Monks punch on in fight with police
Pastor Dale Morgan
Monks punch on in fight with police*
From correspondents in Phnom Penh
December 17, 2007 04:47pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
ABOUT 40 Cambodian Buddhist monks fought with police, knocking one
unconscious before being beaten back with batons, as they tried to hand
a petition to Vietnam's embassy.
The clash broke out when 100 police refused to allow the monks to
approach the embassy in the Cambodian capital.
They knocked one officer unconscious, Phnom Penh police chief Touch
Naruth said.
Police used batons to beat back the monks, who responded by hitting out
with water bottles, he said.
The Buddhists had marched to the embassy to hand over a letter calling
on Vietnam to free Cambodian monk Tim Sakhorn, who was arrested by the
communist country nearly five months ago.
"They wanted to enter the Vietnamese embassy, but police asked them to
move back. The monks then beat and kicked the police. The officers had
to use force to protect themselves,'' Touch Naruth said.
"What the monks did was illegal,'' he said.
One of the monks, 20-year-old Thach Monysaid they simply wanted to drop
off their petition calling for the release of Tim Sakhorn and for the
return of land that Cambodia claims was seized by Vietnam in 1978.
"The monks just wanted to bring a petition to the embassy, but the
police misunderstood us. They blocked us, and they used violence against
us,'' he said.
Vietnam said in early August that it had arrested Tim Sakhorn on charges
of undermining national unity by organising anti-Vietnam demonstrations
in neighbouring Cambodia.
He had been the abbot of a Cambodian pagoda, but was defrocked in late
June and disappeared amid unconfirmed reports he was detained by
Cambodian authorities for deportation to Vietnam.