A/HRC/7/42 page 16 dam upstream in Viet Nam were denied “permission” to travel to Phnom Penh to attend a community workshop, and the deputy provincial governor requested that provincial police stop them from leaving the province. NGOs have informed the Special Representative that local police prevented the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights and the affiliated Voice of Democracy from holding public forums in Kong Yu village in September and November 2007. NGOs operating in Rattanakiri are requested to seek permission to organize any event, a restriction that appears to have no legal basis. 70. The Special Representative had a taste of this approach to those who show an interest in the villagers when he visited Kong Yu on 3 December 2007, with officials of OHCHR. As the meeting ended, a number of armed police and military arrived, led by the district governor who asked, somewhat aggressively, why the visitors had not asked for written permission. He explained that anyone, including United Nations officials, who came to the district, required permission from provincial authorities, although he could not specify the relevant legislation. 71. In the course of 2007, numerous instances of such restrictions brought the peaceful exercise of the rights to peaceful assembly, demonstration and expression to a virtual halt. Recent examples include 48 Khmer Krom monks, demonstrating peacefully in front of the Embassy of Viet Nam in December 2007, who were dispersed with excessive force by the police; two monks were seriously injured by electric shock batons, one falling unconscious. On 29 November 2007, a strike by female workers at the Fortune Garment Woollen Knitting Company in Kandal province, was brutally broken up by a large contingent of police and anti-riot police, using tear gas, batons and electric truncheons, resulting in several workers being injured. 72. The Phnom Penh Municipality initially banned a peaceful march in the centre of the capital to celebrate International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2007, citing unspecified security concerns. It was eventually authorized, after the intercession of the Ministry of Interior, but on a much smaller scale and along a shorter route. F. The overall picture 73. In summary, when there is no rule of law, what a powerful individual or group cannot obtain by legal means, they try to obtain by force. Numerous titles to property in Cambodia are tainted by illegality. The police and the military are often used to promote these illegal purposes and thus forced into the betrayal of their public duties. To secure titles to property which belong to others, to get licences and permits to achieve advantages over competitors, to avoid taxes, one has to bribe a large number of officials so that corruption becomes deeply embedded in State and society. In a State marked by the absence of the rule of law, it is all too easy to violate the rights of others, with total impunity, if one is powerful. Whether to obey the law ceases to be a moral question, but one driven by opportunism. Laws may be made under pressures from donors, but there is no intention to enforce laws inconvenient to the ruling group. As exploitation of resources and of people increases, there is greater resort to oppression by the State. Movement of those who struggle against oppression is controlled. The desire of people to assemble freely is seen as dangerous, and the freedom of expression has to be curtailed, while threats, harassment, intimidation, attacks, and even extrajudicial killings may be necessary to curb more determined opponents who cannot be bribed or cajoled. Above all, people have to be taught to fear the