Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER TEN
A Hundred Lotuses Blooming?
“Human Rights Are for Everyone.” Overnight the banners had appeared everywhere
around town, shouting their message from walls and lampposts and the tops of major
roads. In their half-ignored ubiquity, they resembled the communist slogans of the 1980s,
coaxing a reluctant Cambodian population to “build socialism.” The message on the morn-
ing of December 10, 2012, however, was altogether different. It harked back to a wintry
Paris day 64 years earlier, when the UN General Assembly voted to adopt the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Each year in Cambodia, when the government allows it, International Human Rights
Day is marked by marches and celebrations. In 2012, drummers and dancers with colored
masks led a march through Phnom Penh's peak-hour traffic under a banner that read, in
English, “Congratulation of 64th anniversary of Human Rights Day.” Participants in white
T-shirts and blue
krama
scarves shouted slogans while activists spoke through bullhorns
mounted on tuk-tuks. The march ended at Freedom Park, a paved “protest zone” in the
center of town, where maybe a thousand students, garment workers, and NGO activists sat
on plastic chairs beneath colorful marquees.
The day was blue-skied and sunny. Clusters of tethered balloons hung above the crowd,
trailing pennants emblazoned with the year's theme: “Business and Human Rights.” Sever-
al foreign dignitaries were on hand to speak to the importance of the occasion. An official
from the US embassy announced that “the promise of Cambodia's great people would only
be realized when human rights are fully respected and all voices are heard.” Among the
voices heard that day were those of Nuth Sakhorn, one of the female garment workers shot
by Chhouk Bundith in Bavet in February 2012, and an ethnic minority representative from
Ratanakkiri, who spoke of his community's relentless retreat before the bulldozers.
The proceedings ended with more uplifting slogans. “Rights are the same for everyone!”
a young man and woman shouted into a microphone. “We want an independent court sys-
tem in our country!” “Cheer for Human Rights Day!” Each intervention aroused an enthu-
siastic response from the crowd. The optimistic mood lasted long after the plastic chairs
