Three Cambodians were injured by gunfire and six are missing following two incidents on Tuesday on the Thai-Cambodian frontier involving Thai border forces and illegal loggers hunting for rosewood, police officials and human rights workers said yesterday. Two men were shot and injured inside Thai territory near the Cambodian villager of Tumnop Akphivit village, O’Svay commune in Oddar Meanchey province’s Trapaing Prasat district, said Toch Ra, Chief of the border liaison office at the Choam-Sa Ngam border checkpoint.
Mr. Ra said that it was Thai soldiers who reported the shooting to Cambodian border police, claiming that the two Cambodian loggers were injured in the shooting but escaped with their lives. “We received a report from villagers that two men are missing in the forest. I sent my forces to find information,” Mr. Ra said, adding. “But, in fact, they shot them.” In a separate shooting on Tuesday, also in Oddar Meanchey, one Cambodian logger was injured and six others fled into the forest after Thai troops strafed the group with bullets when they were found hunting for rosewood, said Ly Lada, a provincial military police colonel. Thai border forces have also reported that two of their forestry officials are missing in the area, said Col. Lada. Since Prime Minister Hun Sen warned government and military officials on Tuesday to stop their involvement in illegal logging inside the Thai border and their facilitation of the trade in luxury rosewood from border areas, military sources in Oddar Meanchey province have become silent, a human rights worker said yesterday. “They have shut down all news involved in rosewood loggers and shootings by Thai soldiers,” said Srey Naren, a monitor for local rights group Adhoc in Oddar Meanchey. So far this year, 15 Cambodians have been killed in Thai territory while hunting for rosewood. Nine Cambodians were killed on the border in 2010.
Mr. Ra said that it was Thai soldiers who reported the shooting to Cambodian border police, claiming that the two Cambodian loggers were injured in the shooting but escaped with their lives. “We received a report from villagers that two men are missing in the forest. I sent my forces to find information,” Mr. Ra said, adding. “But, in fact, they shot them.” In a separate shooting on Tuesday, also in Oddar Meanchey, one Cambodian logger was injured and six others fled into the forest after Thai troops strafed the group with bullets when they were found hunting for rosewood, said Ly Lada, a provincial military police colonel. Thai border forces have also reported that two of their forestry officials are missing in the area, said Col. Lada. Since Prime Minister Hun Sen warned government and military officials on Tuesday to stop their involvement in illegal logging inside the Thai border and their facilitation of the trade in luxury rosewood from border areas, military sources in Oddar Meanchey province have become silent, a human rights worker said yesterday. “They have shut down all news involved in rosewood loggers and shootings by Thai soldiers,” said Srey Naren, a monitor for local rights group Adhoc in Oddar Meanchey. So far this year, 15 Cambodians have been killed in Thai territory while hunting for rosewood. Nine Cambodians were killed on the border in 2010.
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