Information Minister Khieu Kanharith warned on Thursday that the owner of the Banana Center could be jailed for inciting students to protest against the school’s site being turned into a national radio station.
On Tuesday evening, about 100 students demonstrated against the deal. The school’s owner, Chan Sok Khieng, has also threatened to sue Khieu Kanharith for breaking a 15-year rental agreement between the ministry and the school.
“[Chan Sok Khieng] told the students and teachers that [we] were going to take over the property and incited them to protest, but we just asked to move the generators,” Khieu Kanharith said.
Though Chan Sok Khieng could be jailed for incitement, Khieu Kanharith said he did not wish to see it happen.
“He could be jailed, but I don’t like to have the dispute,” he added.
Khieu Kanharith also countered comments made Wednesday by his predecessor, Funcinpec’s former minister of information and current Minister of Rural Development Lu Laysreng, who said the deal he signed with the school in 1999 should not have been broken.
“When the state wants it back, the contract can be canceled with the compensation,” he said.
Chan Sok Khieng, who also owns Norton University, said he could not have incited the students to protest as he was meeting with Khieu Kanharith’s brother, CPP Under-Secretary of State Khieu Thavika, at Norton University at the time. Khieu Thavika teaches international law at Norton, Chan Sok Khieng said.
One of the Banana Center’s teachers, who identified himself as Vathanak, said Tuesday that the students protesting that evening were there of their own volition.
“We just told them to go down [to the parking lot] and look for themselves” at a scene where police, riot police and a crane had been deployed, he said.
Sorn Sokna, vice-president of the Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce and vice-chairman of petroleum giant Sokimex, said that though he was not fully aware of the details of the case, it is generally inappropriate to cancel a contract prematurely.
“If the contract is not ended yet, they must not go and take over [the property],” Sorn Sokna said.
Breaking contracts in such a manner goes against normal business practice, he said. “The business community doesn’t support the contract violation,” Sorn Sokna said. “The contract is the law.”
(Additional reporting by James Welsh)