https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Econom ... =NARAN1507February 10, 2018 3:37 pm
Guardians of environment among last to challenge regime
DENIS D. GRAY, Contributing writer
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen © Reuters
CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Political opponents have been jailed or driven into exile, the media is muzzled and the voices of civil society are barely heard these days. Cambodia's authoritarian regime has swept clear the field of potential political rivals as Prime Minister Hun Sen prepares for general elections in July.
But among the silent majority, a few individuals have continued to speak out and act against the country's power brokers. These are the guardians of its increasingly devastated environment -- and they have paid a deadly price. Around 20 environmental advocates and campaigners have been killed in Cambodia since 2005 and others have been jailed, attacked or threatened with assassination.
One such activist is Ouch Leng who has been fighting against the rampant pillaging of forests he says is perpetrated by a ''business mafia'' in collusion with senior government officials. ''I am aware that I may not live much longer,'' he told the Nikkei Asian Review in a recent interview. ''But I will try to go on with my work in order to serve as a good model for young people, to engage people to protect the forests and environment."
Hun Sen's government also talks about the need to conserve the country's natural resources but has notched up a dismal record against those trying to protect them. In a rigorously researched report, the U.K.-based nongovernmental organization Global Witness in 2007 charged that family members and business associates of the prime minister were illegally destroying Cambodia's forests with immunity and reaping millions of dollars.
The allegations were denied by the government which banned Global Witness from the country, but the group along with many other investigators have continued to detail intimate links among the political elite, military, police and powerful business syndicates.
The danger is obvious for those attempting to stop or investigate environmental pillage as well as the closely related issue of widespread land-grabbing which often results in ecological ravage.
''Environmental defenders in Cambodia are pitted against very powerful forces,'' said Global Witness campaigner Emma Burnett. ''Meanwhile people are rarely held to account for these crimes or the damage they do -- impunity reigns.''
The Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province, in southwestern Cambodia, where hundreds gathered in May 2012 to investigate alleged illegal logging and commemorate the death of slain prominent environment activist Chut Wutty. © Reuters
The most recent casualties were a ranger, a military police officer and a member of a forestry team of the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society. They were killed in January after reportedly discovering an illegal logging camp and confiscating chainsaws near the Cambodia-Vietnam frontier, an area rife with border smuggling. The specific circumstances remain unclear but if the past is any guide, the truth may never surface.
In one of the most publicized cases, environmental investigator and outspoken critic Chut Wutty was shot dead by a military police officer in 2012 while showing journalists around an illegal logging operation in the province of Koh Kong. The investigation proved deeply flawed with no apparent attempt to uncover who might have ordered the killing. The officer got off with a light sentence and a British documentary, ''I am Chut Wutty,'' was banned in Cambodia.
''Sad thing is, as long as the Hun Se
n dictatorship remains in charge, we will never know what the truth is about that incident,'' said Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a Spanish activist deported from Cambodia in 2015 and not allowed to return.
Cambodia's Emerging Killing Fields
- Bong Burgundy
- Where Did All the People Go?
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Cambodia's Emerging Killing Fields
Bringing the news. You stay classy, nas, Cambodia.
Sounds pretty biased against HE. What does "HE" stand for anyway?
same same like god but differentCircleK wrote:Sounds pretty biased against HE. What does "HE" stand for anyway?
no replying to those who misinterpret/misread what i write. this aint kindergarten
- Lucky Lucan
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"Emerging Killing Fields"? What a stupid headline.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
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