Tireless activist
Chut Wutty shot dead in Koh Kong Province
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Date:
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26 April 2012
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Name:
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Chut
Wutty
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Category
of activist:
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Environmental
activist, Director of the Natural Resource Protection Group
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Location:
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Koh Kong
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Chut
Wutty (pictured below), the
Founder and Director of the Natural Resource Protection Group (NRPG),
has been shot dead in an incident in Koh Kong province in which military
police officer In Rattana is also said to have died today, 26
April 2012. The details of the incident in which the two men died remain
unclear but their deaths have been confirmed by military police
spokesman Kheng
Tito. Wutty’s death has also been confirmed by his nephew, Chuon
Phearum, as
well as Koh Kong provincial military police chief, Thong Naron.
According
to The Phnom Penh Post (‘Environmental activist
Chut Wutty shot dead’)
the incident occurred today at 12.30 pm in Koh Kong’s Veal Bei commune,
Mondul
Sima district. Two journalists from The
Cambodia Daily are reported to have been accompanying Wutty but are
said to
have been unharmed in the incident which occurred near the Central
Cardamom
Protect Forest. Wutty has been
subject to threats in the past as a result of his work in this area. In
2001 as
part of a small Conservation International team sent to patrol for
illegal
logging in the Cardamom mountains, he was threatened by a military
commander
who said he would kill him over his investigations into illegal
logging. He had to flee his hotel and rent a boat in the middle
of the night that took him to safety.
In the face of continued threats
and harassment, as Director of the NRPG, Wutty, a former soldier, has
advocated tirelessly against the ongoing destruction of Cambodia’s
natural resources. In 2011, he was threatened with arrest and criminal
charges as a result of his work raising awareness of the destruction of
Prey Lang forest in the Northeast of the country. In August and
September, two training events he conducted with the Cambodian Center
for Human Rights (CCHR) in Kampong Thom province for community members
affected by the destruction of Prey Lang forest were disrupted by police
and military police armed with AK-47s.
Wutty is survived by his wife, two
daughters and a son. In this terrible time, the thoughts and prayers of
the staff of CCHR are with Wutty and his family.
For more information, please
contact: Ou
Virak, CCHR President,
telephone: +855 12 40 40 51;
email: ouvirak@cchrcambodia.
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