The wife of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty today rejected early police accounts of the circumstances around his shooting death, saying she believed he had been targeted for death for his work in protecting Cambodia’s endangered forests.
Speaking to the Post by phone, 40-year-old Sam Chanthy, said that her husband had been at the exact site of his death in Koh Kong province little more than a month ago, where he had been in conflict with military police officers as he attempted to examine a cache of illegally logged timber.
“I think there were third persons involved with my husband’s killing. They prepared a plot to kill him because his work was affecting their interests.
“Those people were not happy with my husband and his work …so they planned to kill him when he went there again,” she said, referring to Veal Bei Point in Mondul Seima district’s Bak Khlang commune…
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042755827/National-news/chutty-wuttys-wife-says-he-was-target-for-murder.html
Cambodia’s most outspoken activist against illegal logging was shot dead today while escorting journalists near a protected forest in Koh Kong province, where he has repeatedly attempted to expose illegal logging rackets that include military officials.
Chut Wutty, the director of Natural Resource Protection Group, was killed after military police apprehended him at Veal Bei in Mondul Seima district on behalf of a company that asked them to stop him from shooting photos of their development, military police spokesman Kheng Tito said.
“And the company asked the military police in that area to come to intervene, and later on, the shooting happened,” he said, adding that this had occurred at about 12:30 in the afternoon…
May Titthara and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042655803/National-news/environmental-activist-chut-wutty-shot-dead.html
Thailand has repatriated the body of an Oddar Meanchey man fatally shot Tuesday while illegally logging for rosewood in Thailand, border officials said yesterday.
Torn Kimsann, 22, was among a group of four men from Samraong City’s O’Smach commune who had ventured about 1km into Thailand in search of the lucrative timber when fired upon by Thai soldiers in the early afternoon, said RCAF Captain Lam Samroeun, who is stationed along the border with the 4th Division…
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Three Oddar Meanchey province villagers were shot to death on Monday while logging on the Thai-Cambodian border, officials said yesterday, bringing the total number of border killings so far this year to 14 and drawing concern from human rights groups over the continuing bloodshed around the trade in rosewood.
Brigadier General Dy Phen, director of the Thai-Cambodia Border Affairs Bureau, said his department had learned of the shootings from its Thai counterpart, which said the men were among a group of 15 shot at by Thai soldiers while logging in Thai territory…
Neou Vannarin, p.1
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
