Quote ‘Out of Context’ Says Women’s Minister

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Women’s Affairs Minister Ing Kantha Phavi said yesterday that comments she made in a radio broadcast last week, in which she appeared to blame female Boeng Kak protesters for bringing police violence on themselves, were taken out of context from a radio interview given some months ago. A radio report broadcast last week included a clip of Ms. Kantha Phavi supposedly discussing a June 27 protest in which Boeng Kak demonstrators scuffled

with police officers and a female protester, Bouv Sreysros, suffered a miscarriage after being kicked by police. … “My interview was a few months ago, it was not in June. It was not after June 27. I think the RFA [Radio Free Asia] put my comment in a sensitive period which completely out of context,” Ms. Kantha Pavi said. … Clarifying her original point, the minister reiterated her conviction that if protesters demonstrate violently, they might provoke police retaliation.