Did Anti-Vietnamese Rhetoric Result in Sunday’s
Shooting? Rhetoric Result in Shooting?
The Cambodia Daily - September 18,
2013
After making huge gains in the
recent election and holding mass demonstrations against alleged voting
irregularities, the CNRP poses the biggest threat in decades to Prime Minister
Hun Sen’s 28-year iron grip on power.
The first day of the CNRP’s
nonviolent demonstrations on Sunday ended with violent clashes erupting between
security forces and protesters in Phnom Penh. As a result, one protester was
shot dead and others wounded.
According to a witness quoted by the
Cambodia Daily “One dead, Several Injured as CNRP Supporters, Police Clash,”
(September 16) “the police were angry because they [the protesters] were
calling them Vietnamese police.”
Why did they call them this even
though they are Cambodian? And why were the police so angry at being called
this?
Many Cambodians dislike Vietnamese
people, sometimes referred to as “Yuon” as a result of a number of historical
events. Fully aware of this, politicians accuse their opponents of being “Yuon
puppets” stirring up nationalism and anti-Vietnamese sentiment.
During the Lon Nol era, thousands of
innocent Vietnamese people were deported and killed. And just two months
ago, on election day, some people were arrested trying to block Vietnamese
voters from entering a polling station and two military police vehicles were
set alight in the Stung Meanchey area.
According to experts, genocide can
start from those who propose wholesale anti-ethnic policies or those who
consider themselves to be future victims of anti-ethnic violence and take
pre-emptive action.
The shooting of the protester on
Sunday night was a human rights violation. Police forces are obligated to make
sure protests occur safely, not to shoot unarmed people just because they
called them “Vietnamese.” Instead, the police should arrest those who provoke
violence and send them to court. In the meantime, the CPP and CNRP
leaders should ensure an investigation into Mao Sok Chan’s death.
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