Updated: 10 January 2023

On 9 January 2023, officers from the Phnom Penh Police Commissariat informed LICADHO’s operations director during an interview that refusing to remove the music video titled “Workers’ Blood” from social media and the organisation’s website would result in further legal action by authorities.

To avoid further legal action, LICADHO removed the music video from Facebook last night and from the website today. A censored page remains in its place.

It is LICADHO’s belief that the music video is not incitement, and is protected speech under the Cambodian Constitution. We are saddened by this restriction on freedom of expression. This is the first time in LICADHO’s 30-year history that the government has taken legal action as a result of a complaint about a post on the organisation’s Facebook and website.

The video marked the 9-year anniversary of the violence on Veng Sreng Boulevard that left four civilians dead, 38 wounded (including 25 with bullet wounds) and a 15-year-old boy missing. It consisted of historical footage taken on and around Veng Sreng Boulevard during the early days of 2014, when striking workers clashed with heavily armed security forces.
The police investigation follows a complaint to the police from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.

LICADHO continues to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Veng Sreng violence. To this day, no one has been held accountable for the killings of workers Kim Phaleap, Sam Ravy, Yean Rithy and Pheng Kosal, or for Khem Sophath’s disappearance.

LICADHO continues to call for an investigation into the violence, deaths and disappearance that occurred on 3 January 2014, and will continue to commemorate Veng Sreng violence each year to prevent further violence from occurring in the future.

LICADHO continues to call on the government to respect freedom of expression for all Cambodians, including activists, artists, and civil society members.

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Original post

Today marks nine years since mixed security forces fired at striking workers on the capital’s Veng Sreng Boulevard in 2014, killing at least four people and injuring at least 38 others. Then-15-year-old Khem Sophath has since been missing, last seen bleeding on the ground due to an apparent gunshot wound.

No one has been held accountable for the killings of Kim Phaleap, Sam Ravy, Yean Rithy and Pheng Kosal or for Khem Sophath’s disappearance. Twenty-three workers and human rights defenders were in contrast convicted on spurious charges in relation to the demonstrations. When bone fragments and remains of burned tires were later found at a Brigade 70 military base in Kampong Speu in May 2014, the government denied they were the remains of Khem Sophath and failed to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.

Today, listen to rapper Kea Sokun’s “Workers’ Blood”, released together with LICADHO and the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL). After nine years of suffering and uncertainty, Khem Sophath’s family must be delivered answers, peace and justice through an immediate and independent investigation into his disappearance. We continue to call for justice for those who were injured and killed, those who were wrongly imprisoned and convicted, and Khem Sophath.