Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

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Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

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Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

After five months of wrongful imprisonment, an environmental activist has finally been set free and reunited with his family, writes Rod Harbinson. His case highlights the way Cambodia's Government subjects eco-defenders to harsh, unjust and arbitrary detention, while illegal logging barons and large-scale timber smugglers lead charmed lives, always above the law.

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Cambodian authorities released a leader of the Chong indigenous group from prison earlier this month on 3rd March.

Ven Vorn, imprisoned since October, was convicted of "harvesting timber products and/or non-timber forest products without a permit" and sentenced to one year in prison.

However, the judge suspended the remaining seven months of his sentence, allowing his immediate release.

Vorn had led a successful campaign to halt construction of a hydropower dam in the remote Areng Valley, the Chong people's homeland in Cambodia's southwestern Cardamom Mountains.

The dam would have flooded much of the Chong's land. Now the group is fighting to gain official recognition as an indigenous people and to get collective titles for their community lands.

I caught up with Vorn a few hours after he was released and reunited with his wife and three daughters. They had made the long journey into the city of Koh Kong, capital of Koh Kong Province, for the court case.

Read more: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_a ... arges.html
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ot mien kampf
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Re: Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

Post by ot mien kampf »

Disgusting. Nothing more vile than people who persecute a person for trying to protect their land. I certainly wouldn't begrudge them if a few "accidents" befall the landgrabbers.
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Re: Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

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Happy ending ?

PM HE to Transform Areng to Natural Tourist Site
Published: 17/02/2017
Phnom Penh (FN), Feb 17 – Prime Minister HE has instructed that the relevant ministries begin working on transforming the Arreng Valley into an eco-tourist attraction and has rejected the construction of a hydropower dam, according to the Minister of Information. The plans were announced Friday morning during a cabinet meeting at the Peace Palace.

Well-known political activist Thy Sovantha made a similar request during the Forum on Protection and Conservation of Natural Resources on Aug. 22, 2016. She also had suggested the construction of an 18-km road to Arreng. The project was approved by the premier.

During the forum, the premier stated that the road to Arreng would benefit tourism and the people in Arreng’s area. It was not to be used for logging so as to ensure that Arreng continues to be an attractive tourist destination.

Arreng is located in Koh Kong province, southwest of Cambodia. About 1300 indigenous people live in the Arreng Valley. Areng is home to rich biodiversity, including the world’s second-largest population of wild Siamese crocodile.
=FRESH NEWS
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Re: Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

Good on paper, although I've never seen a good "eco-tourism site" in Cambodia. The only decent one is Chi Phat (maybe Chambok as well), and I believe that's mainly an NGO effort. Tourism sites for Khmers, "eco" or not, means a place where hoards of people go to sit by a river, eat, throw their styrofoam and plastic in the river, then go home. The concept of camping and bird watching, cycling or whatever is still totally foreign to 99.5% of Khmers. Still, the move to not dam it is very good imo.

I'm quite worried about where this road would go. There's already a road leading there form Koh Kong. Hopefully they don't want to bulldoze another road through Chi Phat...
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Re: Indigenous eco-defender released after five months jail on false charges

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Government Ditches Hydropower Dam for More Coal Power
February 20, 2017

The government has indefinitely put off plans for a hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng valley in favor of expanding an existing coal-fired power plant, though conservationists worry that a planned transmission line through the ecologically sensitive valley could still inflict heavy damage.

In early 2015, Prime Minister HE assured critics of the dam, including many in the ethnic minority Chong community who opposed giving up their ancestral land for the project, that it would not be approved before next year’s national elections. But that only left them worried that the government was merely postponing the inevitable.

They got some relief on Friday when the Council of Ministers effectively delayed the dam indefinitely by approving the expansion of Cambodia Electricity Limited’s coal plant in Preah Sihanouk province as an alternative to the dam.

Contacted on Sunday, council spokesman Phay Siphan would not rule out the possibility of an Areng dam in the future, but said: “Right now, we aren’t studying the construction of the Areng hydropower dam because [Mr. HE] wants to conserve the area and have ecotourism.”...
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gove ... er-125402/
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