March to capital gets longer

The penultimate Human Rights Day march into the capital did not go smoothly yesterday for some monks and villagers who, after walking for hours, were turned away from their planned rest stops.

Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor at local rights group Licadho, said that as of 6pm most of the groups marching from provinces across the country to mark Human Rights Day today had settled for the night at their planned pagodas.

But, he said, two groups of marchers were forced to add another leg to the already tiresome journey.

Marchers on National Road 4, who had planned to stay at Stung Meanchey pagoda, had to travel onwards to Samaki Rainsy pagoda, a common stopover for activists.

Thai Bunthoeun, Stung Meanchey’s chief abbot, said he did not allow the marchers to stay overnight because he was following an “order from the top monks”.

“We are afraid that they could cause problems in our pagoda,” he explained. “We are afraid that they will come to stay for a long time, not only a night.”

Read more at: http://phnompenhpost.com/national/march-capital-gets-longer