Stone-Throwing Youth Should Not Be Mistaken for Opposition

By The Cambodia Daily - September 18, 2013

By Cindy Chojnacky
Walking to church on Sunday, we circumvented barricades and razor wire and passed shuttered businesses and omnipresent military forces—“One Dead, Several Injured as CNRP Supporters, Police Clash,” (Se­tember 16). The peaceable gathering of the CNRP at Freedom Park was quite a contrast. I was out on the riverfront when someone threw a barricade into the river.
I did not see any CNRP insignia, and it looked like the crowd was just fed up with the barricades. It also appears that most people involved in the sad Monivong Bridge incident (including the man killed) were just trying to cross the bridge. I read that authorities blamed the CNRP instead of admitting their own role in creating hostility with needless blockades, razor wire and troops.
The media should not aid such accusations and should avoid linking incidents to “demonstrators” or “protesters” until the facts are known.

Cindy Chojnacky, Strategic Communication Consultant for Natural Resources Management, Phnom Penh

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