Thai troops shot and killed one Cambodian logger

13 September 2009
By Savyut
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

The Cambodian authority in Oddar Meanchey province indicated that a group of Thai border troops opened fire on more than 10 Cambodians who sneaked across the border to Thailand to log precious wood. The incident led to the death of one Cambodian citizen, one injured and several others have been reported missing.

On Suday 13 September, Pech Sokhin, the Oddar Meanchey province governor, said that, on 11 September, 12 Cambodians entered the forest located along the borderline between Cambodia and Thailand, near Samrong district, between border markers No. 12 and 13. The area is located next to Thailand’s Kap Cheung district, Surin province. The 12 Cambodians went in to log precious wood to sell, but on the day of the incident, Thailand dropped its troops from helicopter and these Thai soldiers opened fire and pursued the Cambodian villagers in order to arrest them. The incident led to one Cambodian killed, one injured, and a number of others are reported missing.

Pech Sokhin said: “Thailand used helicopter to drop their soldiers to arrest [our] people who were looking for precious wood. The dead person and the injured person were brought back home by their relatives. Of those who fled, based on what I know, 6 came back already.”

Mao Kloeung, a young man who was injured by Thai soldiers’ shooting and who fled the scene, is currently under medical care at the Samrong district hospital. On Sunday morning, he said that he and 11 other Cambodians sneaked in 4 kilometers into Thai territories. When his group was logging precious wood and cleaning up the logs, Thai soldiers opened fire on them. He was injured on his foot, one person in the group was killed on the spot.

Mao Kloeung said: “We were inside Thai territory to log wood to sell. At 1PM, I was cleaning the logs with the others, they shot and I was slightly injured, I escaped, the man who died was Rith.”

A Cambodian soldier stationed along the border between border markers No. 18 and 19, and who declined to give his name, said that Cambodian soldiers heard the gun firing inside Thailand, but Cambodian soldiers could not enter to help because the Cambodian soldiers are too far deep inside Thai territories: “With such incident, Cambodian soldiers do not dare to go help them.”

Officials from the Oddar Meanchey province said that the precious wood dealers kept on spending money to send Cambodians to sneak in and log woods inside Thai territories to sell to them. The provincial authorities have dispatched Cambodian troops along several border areas to prevent Cambodians from crossing the border, but that was in vain.

Since July 2009 until now, the Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear provincial authorities reported that 3 Cambodians were killed by Thai troops and 18 were arrested by Thai troops in Si Sa Ket and Ubon provinces when these Cambodians sneaked across the border to log precious wood to sell.

Thai soldiers burnt one Cambodian alive and seriously wounded another one

Sunday, September 13, 2009
Source: Deum Ampil newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization

A group of Thai soldiers, parachuted from a helicopter, have reportedly shot at 12 Cambodians, wounding two, of which one was burnt to death alive.

Mr. Chhin Sivuthy, director of Inspectorate of Ouddor Meanchey province, said the 12 Cambodians went foraging for food and to work to remove logs for Thai traders in the border areas. Suddenly on the morning of 11th September, a Thai helicopter from Forestry Department flew over the areas and dropped a group of soldiers. The soldiers immediately began shooting at the Cambodians, wounding two. One wounded Cambodian, 18 year-old Mao Kloeng, has been rescued by his friends, while the second wounded person, 16 year-old Yon Rith was arrested and reportedly burnt alive. "In the crackdown, two Cambodians were seriously wounded. One was rescued back into Cambodian territories by his friends, but unfortunately the second person, who was unable to escape, was arrested by Thai soldiers. They poured petrol over his body and burnt him alive", he said.

Mr. Chhin Sivuthy said that after the Thai shooting, 50 Cambodian border soldiers rushed to the scene to help those Cambodians attacked by the Thai soldiers. They found the almost unrecognisable charred body of 16 year-old Yon Rith in the areas.

Mr. Chhin Sivuthy added that during the search for the Cambodians who have been attacked by the Thai soldiers, those 50 heavily armed Cambodian soldiers found 6 houses built by Thai soldiers in the areas considered "disputed". The Cambodian soldiers demanded the Thai soldiers to dismantle those houses and move out of the areas by Monday 14th September. If not, they will launch the attack.

Bodies of two loggers found after Thai raids

Friday, 28 August 2009
Thet Sambath and James O'toole
The Phnom Penh Post

Thai border troops said to have fired on groups.

THE bodies of two Cambodian men were discovered this week near the Thai-Cambodian border by residents of Oddar Meanchey province's Trapaing Prasat district after villagers and officials said the Thai military opened fire last week on a group of Cambodian men illegally logging in Thai territory.

Keo Tann, the Trapaing Prasat district police chief, said Thursday that the body of 35-year-old Chum Pov of Oddar Meanchey was found Tuesday around the uncertain border between his home province and Thailand's Sisaket province. On Thursday, the body of Monh Pheak, age unknown, of Kampong Chhnang province, was discovered around the same area, he said.

Both bodies were cremated at the scene, he added.

Villagers from Traipang Prasat found the two while searching for signs of men who they said had been missing since a pair of incidents last week left 11 men detained in a Thai prison and an uncertain number still unaccounted for.

Keo Tann said he believed the men were killed August 20, in an incident after which an unknown number of men remain missing.

"The Thai military should find the perpetrator and put him in jail."

This came just three days after another incident in the same area in which 11 men were arrested by Thai troops and one man was injured.

"We are investigating to determine the exact number of missing men. It is difficult to figure out who is missing because many loggers are new-comers to Oddar Meanchey province and they don't report their presence here to local authorities," Keo Tann said.

Leu Chandara, the deputy chief of the Thailand-Cambodia relations office at the Chom border gate, said that soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces were planning to search for the missing Cambodians after receiving permission from their Thai counterparts.

He said that the Thai military claimed its soldiers had only fired on the loggers in self-defence, as the loggers were armed themselves.

Vann Kosal, governor of Trapaing Prasat district, said that he does not believe this explanation.

"It's just an excuse by the Thai side. They want to twist the story around," he said.

He blamed both the Thai military and the businessmen who sent the loggers into Thai territory for putting their lives in danger.

Chan Soveth, a senior monitor for the rights group Adhoc, urged the soldiers involved to take responsibility for the men's deaths.

"The Thai military should find the perpetrator and put him in jail. This is a human rights violation," he said, adding that poor Cambodians who do not understand the regulations governing border crossings are at special risk of exploitation by logging contractors.

Officials from the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh were unavailable for comment Thursday. A spokesman from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he needed to gather information about the case and did not comment.

Eight Cambodians missing, suspected murdered by Thai soldiers

Cambodian villagers cross to work illegally in Thailand everyday.

Reported by Khmerization

Eight Cambodian villagers went missing while they went to cut trees near the borders with Thailand, reports Deum Ampil newspaper.

Deum Ampil reports that on 21st April, eight Cambodians went to cut trees in the areas located on the borderlines with Thailand in Tropeang Prasath of Ouddor Meanchey province. They have disappeared and failed to return.

Among the eight missing, one was credibly suspected to be shot dead by Thai border guards and the other seven were also suspected to be killed by Thai border guards.

The eight villagers went missing when they entered Chup Roun Point located on the borderlines with Thailand to cut the trees there, reports Deum Ampil..... Read the rest of the article here.