Phnom Penh’s military police chief, Rath Sreang, the commander who oversaw fatal crackdowns during the post-2013 election period, was recently among 28 members of the gendarmerie awarded a promotion, it emerged yesterday.

News of Sreang’s promotion renewed questions about the security services’ distribution of promotions, even as a high-ranking National Police official yesterday acknowledged that ranks within the force were being bought and sold.

Sreang – who commanded forces responding to minimum wage protests on Phnom Penh’s Veng Sreng Boulevard in January 2014, where security forces