The opposition CNRP on Thursday called off a meeting with the ruling CPP scheduled for today after members of an elite paratrooper unit violently broke up a protest by striking garment factory workers.
The planned meeting, which was scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Senate building, was to set the terms for further talks between the leaders of the two parties over the ongoing post-election dispute.
CNRP President Sam Rainsy announced the cancellation of the meeting to a crowd of demonstrators last night at Freedom Park.
“In these circumstances, we can’t talk with the person who treats Cambodian citizens badly,” Mr. Rainsy told the crowd.
At least 15 protesters were detained after paratroopers used batons, steel pipes and slingshots to break up a protest by striking garment factory workers outside the Yakjin factory in the city’s Pur Senchey district. Some protesters were hospitalized.
“No more talking. We’re ending these talks until there is an end to this poor treatment, bashing, arrests, troublemaking and lawsuits [from the government],” Mr. Rainsy said.
Mr. Rainsy added that the CNRP’s rolling demonstrations, which last Sunday saw 50,000 people march through Phnom Penh, would resume this Sunday as planned, and would again grow into the largest the country has seen.
CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said that the talks had been canceled as the CPP had violated a promise it had made during negotiations last year that authorities would stop using violence to break up anti-government protests.
“What they have done today has violated point number one made during the meeting on September 16 to stop violence against protesters,” Mr. Sovann said.
“We cannot negotiate under this oppressive environment. It is not conducive to peaceful negotiations.”
Until Thursday’s violence by the paratroopers, police and military police officers had mostly stood back during the opposition’s daily protests, which began on December 15.
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP issued a statement last night expressing regret over the cancellation of the meeting.
The ruling party also condemned Thursday’s violence, and the blocking of national roads by protesters.
“The CPP would like to appeal to the CNRP to stop inciting the violence that is causing turmoil in society and immediately return to the negotiation table,” the statement added.
Prum Sokha, a secretary of state at the Interior Ministry who has led the CPP during previous, brief negotiations with the CNRP, said Thursday that he was disappointed that opposition leaders had called off talks.
“For the CPP, we are very sorry to see this,” Mr. Sokha said.
“The CPP’s position is unchanged. The best way and the only way to solve the post-election crisis is to hold peaceful negotiations. The small clash that happened this morning, we are very sorry, but what can we do for this?”
Mr. Sokha, however, stood by the violence, saying that it had been necessary.
“Not only from September 16, but from the beginning of this crisis, the CPP and in particular the Ministry of Interior has been very patient, and this violence has not come from our forces—from our police or our gendarmerie—it has come from… the radical protesters,” he said.
Mr. Rainsy called on civil servants, market vendors and students to now join the opposition and striking garment workers in solidarity to demand Mr. Hun Sen stand down.
“Workers have already come out from the factories,” Mr. Rainsy told the crowd. “All of you [now], come out from the markets, your homes, your stalls, your schools. Please come out from all places and walk together.”
