Thai forces 'kill 38 Cambodian loggers in six months'

AFP – 08/14/2012

Thai forces shot dead 38 Cambodians in the first half of this year for illegally crossing the border to log for valuable timber, according to the Cambodian authorities.

A further 10 Cambodians were injured in incidents with Thai border forces and 194 were arrested, though not all of them on suspicion of illegal logging, the Cambodia-Thailand Border Relations Office said in a report dated August 12.

The number of fatalities dwarfs the toll last year when around 11 alleged Cambodian loggers were reported killed over a 12-month period, according to statistics collected by local rights group ADHOC.

Nicolas Agostini, a technical assistant at ADHOC, blamed the spike in deaths on a growing number of frontier residents willing to risk their lives to escape poverty.

More Cambodians shot by Thai troops

Thai soldiers (Photo: Reuters)

Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

Four Cambodians allegedly lugging timber across the country’s northwestern border have been shot dead by Thai soldiers in just eight days.

Reach Raim, 37, and 17-year-old Dy Yem had been gunned down last Wednesday in the forests of Thailand’s Sisaket province after allegedly trying to smuggle timber into Cambodia, Tuoch Ra, chief of the Cambodian-Thai border communications team at Chaom Sagnam International Border Crossing, said yesterday.

Five days earlier, two Cambodian soldiers accused of smuggling illegally logged timber were shot dead by Thai soldiers about five kilometres inside Thailand’s Surin province.

“We are not sure whether they were loggers or not, because they are dead already. They could have been framed,” Ra said.

“The Thais claimed they had shot them just to protect themselves, because the Khmers had weapons,” he said, adding that the Thai soldiers had claimed the victims were brandishing arms.

Thai soldiers kill 38 Cambodian illegal loggers in 6 months: report

Thai border soldiers (Photo: BBC)

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-eight Cambodian people had been shot dead by Thai armed forces during the first six months of this year when they crossed border to log in Thai territory, according to a report of Cambodia-Thailand Border Relation Office released to the media on Tuesday.

The report, signed by Brigadier General Pich Vanna, chief of Cambodia-Thailand Border Relation Office on Aug. 12, added that besides the dead, 10 others were wounded, 194 were imprisoned, and one is still missing.

It said that, during the January-June period this year, Thai authority had also arrested and deported 68,659 Cambodian illegal crossers back to Cambodia.

Cambodia shares more than 800-kilometer border with Thailand to the north and west.

Thai border troops kill two Cambodians

Monday, 06 August 2012
Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

Two Cambodian soldiers carrying timber who had crossed the border into Thailand near Oddar Meanchey province were shot dead by Thai border soldiers, Cambodian provincial police officers said yesterday.

The two Cambodian soldiers, Soth Veth, 23, and Yuon Neath, 53, were from an artillery unit in Samrong town according to Mao Samnang, police chief in Koun Kriel commune.

Armed Thai soldiers shot the two twice in the chest when they were about five kilometres into Thailand’s Surin province at about 3:30pm, attempting to transport illegally logged timber into Cambodian territory, Chhit Chhorn, deputy chief of staff at the provincial police office, said.

“We do not know how many Cambodian soldiers went there,” Chhorn said.

Cambodia urges Thai troops not to shoot illegal border crossers

PHNOM PENH, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday urged Thai soldiers not open fire on Cambodian villagers who illegally cross border for jobs in Thailand, saying the shooting is an "inhuman act against Cambodian villagers," said the ministry in a letter to the Thai Embassy here.

The complaint letter came after the latest accident on May 2 when Thai soldiers shot at a group of Cambodian villagers who crossed the border into Thailand looking for jobs in Sakeo province, killing a 31 year-old man named Sam Ream.

"It is another inhuman act against Cambodian villagers, in addition to five other such accidents that have occurred, since January this year," the ministry said.

Another Cambodian shot near Thai border

Thursday, 03 May 2012
Mom Kunthea
The Phnom Penh Post

Authorities are investigating the death of a 31-year-old Cambodian man who was gunned down near the Thai-Cambodian border by Thai soldiers early yesterday morning, a border official said.

