A Cambodian anti-riot police officer kicks a protester during a clash between police and garment workers in Phnom Penh on November 12, 2013/AFP
Unrest erupted as hundreds of employees from a factory supplying global clothing brands marched towards Prime Minister Hun Sen’s home in the heart of Phnom Penh to demand better working conditions.
In one of the most bloody crackdowns on a string of protests in the capital in recent months, a woman selling rice at a nearby stall suffered a fatal gunshot wound, activists said.
Several others were believed to have been hurt by bullets or police beatings, with one in a serious condition.
“Today’s violence and the death of an innocent bystander is another example of police brutality. Exercising one’s right to peacefully gather and voice one’s needs for a better livelihood shouldn’t be a deadly event,” said Naly Pilorge, of local rights groups Licadho in a statement.
Authorities confirmed one person had been killed, but declined to comment on whether security forces had fired live rounds.
“Police will investigate whether the woman died from a real bullet or anything else,” military police spokesman Kheng Tito told AFP.
He had earlier said that security forces had used water cannon as demonstrators threw rocks and set a police vehicle alight in the unrest – the latest in a series of outbreaks of worker unrest at factories producing goods for western firms.
The dead woman was named as 49-year-old Eng Sokhom by family members.
“My mother was shot in the chest while she was selling rice on the roadside,” said her daughter Vong Voleak.
The victim’s niece said authorities had come to “threaten” the family.
“They said, ‘Maybe your mother also joined the protest. That’s why she was shot’,” she said, adding “who will take responsibility for this?”
An AFP reporter at the scene said local people had found what appeared to be a bullet casing near the street stall.
Unions said violence broke out as police tried to stop over a thousand workers from the Singapore-owned SL Garment Processing factory – which supplies brands like Gap and H&M – as they made their way through the capital.
“We went to the prime minister to seek his intervention to improve the working conditions at the factory. But authorities used weapons to crack down on them,” said Kong Athit, deputy leader of the Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union which organised the march.
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