Boeung Kak Lake protesters call for release of women prisoners

A small group of protesters, some just young children, released balloons and chanted songs calling for the release of the 13 jailed women detained in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison.
The 13 women were imprisoned last month for up to 2.5 years after protesting against their land and homes being taken away from them at the Boeung Kak lake site in central Phnom Penh.
The campaigners calling for justice used placards of the Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk to highlight their cause. Today is the Queen Mother, wife of retired King Sihanouk, 76th birthday and the protestors mingled with locals at the Buddhist shrine on the riverfront only a stones throw from the Royal Palace.
Bopar, one of the protestors was in tears as she spoke to the local press. “Children have been left without mothers to care for them after they were jailed for protesting peacefully against the land developer [Shukaku, a company headed by Cambodian senator Lao Meng Khin, a CPP member and friend of the country’s Prime Minister Mr Hun Sen] who has taken their homes at the lake,” she told me later.
The case of the 13 women imprisoned after a lightning fast trial two days after their arrest was reportedly illegal. It has brought worldwide condemnation from governments, including Hillary Clinton in the US, human rights activists and NGO’s.