Cambodian journalist who covered illegal logging found dead in the trunk of his car

Hang Serei Oudom of the Vorakchun Khmer Daily had exposed official corruption tied to logging in his writings. ‘It is not a robbery case,’ says Police Officer Song Bunthanorm, ‘It is a murder.’ 

By Charlie Wells 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 

Wednesday, September 12, 2012,

STR/AFP/Getty Images

Cambodian police officials remove the body of journalist Hang Serei Oudom from a car trunk in Ratanakiri province, some 600 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh. His writings exposed rampant illegal logging and corruption. He had been missing since Sunday.

The axe-bashed body of a Cambodian journalist who uncovered illegal logging activity was found dead in the trunk of his car Tuesday, less than one week after his latest story was published.

Hang Serei Oudom wrote for the Vorakchun Khmer Daily and had been missing since he left his home Sunday night. Authorities found his car abandoned in a cashew nut plantation in Cambodia’s northern Ratanakiri province.

"It is not a robbery case. It is a murder,” senior Police Officer Song Bunthanorm told the AFP.

The writer’s death exposes what experts say are two growing problems to Cambodia: illegal logging and limits on freedom of expression.

Before his death, the 44-year-old made a name for himself covering illegal logging, a common practice in the poor South Asian country trying quickly to develop.

Colleagues had warned Oudom that his stories — often covering the shady dealings of powerful business and political provincial leaders — would get him into trouble. Most of Oudom’s articles were about the illegal logging of luxury wood, Vorakchun Khmer Daily Editor-in-Chief Rin Ratanak said.

Oudom’s last piece — published Sept. 6 — accused a military police commander’s son of using military vehicles to smuggle logs and of taking money from people who were carrying wood legally.

Stories like these were risky in a province where an especially large number of powerful interests are involved in illegal logging, according to Pen Bonnar, the provincial coordinator for The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association.

Government officials in the region have even been accused of acting as security guards for companies who log illegally, according to several environmental groups.

Oudom’s slaying sends "a strong, intimidating message" to the Cambodian media "to practice self-censorship,” according to Ramana Sorn of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. But it is by no means the first such pressure brought to bear on crusading journalists and activists for their critical coverage of government activity.

Environmentalist Chhut Vuthy was shot in April by police after denying the police pictures he had of loggers in a southwestern province. And Mam Sonando, the 71-year-old owner of one of the country’s few independent radio stations, was arrested in early August for allegedly “inciting people to take up arms against the authorities,” according to Amnesty International.

"How many more campaigners have to die before Cambodia's donors and the UN insist that their ongoing support requires the government to act to thoroughly investigate these cases and end impunity," said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch Asia.

The Royal Embassy of Cambodia in Washington, D.C., did not respond to interview requests made by the New York Daily News.

With AFP wire services.

cwells@nydailynews.com