Four dead after Cambodian police fire on protesters

Cambodian police stand guard during a garment workers' protest to demand higher wages in front of a factory in Phnom Penh on JFriday. Luc Forsyth / AFP

PHNOM PENH // At least four people were killed on Friday when police in Cambodia opened fire to break up a protest by striking garment workers demanding a doubling of the minimum wage.

The four were killed and 20 others were wounded in a southern suburb of the capital when police fired AK-47 rifles after several hundred workers blocking a road south of Phnom Penh began burning tires and throwing objects at them, said Chuon Narin, the deputy Phnom Penh police chief.

Chuon Narin said the protesters were anarchists who were destroying public and private property. They were cleared from the street, at least temporarily, by early afternoon.

Chan Saveth, an observer from the human rights group Adhoc, said his group had tallied three dead and 10 hurt, seven apparently with gunshot wounds.

The violence comes at a time of political stress in the country, as the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party has protested daily for the prime minister, Hun Sen, to step down and call elections.

Hun Sen won elections last July that extended his 28-year rule, but opposition protesters accuse him of rigging the vote. Hun Sen has rejected their demand.

Workers at most of the country’s more than 500 garment factories are on strike, demanding an increase in the minimum wage to US$160 (Dh590) a month. The government has offered $100 a month.

Although the wage and election issues are not directly linked, the opposition has close ties with the country’s labour movement.

The workers represent a potent political force, because the garment industry is Cambodia’s biggest export earner, employing about 500,000 people in garment and shoe factories. In 2012, the country shipped more US$4 billion worth of products to the United States and Europe.

* Associated Press