Lucky Lucan wrote:....I was here during all that, I drove past where Kem Lay got shot an hour or two after it happened.
Actually, I got locked up in the traffic jams on Monivong, shortly after he was shot down, when his body was brought on a regular pickup truck to one of the Wat, IIRC it was Wat Phnom. Sihanouk Blvd was closed off towards the Independence Monument by military police. M12 calling around what happened, and it was being aired on TV and facebook.
Lucky Lucan wrote:You obviously weren't here, because there were no protests after he got shot.
Yes, there were massive protest, around the Wat Phnom area. I gave M12 some USD 30 to attend the "memorial" and protests with her friends. I am not sure, whether that was the day after or 2 days after. If have heard figures of 100000 people around there. M12 couldn't move forward or backward over there and was afraid to use her phone, because it might be stolen.
Lucky Lucan wrote:There was a large show out for his funeral procession, but that's not the same thing.
Yep, the funeral was an even more impressive happening, a huge procession all the way to (IIRC) Kompong Speu, or around there.
Lucky Lucan wrote:There were no notable protests last year either, you're obviously just some clueless provocateur from abroad.
Hmmm, you forgot the massive CNRP rally, throughout the whole city, where participants were all wearing a white cap as a symbol ? After the rally, I did have 3-4 of those laying around in the house. Again some USD 50 donation for M12 and family.
Many, many tense CNRP - government interactions, to get permission and get into agreement on the effective route. Not to speak about the unrest the days before and after that march. I got stuck in the march around the Toul Kork radio tower.
M12 did not want me to come to Cambodia around that time, because of the expected political struggles, though I found it not that much worrying, so came to Cambodia anyway.
Maybe I know about these things, because I live among Khmers in stead of a Western bubble, when I am in Cambodia.