Tens of thousands of supporters of a Cambodian union leader gunned down last week marched through the capital's center yesterday, carrying wreaths and wearing black and white headbands to bid farewell to their "hero worker."
Chea Vichea, president of Cambodia's Free Trade Union of Workers and a supporter of the country's main opposition party, was fatally shot Thursday morning at a roadside newsstand.
He became the latest victim of a series of suspected political killings involving critics of the ruling party of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
PHOTO: AP
With police lining the streets, Chea Vichea's body was moved early Sunday from the union's office to a cremation site near Cambodia's National Assembly and the Royal Palace.
Several people carried wreaths adorned with white and yellow flowers, some with Chea Vichea's picture inside, and most wore white shirts with cloth or paper headbands reading "Chea Vichea, the hero worker" and "Chea Vichea, the founder of workers' freedom."
Rong Chhun, leader of a teachers' union, said Chea Vichea "undoubtedly commanded respect among his peer groups."
"While we are mourning his death, let's remember to honor and be proud of his life achievements," he said in prepared remarks to be read at the cremation site.
"The government must end the culture of impunity and the killing anarchy in Cambodia," Men Nath, a representative of the Cambodian Watchdog Council, said in a statement to be read at the cremation.
The procession, which included teary-eyed young women and dozens of monks wearing burgundy or orange robes, attracted many onlookers.
Lak Sina, 58, watched the procession file by as she stood near the corner where Chea Vichea was slain.
"I never knew this person but I heard that he's a good man who fought for the freedom of the workers. I pity him very much," she said.
The recent string of killings of people linked to the political opposition following inconclusive general elections in July has created an atmosphere of fear, human rights advocates said. Several opposition legislators joined the procession.
King Norodom Sihanouk, who said Friday that the murders were multiplying and they were "undeniably" linked to politics, gave Chea Vichea a posthumous royal order, recognizing some of his achievements.
A founding member of the opposition Sam Rainsy party, Chea Vichea left the group to found the union several years ago but maintained close links with the party, which stridently criticizes the Hun Sen government.
Police have not arrested any suspects in the slaying, but are looking for a man who allegedly sent Chea Vichea a death threat in a message to the labor leader's cell phone before July's general elections, said Heng Pov, a deputy police commissioner.
A number of activists with the FUNCINPEC and Sam Rainsy parties were killed in what the parties allege were politically motivated attacks before and after the inconclusive ballot.
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights said in a report that arrests were made in about half the cases over a yearlong period ending last November, but that they were concerned some suspects were not the real killers.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS