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| Chut Wutty director of the Natural Resource Protection Group who were one of the organizers of the training event (Photo: CCHR) |
Thursday, 08 March 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
Member of the Prey Lang Network said yesterday that Ouch Sam On, the deputy governor of Kampong Thom province, had told them he would not be responsible if they were shot while protecting Prey Lang forest.
Kim Cheng, 50, a member of the network, said villagers would not obey an order to stay out of the forest and would continue patrolling for illegal loggers.
“Ouch Sam On threatened villagers and told us we were not allowed to patrol anymore,” he said.
“Maybe he is cooperating with businessmen who are illegally cutting trees, so he is afraid our patrols will expose his interest.”
More than 30 companies have been granted economic land or mining concessions in the forest, which covers 3,600 square kilometres in four provinces in the country’s north, and villagers say illegal loggers regularly cut down trees for luxury timber.
Villagers want to protect the forest and end the “anarchy”; however, the deputy governor had refused to take responsibility if the villagers were shot doing so, Kim Cheng said.
“What they seem to be doing is abandoning villagers and trees in order to protect businessmen.”
Chheang Vuthy, a villager representative, said the commune chief, district governor and provincial governor had threatened to arrest villagers who defied the ban.
“They care only about the companies’ interests. We care about the trees, so we still keep doing our action.”
Ouch Sam On denied the accusations, saying villagers had entered the forest to burn trees cut down by companies licensed to do so.
“Two times already we have banned them, because they have burned companies’ property and other villagers’ property. We need to protect the trees, companies who are licensed to work in the forest and villagers,” he said.
Villagers and members of the Prey Lang network outraged police by burning 40 cubic metres of luxury timber on February 8, the Post reported. No charges were laid.
Chut Wutty, director of the Natural Resources Protection Group, said authorities were not working for the interest of local villagers.
2 comments:
Top Cambodian activist dead after police shoot-out
26 Apr 2012 09:35
Source: Reuters // Reuters
By Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH, April 26 (Reuters) - A prominent Cambodian anti-logging activist who helped expose a secretive state sell-off of national parks was fatally shot on Wednesday in a remote southwestern province, said police.
Chut Wutty, director of the Phnom Penh-based environmental watchdog Natural Resource Protection Group, died after military police opened fire near a Chinese-built hydroelectric dam in Koh Kong, said Colonel Kheng Tito, a spokesman for the National Military Police.
A military police officer was also killed, he said, adding that Chut Wutty was armed.
"We are investigating the incident so we don't have much detailed information," he said. "All we know is that our military policeman was doing his duty and encountered this person and there was a gunfire."
"Both sides were injured and later died in hospital," he said.
Military police detained two journalists from the Cambodian Daily who had been travelling with Chut Wutty, according to Kevin Doyle, the newspaper's editor in chief, who called for the safe return of Cambodian reporter Phorn Bopha and Ukrainian Olesia Plokhii.
The two were now "in the company of the army or military police in the forest," said Doyle.
Chut Wutty, who was in his forties and leaves a wife and two children, had a reputation for speaking out against logging and corruption by government and big business.
He campaigned against the government's granting of so-called economic land concessions to scores of companies to develop land in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
He was particularly critical of Cambodia's military police, who are often deployed to protect private business interests.
Kheng Tito said that his officer had encountered Chut Wutty while patrolling the area against "forest crimes."
"Chut Wutty was also an activist against forest crimes, we don't know how it became like this," he said.
The destruction of Cambodia's forests and the forced eviction of rural families by armed men connected to influential businessmen was "so sad," Chut Wutty told Reuters in February during an investigation in Koh Kong not far from where he was shot.
Chut Wutty's death is a "tragedy," said Neang Boratino, a coordinator in Koh Kong province for the respected Cambodia Human Rights and Development Organization(ADHOC). "This is a threat to all forestry forestry activists who work for the preservation of the nature," he said.
The dam, built by China National Heavy Machinery, is located in a lawless area well-known for illegal logging, he added.
Chut Wutty is the most prominent activist to meet a violent death since Chea Vichea, a labour leader who fought for better pay and conditions for garment workers until his 2004 assassination. (Writing By Andrew R.C. Marshall, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
Very Sad to lose our Khmer Hero Chut Wutty. Fuck CPP cronies and Hun Sen (Yuon dog). Wanna kill those bastards of CPP and Yuon thieves of CPP.
The international communities will pressure this CPP regime as soon as possible. Arrest CPP crooks and Hun Sen and pressure the masters of Hanoi in Communist Vietnam who control Hun Sen to this day.
Againg,fuck, fuck, fuck all the bastards of CPP, Viet/Yuon dog Hun Sen and Hanoi monsters in Vientamese
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