A Change of Guard

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Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Cambodian authority condemns Thai soldiers for burning a Cambodian teenage logger alive

Source: Radio Free Asia
Reported in English by Khmerization

An Oddar Meanchey provincial official said the 12 Cambodian loggers attacked by Thai soldiers while logging in the border areas have all returned home, except 16 year-old Yon Rith who was allegedly burned alive by Thai soldiers after he was wounded in the shooting.

Mr. Chhim Sivuthy, assistant to the Governor of Ouddor Meanchey province, said all loggers, including the charred remains of Yon Rith, have arrived back in their village.

He said provincial authority has warned village to not cross the border to log again. "We have issued a directive to district authority to instruct commune authority to instruct village authority to forbid villagers from crossing the borders", he said.

Mr. Pel Hean, one of the loggers who escaped safely back to Cambodia said all of his fellow loggers have reutrned home, including the remains of Yon Rith. He said Yon Rith's father had risked his life by crawling across the border to retrieve the charred remains of his son, even though a Thai helicopter was still hovering over the areas. "Yesterday, Yon Rith's father had crawled to retrieve his charred remains. He was unable to retrieve all the remains, only some parts of his arms and legs, pieces of his clothes and his head. Every parts of the body has been burned out, we still can see a chord that tied his hands behind his back. Yon Rith's remains have been brought to his home village already", he said.

A Cambodian provincial said that Cambodian and Thai officials had met many times regarding illegal logging a long the unmarked borders between the two countries and often they asked Thai soldiers to be a bit more lenient by not killing illegal Cambodian loggers.

He said the Cambodian side is very lenient with Thai citizens who illegally crossed to hunt inside Cambodian territories. He added that Cambodian soldiers never killed those illegal Thai hunters. They just arrest them and hand them over to Thai authority, he said.

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