Pich Vanna, deputy chief of the Cambodian-Thai Border Relations Office, said the shooting occurred in the Thai border province of Sa Kaeo.

“Sam Ream, 31, a worker, was shot dead at 3am and his body is now being kept at the hospital in Sa Kaeo province,” he said.

Pich Vanna said the victim had been with another man, but it was unclear whether they had been close to the border when Thai soldiers shot at them. He added that Cambodian officials were investigating Sam Ream’s death and working with Thai officials to determine why soldiers had shot him.

Thais return loggers’ bodies

Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

The bodies of two Cambodians shot by Thai soldiers while allegedly illegally logging luxury wood across the border were repatriated yesterday, while 10 others who were arrested remained in custody in Thailand, an official has said.

Pich Vanna, deputy chief of the Cambodian-Thai Border Relation Office, said the bodies of the victims – one was subsequently discovered after early reports had only one dead – were sent back yesterday across the border at Preah Vihear province’s Choum Ksan district.

“The dead bodies of Cambodian men arrived on Monday afternoon at the Anses checkpoint in Cambodia [to send to the] site for the traditional funeral,” he said.

The men were shot when Thai forces opened fire on more than 100 Cambodians allegedly logging rosewood in Ubon Ratchathani province on Saturday.

Thai soldiers kill Cambodian loggers again

Monday, 23 April 2012
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

One Cambodian was fatally shot, two were injured and more than 100 others fled Thailand under gunfire on Saturday after Thai soldiers allegedly discovered them illegally logging rosewood near Preah Vihear province, military officials said yesterday.

Ten men were unable to escape and were captured by Thai authorities in the aftermath of the shooting, which occurred in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province, Meas Yoeun, deputy military commander in Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district, told the Post yesterday.

The Thais claimed that their gunfire was an act of “self-protection” because the Cambodians had fired first, Meas Yoeun reported. However, the deputy military commander said that the group of loggers did not own firearms.

“The Cambodians did not have guns, as the Thais alleged. They just had knives and axes to log the rosewood,” Meas Yoeun said, adding that it was “illegal” for the Thais to shoot at Cambodian civilians.

Blood rosewood: Thailand and Cambodia team up to tackle illegal logging crisis and save lives

April 11, 2012
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com

Cambodian and Thai officials have agreed to work together to combat illegal logging of rosewood and resulting violence between Cambodian loggers and Thai rangers, reports MCOT online news. Officials with both nations met on Tuesday and spent three hours discussing the issue.

Commercial logging was banned in Thailand following devastating floods in 1989. However, the ban has not stopped Cambodian nationals from illegally crossing the border to harvest rosewood. Over 400 Cambodians have been arrested logging across the Thai border. Confrontations between Cambodian illegal loggers and Thai wildlife rangers sometimes turn violent: 13 Cambodian illegal loggers have been killed since January 1st in Thailand. Rangers says they are firing in self-defense as loggers are often armed.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the country needed a campaign to halt Cambodians from sneaking illegally into Thailand for logging.

Thai military kills two in shooting at border

Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

Thailand repatriated the corpses along with four shells of AK-47 rifle bullets as a way of claiming these supposed loggers fired on them first

Cambodian officials and a human-rights group yesterday condemned the fatal shooting of two Cambodian men who crossed into Thailand on Sunday, allegedly to illegally log.

Thailand yesterday repatriated the bodies of the two men who Thai soldiers gunned down about four kilometres from the Cambodian-Thai border at Bat­tambang province, police said yesterday.

Despite a local report yesterday that the two men were Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers, Nguon Muth, chief of staff at Samlot district police station, identified the victims as civilians Chhorn Vannak, 18 and Lon Puth, 19.

“The deceased were citizens, not Khmer soldiers,” he said.

“Sometimes they are provokers, and when [Thai soldiers] shoot, it is difficult to blame them...": Hun Khmoach

Does Hun Xen work for the Siamese now?

