America's New Killing Fields: First Cambodia, Now Iraq — America's Bombings, Invasions and Meddling Set the Stage for Mass Murder | Graphic Video

Just as United States' policy of bombing, invasion, and meddling in the internal affairs of Cambodia helped set the stage for the Khmer Rouge and its killing fields, bombing, invasion, and meddling in Iraq helped set the stage for ISIS and its killing fields.

TOP: Cheung Ek Killing Fields site, near Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Photo from Wikimedia
Commons); BOTTOM: ISIS prepares prisoners for mass slaughter in Iraq (Screen capture
from ISIS video)

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America's New Killing Fields: First Cambodia, Now Iraq — America's Bombings, Invasions and Meddling Set the Stage for Mass Murder (Video)

WARNING: The video you about to see is extremely graphic and some may even find it disturbing. It depicts scenes of extreme violence and brutality and should only be viewed by adults.

337 Workers Fainted at Garment Factories in Cambodia Last Week — Nationwide Strike Was Violently Put Down in January

Workers were sent to a clinic after fainting in a garment factory. Photo from Facebook page of Community Legal
Education Center.

By Mong Palatino
Three days of mass fainting were reported in garment factories in Cambodia in the first week of April. In the country’s capital Phnom Penh, 337 workers, mostly female, were sent for treatment to four separate clinics.

Over the week, the fainting occurred at 11 buildings in three factories inside Vantanak Park - Shenzhou, Daqian Textile and New Wide. These names are not known outside Cambodia but they produce clothing for international sports brands Adidas, Puma, and Nike.

The garment sector is a $5 billion dollar export industry in Cambodia which employs more than 600,000 workers. For many years, workers have been complaining of receiving measly wages.

Labor groups initially suspected that “unsanitary water and food, and strong fabric odors” caused the fainting among workers.Mass fainting cases have been regularly reported and are blamed on poor working conditions inside the factories.

Last December, garment workers asked the government to raise the monthly minimum wage from $80 to $160 dollars. But the government said the economy can only sustain an incremental $15-$20 increase. In response, garment unions conducted a nationwide strike but this was violently dispersed by police forces in January.

The site of the bloody crackdown is only a few meters away from one of the factories where workers fainted en masse this week.

The Community Legal Education Center linked the fainting with malnutrition and poor wages of garment workers. The group urged global brands to improve the conditions of their supply-chain workers:

International brands such as Adidas, Puma and Nike are complicit in this. Whilst their various codes and standards state that wages are essential for meeting the basic needs of employees and reasonable savings and expenditure, their supply-chain workers are not seeing any tangible benefits.

And we call on international brands such as Adidas, Puma and Nike to take concrete measures to address wages that currently do not satisfy basic needs nor provide for a life with human dignity.

The group also advised the government to raise the wages of workers:

We call on the government to return to wage negotiations immediately and end the endemic corruption that businesses now associate with Cambodia.

More than 300 workers fainted at garment factories. Photo from Facebook page of Community Legal Education
Center.

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.

Police Open Fire on Striking Garment Workers in Cambodia

Ate Hoekstra @HoekstraAte

One of today's photos. Made early afternoon at Veng Srey BLVD,
Phnom Penh, #Cambodia.

By Mong Palatino

Four are confirmed dead and dozens injured after police and military clashed with striking garment workers in the industrial area of Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.

Tens of thousands of garment workers have been on strike since the last week of December after the government refused the demand of unions to raise the monthly minimum wage to $160. The current minimum wage is only $80 dollars and the labor council is only willing to grant a $15 dollar hike in basic pay. As protests intensified, the government agreed to raise the minimum wage by another $5.

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But workers have been firm in asserting their $160 minimum wage demand. The garment sector is a $5 billion dollar export industry in Cambodia which employs more than 600,000 workers. Many of the leading clothing brands in the world get their supply from Cambodia, which has one of the lowest minimum wage rates in the Asia-Pacific.
John Vink reported what he saw on the scene of the clash:

At least 3 people were shot dead and several were severely injured by hundreds of bullets fired by armed forces during a brutal crackdown in the morning of January 3rd on barricades set up by thousands of striking workers on Veng Sren road, in the industrial area of Phnom Penh. Several others were arrested and subsequently tasered, beaten up or beaten unconscious

Cambodia Guide ‏@camboguide

Very gruesome pics of wounded/dead all over facebook. Looks like civil war instead of quelling #protests. #Cambodia

Tension rose yesterday when police arrested several protesters, including monks and human rights activists. In response, protesters set-up road blockades which the police tried to clear in the morning. Witnesses claimed that police used live ammunition in dispersing the protest.

Vannarin Neou @vannarinneou

military police occupy Veng Sreng street. At least four protestors were arrested
and one was seen bleeding

Licadho described the crackdown as the “worst state violence against civilians to hit Cambodia in fifteen years.” The human rights group is demanding that

…security forces must now put an immediate end to the use of live ammunition against civilians and ensure that all those injured are safely transported to hospital without delay

Ou Virak of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights thinks that the police acted violently to protect the interest of big business:

While many of the political demonstrations which have taken place over the last few months have been met with restraint from the security forces, there is an increasingly clear link between the excessive use of force by security forces and the protection of the big business of Cambodia. Of the 25 cases where we noted excessive use of force, 21 were related to strikes by garment workers or protests over land.

Kevin Doyle @doyle_kevin

Frontline barricade

Sopheak SREY @sopheaksrey

Ekreach Clinic was destroyed by rioters after its rejected to cure some victims
in a clash at Canadia Park, Jan 3.

Workers got the support of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party which vowed to raise wages by $160 if it is able to assume power in the country.

The opposition has been holding daily protests at the Phnom Penh Freedom Park to press for the ouster of the incumbent government which has been accused of manipulating this year’s election results. Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power in the past three decades although his party lost many seats in the recent parliamentary polls. The opposition has boycotted the parliament sessions even though it has 55 seats.

Many workers have joined the opposition rally which could further undermine the Hun Sen administration. Labor unions have vowed to continue the protests until their demand is granted by the government.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy announced their intention to file charges against the government in relation to the bloody crackdown of the strike:

We will lodge a complaint to the ICC so that those criminals in power who today ordered soldiers to open fire on workers, be prosecuted.

For its part, the government accused the opposition of provoking the violence to get public sympathy.
The strike of garment workers and the opposition rally produced the biggest ever street demonstration in Cambodia in recent decades. After today’s violence, the political crisis in Cambodia is expected to worsen.

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.