Cambodian Activist Shot Dead

Chut Wutty speaking to RFA in an undated photo. (RFA)

He is gunned down while trying to expose illegal logging activities in a forest reserve.

2012-04-26

Radio Free Asia

A top Cambodian environmental activist who spearheaded a campaign to expose state-linked illegal logging in Southeast Asia's largest lowland evergreen forests was gunned down Thursday in a confrontation with security forces.

Chut Wutty was leading a group of journalists to witness recent illegal logging activities allegedly committed by security forces when he was fatally shot by military police in Cambodia's south-western Koh Kong province, a police official said.

Koh Kong deputy judicial police chief Kong Yan, who went to the scene of the shooting, said Chut Wutty was gunned down by a military police officer.

Chut Wuthy, in his 40's, was taking pictures of the scene of the deforestation when a group of military policemen tried to confiscate the memory card from his camera, leading to the confrontation.

Chut Wutty was president of Cambodia’s Natural Resources Conservation Group, whose members style themselves as Cambodia's "Avatars," based on Hollywood's popular environmentally themed animation film.

The activists had been conducting "patrols" in the heart of the Prey Lang forests to check illegal logging and other activities in a bid to protect the sprawling 3,600 square-kilometer (1,400-square mile) forest area.

Evergreen forest

Some green groups say the Prey Lang forests is resource-rich Southeast Asia's largest lowland evergreen forest.

The Cambodian government has identified Prey Lang as an important area for conservation, with high potential for carbon-credit financing, but it remains unprotected, environmental groups say.

The Prey Lang Community Network, set up to help in the protection of the area, says more than 40,000 hectares (98,840 acres) in the forest have been granted for rubber plantations alone, while 27 exploration licenses and related concessions have been handed to mining firms.

Community leader Sim Sean had told RFA that local authorities had received bribes from the company as they cleared the forests to establish the rubber plantation.

Most of the wood from Prey Lang is smuggled into China and Vietnam, where it is made into furniture and exported worldwide, some environmental groups have charged.

Chut Wutty's shooting reportedly occurred near a Chinese-built hydroelectric dam in Koh Kong. He is believed to be the most prominent activist to meet a violent death since Cambodian labor activist Chea Vichea's 2004 assassination.

Reported by RFA's Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.