(Photo by: Pha Lina)

Hun Sen puts onus on loggers

Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Nearly 30 Cambodians have been shot dead while illegally crossing the Thai border since 2008, with many headed there for the purpose of illegal logging. Yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said they have only themselves to blame.

Speaking at the opening of national road 62 in Preah Vihear province yesterday, Hun Sen called those crossing the border to illegally log “provokers” and said it was difficult to blame the soldiers who shot them. He also warned armed forces commanders and civilians involved in illegal logging, both in Cambodia and across the border, that the Anti-Corruption Unit would investigate them if they didn’t cease their activities.

“They have not only cut Khmer timber, [they] have also entered to cut Thai timber until [Thai soldiers] have shot and killed them. We must dare to admit that our Khmer entered to cut Thai timber,” Hun Sen said.

“Sometimes they are provokers, and when [Thai soldiers] shoot, it is difficult to blame them, because [the victims] have gone to provoke". (sic!)

Another Cambodian shot dead in Thailand

Thursday, 01 December 2011
Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

Another Cambodian illegally logging in Thailand was shot dead on Tuesday, making him at least the fourth to be killed while felling trees in Cambodia’s western neighbour this month alone.

Chi Sophal, deputy chief of the Cambodian-Thai border communication team at O’Smach International Border Crossing in Oddar Meachey province, said 22-year-old Tun Kimsan was shot in the head at about 4pm on Tuesday.

“The deceased’s family is very poor. They do not even have land to do farming, so he took a risk to log, even though the authorities warned the villagers not to enter the forest to log,” he said.

Srey Naren, Oddar Meanchey provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said Tun Kimsan was shot in the ear after he crossed the border with four boys aged between 10 and 14.

Thais ‘refuse to return dead Cambodians’

Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Phak Seangly and Cheang Sokha and additional reporting by David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

Thai authorities have refused to give families back the bodies of three Cambodians shot while allegedly logging illegally in Thailand, instead deciding to cremate them, the father of one of the deceased said yesterday.

Police said yesterday three men from Samrong town’s Bansay Reak commune in Oddar Meanchey province were shot one week ago in Thailand.

Chan Try, 62, the father of 32-year-old victim Try Sambo, said when he went to Thailand yesterday to retrieve his dead son, Thai soldiers said they had wanted to burn the body first.

“They showed us the picture of the corpse and I could recognise that my son was killed,” he said. “Thai soldiers said they wanted to burn them in Thailand. We want to take the body for cremation in Cambodia and to hold a funeral ceremony.”

Six missing after border shooting

Monday, 28 November 2011
Cheang Sokha and Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Police and military officials were searching for six missing Cambodians yesterday who villagers believe were shot dead by Thai soldiers on Saturday night after entering the Khun Han district of Thailand’s Si Saket province in search of luxury timber.

Neth Hing, who lives in Oddar Meanchey’s Trapaing Prasath district, told the Post that 13 people showed up at her doorstep yesterday morning, telling her they were survivors of a group of 19 Cambodians who had entered Thailand via the Thmor Pres border crossing.

“They came to [my home] this morning about 11:00. They fled because of shooting; they said that six people died,” Neth Hing said. “They said this [while] they were sitting [at my house].”

Speaking with the Post yesterday evening, Keo San, police chief of Trapaing Prasat district, confirmed that the shooting had occurred but could not confirm if the six in question had been killed.

Three more loggers slain along Thai border area

Friday, 25 November 2011
Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

Three Cambodian loggers shot to death by Thai soldiers on Monday have still not been repatriated to Cambodia, families of the deceased and police officials said yesterday.

The loggers, who had allegedly illegally crossed the border at Oddar Meanchey into Thailand, entered the forest on Saturday and never returned, border-commune police chief Luch Soy told the Post.

The families alerted authorities yesterday, concerned about the missing threesome. Local police contacted Thai border police and discovered the three men had been shot dead on Monday and the corpses were being held by the Thai authorities.

