Some 50 Daun Penh district security guards and about as many riot police prevented 100 anti-eviction protesters from gathering at Phnom Penh's Freedom Park on Tuesday 20th January after the city deemed the gathering illegal. The protesters were from a number of eviction-hit communities, including the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila neighborhoods of Phnom Penh and communities in Preah Vihear province. The group wants the government to settle their myriad land disputes in their favor and to release 10 jailed activists, nine from Boeng Kak and one from Borei Keila. The protesters began marching from the U.S. Embassy in Daun Penh district at 9:30 a.m. But as the group approached Freedom Park, district security guards and riot police armed with shields and batons used barricades to block off Street 51 in front of the park and deny access. The group moved to an adjacent park and protested until about 3:30 p.m. before dispersing. Contacted later in the day, Phnom Penh deputy governor Khuong Sreng said City Hall decided to deny the protesters access to Freedom Park because they had disturbed the peace on previous occasions. "What they do, it is beyond democracy because it will cause anarchy," Mr. Sreng said. "It is illegal and they don't have a monopoly on freedom." He added that the protesters were also blocked because some communities represented in the group were not cooperating with City Hall. "City Hall is working to solve the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila issues," Mr. Sreng said. "But they do not come to solve the problem and they keep protesting, so City Hall did not allow them to do it." The deputy governor said the group's demand to release the 10 activists was unreasonable. "They asked the court to release the prisoners, but it is not their right.... It is the right of the court," he said. Mr. Sreng said plans for a month-long protest, which the group informed City Hall of earlier this week, were not fair to other demonstrators who might want to use the park. "In the demonstration law, it does not state whether they can hold[a protest] for a month," he said. "We are the authority and we have set[a time limit] because they are not the only ones who want to express their views." The Law on Peaceful Assembly states that demonstrations held at any of the country's so-called freedom parks can only be held between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. It does not place a limit on how many consecutive days a demonstration may run. Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said in an email Tuesday that not allowing a demonstration at Freedom Park defeated the point of the law. "Restricting a peaceful demonstration on the basis of its duration clearly conflicts also with the purpose of this law, which is to ensure the freedom of expression of citizens through the exercise of freedom of assembly," Ms. Sopheap said. "What happened today at Freedom Park was simply an unjustified limitation to the exercise of fundamental rights that had no legal ground," she added. Yorm Bopha, an anti-eviction activist from Boeng Kak, said her group chose the relatively secluded Freedom Park for the demonstration precisely so that they would not impose on other residents. "Since we do not want to march on the street and do not want authorities to accuse us of affecting public order, we came to protest at Freedom Park," Ms. Bopha told security guards. "If you do not allow us to demonstrate in Freedom Park, where will you allow us to do it?" Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor for rights group Licadho, said the city probably blocked access to the park because political tensions between the ruling CPP and opposition CNRP were once again on the rise. "Freedom Park is a place for gathering and expressing views in a peaceful way," he said. "But in our country, the government begins to restrict people's freedoms and rights when politics gets tense." On Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen warned the CNRP that seven of its lawmakers facing incitement and insurrection charges over a protest in July to open Freedom Park that turned violent could still face jail despite their parliamentary immunity. UPDATE: 21/ 05/ 2015 Freedom Park Protesters Deny "Insurrection' The trial of the 11 opposition activists charged with "joining an insurrection" for their presence at a July 15 protest demanding authorities reopen Phnom Penh's Freedom Park continued in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Seven opposition lawmakers and 11 activists were jailed after last year's protest, which descended into a street brawl when the demonstrators fought back against notoriously violent government security guards who had for months terrorized their protests. The lawmakers gained immunity from prosecution when they swore in to the National Assembly the following month, but the 11 activists had their first trial hearing last month. Four of the 11 were questioned at the second session Tuesday, each telling the panel of three judges that they believed the brawl was sparked by the guards and denying the charges against them. "I saw the people carrying national flags and I saw the security guards distributing wooden batons from the back of a Daun Penh district truck," said Khin Chamroeun, chief of the CNRP's youth wing in Phnom Penh. "The people were not occupying the Naga Bridge area, they just went to demand that Freedom Park be freed." Another of the activists, Ke Khim, a tuk-tuk driver who often appears at protests in Phnom Penh but says he is not a member of the CNRP, denied he was taking part in an "insurrection" against the government on July 15. "I didn't know why the people went there but I heard information from the newspaper and radios, so I just joined there to use my freedom in a democratic society," he said. Yet Mr. Khim acknowledged that he had armed himself with a rock "for a short time" when the fighting broke out. "When the situation had chaos, I carried a piece of stone to defend myself because I was scared someone would hit me, especially when I saw a few of the authorities' spies walking and following me," he said. Ouk Pich Samnang, another of the arrested activists, said he believed plainclothes provocateurs had been employed by the state to start the fight. "The police and military police do not dare to hit the people in public, because they are afraid to violate human rights, so they hire the third-hand group created by the state and the districts of Phnom Penh," he said. CNRP member San Seyhak, the last of the activists questioned Tuesday, said he did not join the fight. "I received the voice of Khin Chamroeun through the walkie-talkie to "withdraw' and that meant "do not join the violence,'" Mr. Seyhak said. "I was far away from the violent place, so I do not know who fought each other." Presiding Judge Lim Makaron said the trial will continue Tuesday.