Hundreds remember Cambodian labour leader's murder

Incense burning in front of Chea Vichea's framed photo during the commemoration of his slaying.

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Hundreds gathered Tuesday in Cambodia's capital to mark the death of labour leader Chea Vichea, whose slaying four years ago badly fractured the country's nascent workers' movement.
Chea Vichea, who headed the country's largest labour union and was a vocal critic of Prime Minister Hun Sen's government, was gunned down at a Phnom Penh newsstand in January 2004.
"He was the one who brought (the unions) all together. After him, there were divisions ... fighting against one other," said Kek Galabru, director of the Cambodian rights group Licadho.
Galabru was among the group of unionists, politicians and rights workers who led some 200 people to a wreath-laying ceremony at the scene of Chea Vichea's death.
The quick trial and conviction of the labour leader's alleged killers, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, remains a controversial issue among rights groups, who say their arrests were a cover-up for a political assassination.
"From the beginning, this case has been tainted by serious procedural flaws and violations of basic fair trial rights," said Sara Colm, a senior researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"A first step for justice in Chea Vichea?s murder would be the prompt release of those unfairly convicted," she added in a statement signed by five other international rights groups.
Two other labour leaders were also later murdered in an escalation of attacks against workers' rights advocates.
Their deaths cast a pall over Cambodia's key garment industry, with several major clothing labels warning the government that swift justice was needed for their continued presence in the country.
The sector has achieved double-digit growth year-on-year and is now Cambodia's largest industrial employer, giving work to more than 330,000 people.
But the industry, which accounts for 80 percent of Cambodia's export earnings, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to foreign competition, and manufacturers fear ongoing labour upheavals could drive future investors away.