How free is Freedom Park?

Cambodian workers pushing a cart loaded with bricks for 'Freedom Park' in Phnom Penh. AFP

Wed, 06 Oct 2010
By Suy Se
AFP

It has been billed as Cambodia's version of Speakers' Corner in London, but rights groups fear Phnom Penh's new Democracy Square is designed to keep protesters isolated and out of sight.

Workers are putting the final touches to a 60 by 200 metre, tree-lined open space near the US embassy and the Cambodian capital's famed Wat Phnom temple, which historically marks the centre of the city.

Nicknamed Freedom Park and set to open shortly, it will serve as a designated area for people to air their grievances, not unlike Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park or its equivalent in Singapore.

But rights activists say the move is an attempt to keep protesters off the streets and away from government offices and legislative buildings, which are traditionally the focus of rallies and occasional scuffles with the police.
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