Activists sit in Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum Park after a clash with Daun Penh district authorities, on April 26, 2022. (Meng Kroypunlok/VOD)
Officials Block Chut Wutty Memorial Bicycle Ride
3 min read [excerpts]
Meng Kroypunlok and Phin Rathana
| Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:39 pm

Five people from three activist groups were prevented from riding bicycles in Phnom Penh on Tuesday to commemorate the 10th death anniversary of prominent environmentalist Chut Wutty.

Wutty was shot dead 10 years ago while showing journalists forest destruction in the western province of Koh Kong. The activists planned to ride bicycles from Independence Monument to the ministries of justice and environment.

They were first followed by district security guards and police officers to Wat Botum park in central Phnom Penh, and then prevented from starting the bicycle ride.

At Tuesday’s event, the five activists were dressed in shirts adorned with Wutty’s image and wore helmets adorned with leaves. Keoreaksmey said the authorities wanted to take their shirts too.

“There is not any law that says wearing hats with tree leaves or wearing a shirt with Chut Wutty’s photos is illegal,” she said. “They demanded something from us that we could not do for them.”

Phnom Penh City Hall spokesperson Met Measpheakdey said that people needed permission before conducting activities in public.
“Every public activity for any purpose must be approved by the authorities,” he said.
Full article: https://vodenglish.news/officials-block ... ycle-ride/

Environmental activists call for genuine justice for the slain Chut Wutty
27 April 2022 11:42 AM
Khuon Narim

Chut Wutty, Director of the Natural Resource Protection Group, looks on at Botum Sakor National Park in Koh Kong province, Picture taken February 21, 2012. CamboJA/ Pring Samrang

Ten years on, both civil society groups and the family of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty non-governmental organizations are calling for justice.

At a Tuesday event marking the 10-year anniversary of Wutty’s death, young environmental activists submitted an open letter to the Justice Ministry and Interior Ministry, urging them to establish an independent committee to promptly investigate his killing.

The letter also asked the government to stop restricting fundamental rights and freedoms, saying that grassroot communities carry out their work to protect Cambodia’s forest and natural resources.

In 2012, military police shot and killed Wutty in the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province. Wutty had been investigating illegal logging in the area and had been traveling with two reporters of the former Cambodia Daily newspaper at the time of his death. The shooting happened after a security guard for the Timber Green logging company, accompanied by military police officials and soldiers, confiscated cameras from Wutty and the reporters.

The activists who gathered on Tuesday said the environmentalist’s death is filled with unanswered questions.

“We think that real justice has not yet been brought, especially who is behind the order for the shooting has not yet unfolded,” said Heng Kimhong, program manager of Cambodian Youth Network.

But the Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin dismissed the activists’ demands for a new investigation, issuing a standard response that the environmental groups were just politically motivated. Malin also said that justice has already been provided to Wutty’s family.
Full article: https://cambojanews.com/environmental-a ... hut-wutty/

It's been posted before, but here is the link to the video: I AM CHUT WUTTY

Forest Crusader’s Death Couldn’t Stop Destruction in Cardamoms

Mech Dara and Danielle Keeton-Olsen
| Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:49 pm

MONDOL SEIMA DISTRICT, Koh Kong — On the east side of a red dirt road in northern Koh Kong is a gold-painted spirit house. One of the two water bottles opened in offering upon it appears unweathered, and below the tall green grasses that shield the house are some trampled patches, indicating a visit not so long ago. But for the most part, the cars and motorbikes that occasionally pass don’t stop or slow down.

The traffic either continues north into Pursat province, through patches of thinned forest and the occasional clearance running a kilometer wide in size, or south toward the paved road connecting two hydropower dams. On a Saturday in April, reporters sitting at that junction between dams and the forest overheard passing groups of people speaking about the earnings they can get from taking agarwood from the forest.

Chut Wutty, the activist honored by this ornate but faded spirit house, would not recognize the area. It was forest when he was shot amid his crusade against forest crimes and corruption 10 years ago today. His son, now living on the other side of the world, thinks that the unresolved murder of his father and the continuous assaults against the forest are intertwined.

Read on for full article: https://vodenglish.news/forest-crusader ... cardamoms/

It's quite shocking when you look at the second photo in the link, it shows the extent of the deforestation. People moved on from their homes and livelihood, and the land left baren. Probably to be farming land to the highest foreign bidder.

AndyKK wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 4:05 am It's quite shocking when you look at the second photo in the link, it shows the extent of the deforestation. People moved on from their homes and livelihood, and the land left baren. Probably to be farming land to the highest foreign bidder.

Nah, maybe another casino. Can’t get enough of those apparently.

Canadian journalist Olesia Plokhii was one of two journalists from the Cambodia Daily who went with environmentalist Chut Wutty to the remote jungle mountains of Koh Kong province in April.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.voacam ... 31863.html

Another article by Olesia Plokhii. A moving first hand account of the events leading up to and the killing.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.newswee ... 39%3famp=1

Did a search and found more on this, in this thread (which is about another Cambodia Daily journalist):
post386570.html#p386570

There was also a Cambodian woman journalist, Phorn Bopha, in the car with Olesia Plokhii and Chut Wutty during the attack.

From the link above - post from SternAAlbifrons

Cambodian journalist Phorn Bopha was the other one on the spot
- she certainly deserves her Courage in Journalism Award
good piece about her here.
https://www.iwmf.org/2013/09/bopha-phor ... ism-award/