By May Titthara
Monday, 30 April 2012
Phnom Penh Post
Kandal province
With her three children sitting
beside her in front of their deceased father’s photo, Chut Wutty’s wife,
40-year-old Sam Chanthy, told reporters at her husband’s funeral
yesterday that he had barely seen them before his death because he had
been so devoted to the cause he fought for.
Her husband was shot last Thursday by a military police officer as he
escorted two journalists through the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong
province – an area Chut Wutty had passionately tried to defend from
illegal logging.
“I am proud of my husband even though he is
dead, because he died for the nation. He had already told me before he
would have a problem like this,” she said. “I am so regretful, because
he was a good person but the government did not see his good actions.”
Chhim
Savuth, a project coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights
and old brother-in-arms of Chut Wutty, said the two used to joke about
the rather bleak outlook in their line of work.
“We used to
laugh together that there were two ways for Wutty and me, one is to be
shot dead and another is to be detained in prison,” he said. “That is
our lives and we know it’s ugly, but we still do it because we love the
trees, we love the natural resource.”
His son, 19-year-old Chheuy
Odom Reaksmey, said he almost never shared meals with his father, but
on the rare occasions they saw each other, Chut Wutty had been candid
about these ugly possibilities.
“Wutty was the main person that
was in charge of the family, and he knew that something might happen to
his life, so he educated me how to be a good person in the family and
in the nation,” he said.
Supporters from the Kouy ethnic minority
with whom Chut Wutty helped defend the Prey Lang forest in northern
Cambodia, travelled some 190 kilometres to pay their respects yesterday
at his family home in Kandal’s Khsach Kandal district.
More are
expected today at the final day of the funeral ceremony, when Chut
Wutty’s body will be buried.
To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
2 comments:
Khmers lost another hero,we mourned our fallen's hero,Chut Vuthy will be missed among many people around the world,my heart go out to his families and hope that the justice will prevail,the perpetrators will be caught than baught to justice....
Y.K.pro
He was an ordinary man,but he made and an extra-ordinary example for all Khmers and people across the globe to follow.
The bullets pierced through his body,but it did not piece through his courage and his conscience.
What's a meaningful live,that Chut Wutty had left behind.
He is being mourned not by the nation,but by the moon,the stars the sky,birds and trees.He was simply a hero for all.
I say Fare well to you Chut Wutty,but I can still see you in the sky.
True Khmer
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