Petitions for government negotiations fall on deaf ears as strike drags on
Former employees of NagaWorld casino look on as they prepare to release balloons to mark International Women’s Day and to demand the release of jailed trade unionists in front of Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh on March 8. (Photo: AFP)
At least 10 people were injured in Phnom Penh after hundreds of security guards were deployed around the NagaWorld casino and attempted to disperse striking workers who have protested at the site since Christmas.
One worker, Chan Srey Roth, told Radio Free Asia that a security officer hit her on the head with a walkie-talkie and repeatedly insulted her during the incident and “grabbed male workers by the hair and smashed their heads” against the side of a police vehicle.
“They are members of the national security forces whose duty is to protect the people, not to use violence against them, particularly against women,” she said. “We raised our hands, begging them not to beat us, but they did so anyway, ordering us to disperse.”
Striking workers from the Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld want improved severance pay and 365 union leaders and delegates reinstated after they were laid off in April last year.
The dispute is being monitored by Western embassies, the United Nations and labor groups, but efforts to have Prime Minister Hun Sen intervene and negotiate a resolution have so failed.
In March, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights urged the government to de-escalate what it said was a “worsening crackdown” and stop the repeated intimidation of strikers, including driving them far from the city center and leaving them stranded late at night.
“They beat me unconscious. I was shocked because they didn’t bother to consider that we are women — they just dragged us away and beat us like dogs”
Another worker, Phat Channa, said the authorities were increasingly turning to violence to break up gatherings, with protesters refusing to board the buses police have used to relocate them.
“They beat me unconscious. I was shocked because they didn’t bother to consider that we are women — they just dragged us away and beat us like dogs,” she said. “We have experienced a lot of injustice. We are only demanding the right to work, but they beat us like beasts.”
However, Phnom Penh municipal officials defended their actions, claiming the strike was illegal and that a handful of people had turned the protest into an ugly event designed to make the authorities look bad.
“In the case of illegal acts, the authorities have the right to use whatever measures are necessary to stop, disperse or suppress the perpetrators,” said Kata Unhe from the government’s Human Rights Committee. “So far, the Phnom Penh authorities have not taken any repressive measures.”
Authorities also said several walkie-talkies were broken during the violence.
NagaWorld casino enjoys a gaming monopoly within a 200-kilometer exclusivity zone around Phnom Penh and is controlled by Malaysian businessman Chen Lip Keong, whose worth has been estimated by Forbes magazine at US$6.3 billion.
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