Twenty-six intervention police officers who went on strike for two weeks late last year to protest salary cuts and strict time requirements have been passed over for promotion.
Officer Chea Sothun said 200 intervention officers were promoted Monday but those most active in the strike were not. “I think they are discriminating against us because we went on strike,” Chea Sothun said Thursday. “We are very sad because we have done our best to do our work.”
Fellow officer Nov Sara blamed the unit’s deputy chief, Touch Yean, for not including the officers who went on strike with those who were to be promoted. “Touch Yean did not register our names to be promoted because we held a strike against him,” he said.
Touch Yean, whom an officer alleged had ordered him beaten during the strike last year, refused to comment Thursday.
Chea Sothun said the officers had filed a complaint to the Ministry of Interior, which demoted Touch Yean on Feb 2 after an investigation into the alleged beating. Cambodian Center for Human Rights investigator Chun Socheat confirmed Touch Yean’s demotion and said he would ask the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to charge the deputy chief for injuring and illegally detaining the officer.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak could not be reached for comment.
