Critics Press Cambodia to Fight Violence on its Forest Frontier

September 22, 2012, 

The New York Times

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

 

[Sept. 23, Update | The Earth Journalism Network and Society of Environmental Journalists have launched a petition pressing the Cambodian government for a full investigation of the murder.]

I was heartened to see an editorial in The Wall Street Journal push Cambodia (and its supporters, including the United States and international donors) to fight rampant corruption under which “hundreds of thousands of Cambodians have endured land grabs and evictions.”* The editorial added, “They have suffered further when they dared to protest these abuses,” noting the murders of the journalist Hang Serei Oudom (covered here) and land-rights campaigner Chut Wutty.

I also encourage you to read “‘Blood Wood’ Killings in Cambodia Deserve U.S. Rebuke,” by Olesia Plokhii, a journalist who was a few feet from Chut Wutty when he was shot on April 26 (she was covering the land and timber fight for Cambodia Daily. Here’s an excerpt from her piece that makes some important points:

It is heartening to see that when a reporter is killed in the forest, people hear about it. The same must go for the activists and others who risk their lives daily, like the Prey Long People’s Network in one of last great ancient forests in Cambodia. The loss of Wutty removed a vital voice speaking up for powerless villagers and indigenous minorities.
The deforestation crisis in Cambodia is unique only because it is relatively new. While 130-foot trees in tropical jungles have been gutted for the last two decades in Cambodia, neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam began exporting illicit timber long before. In Cambodia, the forests may still have a chance — if change takes root.
Mu Sochua, Cambodia’s leading in-country opposition figure, commented in her blog that she hoped the issue would be on the agenda for an upcoming meeting of international donors and the Cambodian government.
Despite Cambodia’s increasing reliance on Chinese money, the United States still carries weight there. But will President Obama exercise his power and address the deforestation crisis and this rash of killings at an upcoming Asean summit in Phnom Penh in November?

I hope the Obama administration is taking this issue seriously, at the very least in behind-the-scenes interactions with Cambodian officials, and — if necessary — publicly.

Addendum: I belatedly noticed that Unesco has also condemned the killing.