(Photos by James C Stephens on Flickr) |
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
The Phnom Penh Post
The wife of slain environmental
activist Chut Wutty today rejected early police accounts of the
circumstances around his shooting death, saying she believed he had been targeted for death for his work in protecting
Cambodia’s endangered forests.
Speaking to the Post by phone,
40-year-old Sam Chanthy, said that her
husband had been at the exact site of his death in Koh Kong province
little more than a month ago, where he had been in conflict with military police officers
as he attempted to examine a cache of illegally logged timber.
“I think there were third persons involved
with my husband’s killing. They prepared a plot to kill
him because his work was affecting their interests.
“Those people were not happy with my husband
and his work …so they planned to kill him when he went there again,”
she said, referring to Veal Bei Point in Mondul Seima district’s Bak
Khlang commune.
In Kong Chit, Koh Kong-based
coordinator for rights group Licahdo, said that according to a copy of
the police report he had seen, military police officer In Rattana shot
Chut Wutty, then committed suicide by shooting himself twice with his own AK-47
rifle, first in the stomach and then the chest.
“I think this report is unbelievable.
We will continue to investigate and research about it,” he said.
According to the report, when
Chut Wutty attempted to drive away after refusing to turn over his
camera’s memory card, In Rattana fired a single bullet, which entered the
activist’s body at the knee and traveled upward into his stomach,
killing him instantly.
While police say a gun was found
in Chut Wutty’s possession, there was no indication it had been fired.
Thong Narong, commander of the
Koh Kong provincial military police, refused to divulge details of the
emerging police narrative of events, but confirmed to the Post that a
medical examination had revealed a single AK-47 bullet had struck Chut
Wutty in the knee, while In Rattana was wounded in the stomach and
chest.
Two Cambodia Daily journalists
who had accompanied Chut Wutty on the trip, Phorn Bopha and Olesia
Plokhii, were released this morning following police questioning, he
added.
Speaking to the Post, Phorn
Bopha said that she and her colleague had been released at 9:30 a.m.
“I am safe and was not wounded,”
she said by telephone. “We now are traveling back to Phnom Penh.”
Chut Wutty’s family, meanwhile,
claimed his body in Koh Kong today and said that it will arrive at his
birthplace – Svay Meash village, in Ksach Kandal district’s Vihear Sour
commune – at about 7:30 this evening.
“I am still in shock that my husband was
killed. His death is a big loss in my family and also the loss of a
valuable and great person in Cambodia,” Sam Chanthy said.
“To find truth and justice for my husband, I would like to ask the
concerned authorities and human rights groups…especially Prime Minister
Hun Sen, to take action and arrest the persons who were involved or
behind my husband’s killing.”
A funeral service is
planned for Sunday.
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