Cambodian villager stabbed in a murder attempt by a group of Viets

24 Dec 2010
By Ratha Visal
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch

One Cambodian man among two villagers was stabbed in a murder attempt by a group of about 6 Viets who are angry that this man reported their illegal logging activities inside Cambodian territories. The 6 Viets are living along the border with Cambodia.

The murder attempt took place in Village No. 2, B-12 commune, Gia Krai district, Gia Lai province, when the Cambodian men traveled there to buy rice from a Viet market.

One of the two Cambodian men added that the Viet authority in that area helped him from the murder attempt and sent him to the hospital, but, up to now, the local authorities in the two countries have not tried to find an agreeable resolution in this case yet. “They were trying [to attack me in the store], but they did not do it there. There were 6 of them. When I was putting the rice and the meat into the vehicle to bring back to village 2, they all started to beat me up and they stabbed me.”

Nong Darith, the Andong Meas district governor, indicated that the Vietnamese side helped intervene to arrest the culprits and to make arrangements to provide compensation to the victim already, but since there is no agreement on the amount of compensation yet, the issue has dragged on.

He added that the authorities from the two countries are looking for an arrangement to resolve this issue peacefully under the banner of friendship and cooperation between neighboring villages: “The resolution to this case cannot be found yet because our side demands too much money and their side don’t have money to pay. They agree to compensate us, and the [Viet] side has arrested the culprits also. We did all the work already, now we discussing about the compensation. We sent [the victim] for medical care, he is getting better already.”

Chhay Thy, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights organization for Ratanakiri province, confirmed that it is not just in Andong Meas district alone that the Viets came in to illegally log trees inside Cambodia, in fact in O’Yadaw district, there are also many cases of illegal logging by the Viets inside Cambodia as well, but for the past several years, the border defense authority was not able to put an end to these cases.

Chhay Thy added: “What the people reported in the past, they are indicators of these [illegal logging activities]. The local authority should take measures to find justice for the victims according to the law, under the aegis of human rights protection.”

In 2010, Adhoc in Ratanakiri province reported that at least 10 cases were reported by Cambodian ethnic minority groups living in Nhang commune, Andong Meas district, and in Pok Nhai commune in O’Yadaw district, indicating that small groups of 4 to 7 Viets sneaked inside Cambodia to log trees inside Cambodia and illegally transported them to Vietnam.

The Cambodian villagers accused the Cambodian cops of involvement in these illegal logging. The villagers called on the government to take strict measures in order to protect Cambodian forests and prevent the Viets from continuing to violate and pursue their illegal logging.