“The corpses are being examined at a hospital in Thailand, and we do not know when we will get these corpses back,” Cambodian-Thai border communication deputy chief Chi Sophal said.

Cambodia Watchdog Council's statement on the shooting by Thai soldiers on Cambodian civilians

Border violence: Suspected loggers shot in Thailand

Thursday, 03 November 2011
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

Border violence

Thai soldiers once again opened fire on suspected Cambodian migrant workers as they attempted to illegally cross the border from Oddar Meanchey province into Thailand’s Surin province on Tuesday.

Khul Thin, deputy police chief of Oddar Meanchey province’s Banteay Ampil district, said five Cambodian labourers were shot at just inside of Thai territory. Only one of the men was actually struck with a bullet, while the four others left him behind as they fled back across the border.

“We are unsure whether the injured worker has returned [to Cambodia] or was captured or got lost somewhere in the jungle,” the deputy police chief said. “Cambodian soldiers are communicating with the Thai side to find the real cause of the incident.”

Border shooting: Five shot, one dead on Thai border

Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

Border shooting

One Cambodian man was killed and four others injured on Sunday afternoon after they were shot by Thai soldiers after illegally crossing the border from Oddar Meanchey province into Thailand’s Sisaket province. Trapaing Prasat district police chief Keo Tan said that Thai soldiers fired on a group of five Cambodians from Kampong Thom province’s Baray district after they were allegedly found logging rosewood two kilometres inside Thai territory. He identified the deceased man as 43-year-old Si Boeun. “Khmer authorities have contacted the Thai side to ask for the Cambodian body to be taken back [to Cambodia],” the police chief said. He added that the four other victims who were shot are already back in Cambodia, where they are receiving treatment for their injuries at the Oddar Meanchey provincial hospital.

Migrants tell of slavery on Thai fishing boats

Men toil on the fishing boats for up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

Migrant laborers sort fish as they work on a Thai fishing boat in Rayong province (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

Many fishermen spend months or even years trapped in waters as far away as Somalia (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

The Human Rights Watch say thousands of people had been trafficked onto boats over the last decade (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011
By Kelly Macnamara (AFP)

RAYONG, Thailand — Thousands of men from Myanmar and Cambodia set sail on Thai fishing boats every day, but many are unwilling seafarers -- slaves forced to work in brutal conditions under threat of death.

The day Hla Myint saw the sea for the first time was when traffickers delivered him, after a week's trek through the jungle from Myanmar, to a ship on Thailand's coast.

He said it was the beginning of seven months of "hell", during which there were beatings "every day, every hour".

His is one of a multitude of stories of slavery in Thailand's multi-million dollar fishing industry, which campaigners say relies on forced labour to provide seafood for restaurants and supermarkets around the world.

Hla Myint decided to escape -- throwing himself into choppy waters and clinging to a life buoy for five hours before reaching land -- after seeing his captain kill a crewmate.

The man, who had been caught trying to escape, was savagely beaten and tortured in front of the rest of the fishermen.

FTUWKC's official letter to Mrs. Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai PM

Dear All

Please note official letter to Mrs. Yingluck Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand.

FTU will send an official letter to the Thai embassy in Cambodia to be provided to Mrs. Yingluck Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand on her visit to Cambodia next week.

Mr. Chea Mony would like Mrs. Yingluck Shinawatra to help coordinate a stop in the shooting of Cambodians along the Khmer-Thai border.

Cambodians have to cross the Thai border to find job, but Thai troops always shoot them. Due to this problem, Chea Mony wants Thailand to respect the convention of International Human Right and International Labor Organization.

For more information, please contact Mr. Chea Mony.

Thank you,

Mony

--

Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC)

Social Justice is the Foundation of Peace

Address: House No.16A, Street 360, Sangkat Boeung Keng Kang 3,

Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh

Tel/Fax: +855 0 23 216 870

Mobile: +855 0 12 941 308 / +855 0 12 846 408