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The Associated Press
The Palm Beach Post
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian Prime
Minister Hun Sen has ordered a probe into the death of a prominent environmentalist during a confrontation with military police, as a U.N.
human rights official expressed deep concern over the incident.
Hun
Sen said in a directive that the panel must make a clear report to him
on the death of Chut Wutty. The environmentalist was killed Thursday as
he accompanied two journalists investigating illegal logging in a
protected forest.
Military police say an officer shot Chut Wutty
after they got into an argument and then killed himself. Hun Sen's
directive, issued Monday, follows calls by Cambodian and international
human rights groups for an investigation.
Chut Wutty headed
Cambodia's National Resources Protection Group. He aggressively exposed
logging scandals that sometimes involved official corruption.
In
Geneva, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said
Tuesday that his office was "very concerned that the killing of Mr.
Wutty marks the latest and most lethal in a series of gun attacks on
human rights defenders in Cambodia."
He said that since the start
of 2012, the U.N. human rights office in Cambodia has investigated four
other cases "involving the use of live ammunition against communities
and human rights defenders which have resulted in a number of injuries."
The
office urged the government "to ensure the safety of all witnesses and
investigators as well the families of the deceased men." It said it also
was investigating the deaths.
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