Illegal Cambodian Loggers Detained in Thailand

Illegal Cambodian Loggers Detained in Thailand

Khmer Times / Ros Chanveasna

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Suspects Na Ruean, 23, (fourth from right), Tued Mub, 22, (center), Lon Preah, 20, (third from left), and Kung Kui, 25, (second left) shown after their arrest for illegally cutting rosewood trees in Surin on Monday. Nopparat Kingkaew/Bangkok Post

Four Cambodian nationals were arrested by Thai authorities on illegal logging allegations after the suspects were caught in a Surin province wildlife sanctuary with felled Siamese Rosewood trees and logging tools on Monday, according to officials.

“I just received this information about the arrested Cambodians by Thai authorities from reading Thai newspapers too,” Bun Sok Vibol, a Cambodian Consular official for Sakaeo province, Thailand, told Khmer Times yesterday.

“However, our consul will now be in touch with Thai authorities about the issue,” he said, confirming that the Cambodians had illegally crossed the border into Thailand to log luxury wood in the Thai forest.

A group of Thai park rangers caught the four Cambodians from Oddar Meanchey province’s Samraong district illegally crossing the border into Thailand. In conjunction with the arrest of the suspects, two of whom were women, felled Siamese Rosewood trees as well as multiple tools for logging timber were seized in the Huaituptun-Huaisamran wildlife sanctuary.

According to the Bangkok Post, the suspects claimed they and other loggers made frequent trips across the border into Thailand for the wood, which buyers would pay between 100 and 180 baht per kilogram for.  

Oddar Meanchey provincial governor Sar Thavy could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In recent years, reports of Cambodian nationals being killed, seriously injured or detained by Thai soldiers while attempting to illegally cross the border into Thailand have become commonplace.

Frequently, the victims are people fleeing poor living conditions, lured by the promise of riches from logging brokers operating illegal rosewood operations. Others, however, are merely looking for honest work.

Early last year, Khmer Times published an article about the number of Cambodians who had been killed or seriously injured by Thai soldiers, who often intercept Cambodians crossing the border illegally by opening fire.

From 2010 to 2015, at least 143 Cambodians were killed by Thai soldiers while another several hundred were seriously injured from gunshot wounds inflicted by Thai military assault rifles along the nearly 800 km Cambodia-Thai border.

Chum Sounry, spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, confirmed that after Thailand’s military junta, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, took power in a coup in May 2014, both governments vowed to strengthen their relationship and bilateral ties.

“In fact, over the last year, the shooting deaths or injuries of Cambodians entering Thailand illegally drastically decreased thanks to negotiations between the Cambodian and Thai governments,” Mr. Sounry said.