists, a biased court system and incompetent police continue to plague Cambodia and need international attention.

“What I think the first step in these Western countries should be is acknowledging that Cambodia is not a democracy,” Brad Cox told VOA Khmer. “It’s run by the very few at the very top, and to suggest that it’s a democracy is a myth.”

That myth is convenient for Western countries to accept, “because they don’t want to confront or upset the government,” Cox said. “If they can at least acknowledge that these things happen, that would be a first step in trying to make thing better there.”

“Who Killed Chea Vichea?” examines the competition for power among the country’s main political parties, the Cambodian People’s Party, Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party, following general elections in 2003.

At the time, Cambodia’s workers, led by Chea Vichea, were demanding better salaries and working conditions in tumultuous, massive demonstrations.

Chea Vichea was shot dead in broad daylight in January 2004 as he read a newspaper near Phnom Penh’s Wat Langka pagoda. The two assailants escaped, but two other men, widely believed innocent, were promptly arrested, charged and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The two men, Born Samnang and Sok Sameoun, spent five years in jail before they were provisionally released in a Supreme Court decision in 2008. No further arrests have been made.

“Who Killed Chea Vichea?” does not answer its own question, but Cox said the labor leader’s prominence as an activist meant an order for his assassination “would have to come from very high. And the way the government is set up, there are very few people who are very high.”

People are still afraid to talk about the killing, Cox said, and the courts have moved slowly in bringing their attention to the case.

The film, however, is raising awareness and prompting viewers to ask their own questions.

“When I saw this documentary, I felt emotional and painful, but don’t know what else we can do to help,” said Khalarath Bloesch-Sek, who saw the film in the town of Frederick. “There seems not much we can do to help improve Cambodia. I hope that the younger generation will stand up and lead the country forward to be a better place.”

Jason Judd, one of the film festival’s organizers, was also a colleague of Chea Vichea.

“Leading a union is very difficult; one must be brave,” he told VOA Khmer. “And in Cambodia there are not many union leaders like Chea Vichea.”

Workers, a Potential Voter Block Disbursed

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
18 June 2008

[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the second in a two-part series examining the role of workers.]

Though unions are able to exercise some influence on their members, the worker vote is widely disbursed, as many find it easier to register in their home provinces than in Phnom Penh, a labor leader said.

Some leaders of Cambodia's 28 labor unions say they will push workers to join the vote on July 27. Nearly all of these unions are aligned with a political party, and more than 20 of them support the ruling Cambodian People's Party, said Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union.

Cambodia's 394 factories employ about 340,000 people, but most of them are not registered in Phnom Penh. They are registered in their home provinces, because they find it easier to register, Chea Mony said, and registering in Phnom Penh is difficult, because they don't know the city.

Chuon Mom Thol, president of the Cambodian Union of Civil Servants, whose union of more than 7,000 members supports the CPP, told VOA Khmer recently he will inform his workers to join the vote, and if they have no ability to vote, he will hire a truck to them.

He believes all of his members will vote for the CPP, because the workers believe in the party's policy of a $6 wage increase earlier this year.

The environment is different compared to 2003, when 80 percent of workers supported the ruling party. Now 90 percent to 95 percent of workers support the party, he said.

Chea Mony, whose union has more than 80,000 members, officially supports the Sam Rainsy Party, he said. Free Trade members believe the opposition assists them in strikes in the name of workers or when they meet with violence, he said.

In the upcoming period, he said, he expects to rally at least 10,000 more workers to vote for the party, he said.

In addition to encouraging workers to vote for the opposition, Chea Mony said he also wrote a letter to the National Election Committee and the Ministry of Labor asking them to support the workers' right to vote.

Photos from Chea Vichea Memorial

A man holds a portrait of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, to mark the fourth anniversary of his death in Phnom Penh January 22, 2008. Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Cambodians burn incense and place lotus flowers in front of a portrait of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, to mark the fourth anniversary of his death in Phnom Penh January 22, 2008. Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy (C) stands in front of a portrait of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, on the fourth anniversary of his death in Phnom Penh January 22, 2008. Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy (C) speaks to the media on the fourth anniversary of the death of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, in Phnom Penh January 22, 2008. Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Cambodian people and rights groups remember the death of labour leader Chea Vichea on a street in Phnom Penh, January 22. Hundreds gathered Tuesday in Cambodia's capital to mark the death of labour leader Chea Vichea, whose slaying four years ago badly fractured the country's nascent workers' movement. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Chea Mony: "When authorities give us permission to lay it down, we do it, and when they don’t allow us, we still lay it down"

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
21 January 2008

Union officials and workers plan to lay a wreath Tuesday to commemorate the controversial murder of leader Chea Vichea in 2004.

Chea Vichea, the president of the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia, was shot dead Jan. 22, 2004.

Two men, Born Samnang and Sok Samoeun, were convicted following the shooting, but they are widely believed to be innocent.

Chea Mony, brother to the slain leader and now head of the Free Trade Union, said Monday that hundreds of union workers and activists will march to the site where Chea Vichea was gunned down near Wat Langka, to lay a wreath of flowers.

“Every year after the murder of Chea Vichea, we always lay a wreath,” Chea Mony said. “When authorities give us permission to lay it down, we do it, and when they don’t allow us, we still lay it down.”

Phnom Penh Municipal Deputy Director Suon Rindy said the city had given the workers permission to lay the wreath, “according to an agenda that we are now working on together.”

Chea Mony: Conditions of Workers Not Improving

Conditions of Workers Not Improving, Brother of Slain Leader Says

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
03 December 2007

Chea Mony, whose brother, labor leader Chea Vichea, was murdered in 2004, said Monday that many of the conditions that led to his brother’s union movement still exist, or are worse.

The government exports are worth $2.6 billion per year, Chea Mony said, but the workers see little of it.

Chea Mony, who has assumed his brother's mantle as the head of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said demonstrations were not allowed as readily as they were in the past, and when strikes do occur, management budges little.

Police have put down several demonstrations in recent weeks, including one last week that put four people in jail and injured several more. Such violence was a hallmark of the Kandal province police, where this strike occurred and others often do, Chea Mony said.

"It's not police business,” he said. “It’s supposed to be the owner and worker dealing with the issue, but every time it turns out to be violent, and police enter to solve the problem.”