Members of Cambodian youth group Khmer Thavrak gather outside of PRASAC and AMK, two of the country’s largest microfinance organisations.

Six members of Cambodian youth group Khmer Thavrak including human rights activist Hun Vannak were arrested in Battambang last night while returning from a peaceful protest calling on banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to suspend loan repayments amid the economic crisis caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Five monks who joined the protest were also threatened with expulsion from their pagodas unless they thumb-printed an agreement pledging to stop their activism on behalf of Cambodian borrowers.

The demonstrators were detained by police on the road outside Domrey Sar pagoda while returning from a live-streamed march in front of a number of financial institutions including PRASAC and AMK, two of the largest MFIs in the country.

The six people, including three women, were released after several hours in custody. In live-streamed comments following their release, they revealed that police had asked them to sign an agreement with local authorities, but the group had refused to answer any questions or take any actions without legal counsel. Hun Vannak, a former environmental rights defender with Mother Nature Cambodia, previously spent five months in prison after filming sand-dredging off Cambodia's coast.

The protesters were demanding a solution to widespread over-indebtedness in Cambodia, where more than two and a half million borrowers hold over $10 billion in microfinance debt. Although the National Bank of Cambodia has encouraged MFIs to offer some loan deferment on a case-by-case basis, 135 civil society groups have called on microfinance institutions and the government to suspend loan repayments and interest accrual for at least three months and return land titles to borrowers.

MP3 format: Listen to audio version in Khmer