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SCMP Reporter

Scores of police were stationed in a Hong Kong-owned garment factory last night after labour unrest erupted into violence.

The fracas led to a threat from foreign owners of 30 clothing factories to pull out of Cambodia.

 Fighting flared outside the Tack Fat garment factory in Phnom Penh when police attacked opposition party leaders who were protesting about poor labour conditions at the factory.

 Work has been stopped at the factory for almost a week. About 500 of the factory's 1,000 staff returned to work yesterday.

Police targeted leaders of the opposition Khmer Nation Party who have been heading the protests.

 Witnesses said that dozens of plain-clothed police attacked party president Sam Rainsy yesterday morning outside the factory and severely beat the party's secretary-general as he tried to escape the melee.

 'Police lined up across the road and fired rounds of bullets into the air as Sam Rainsy attempted to escape in his car,' a witness said.

 Hong Kong businessman Kwok Wing, one of the owners of the factory, witnessed the violence.

 'I was told by top government officials that police would warn them [the protesters' leaders] off because they tried to intimidate my staff to stop them working.'  Mr Kwok, who invested more than $50 million in the garment factory two years ago, claimed he was being victimised.

'This is all about politics. Sam Rainsy wants to secure our workers' support by defaming us as mafia and triads,' he said.

 'He told our workers that we are exploiting them while he offered to fight for higher pay and better working conditions for them.

'Meanwhile, the Government wants to stop him getting political support. We, a reputable factory, are torn between two parties. We have no dealings with them. We treat our workers properly,' he said.

 The incident was the third violent clash between police, Tack Fat company workers and the opposition party as Cambodian authorities tried to quell escalating labour unrest which erupted after the establishment of a free trade union a month ago.

 On Saturday, police used water cannon and road blocks to prevent Tack Fat workers from taking their grievances to the national assembly building.

Teng Boon-ma, president of the chamber of commerce, said he had received a letter from the Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Malaysian owners of 30 factories saying they would leave Cambodia unless their investments were protected.

 'The struggle for good working conditions should be done in a different way from strikes or demonstrations,' he said.



Violence in HK-owned garment factory sparks pullout threat