Phnom Penh (AFP) - Cambodia's military on Friday accused Thai troops of killing 15 villagers who illegally crossed the border to log for valuable timber.
A Thai official denied the allegation.
Twelve loggers were shot dead on March 5 -- followed by three more a week later -- after entering Thailand from Cambodia's northern province of Preah Vihear to cut rosewood, Cambodian military intelligence officer Preap Thoeurth said by telephone.
"Authorities have educated the people not to cross the border to log, but rosewood is very expensive," he said.
Pen Song, a Cambodian military commander in the province, confirmed the incidents.
"We have asked them (the Thai military) not to kill Cambodian loggers, but to arrest them or to fine them, but they still keep killing. We don't know what to do," he said.
But Major General Prawit Hookaew, a regional spokesman for the Thai army, rejected the accusation, saying it was "impossible" for so many Cambodians to have been killed without a formal protest by Phnom Penh.
Cambodian loggers are routinely caught sneaking into Thailand, often in search of rosewood, which fetches thousands of dollars per cubic metre and is in strong demand in China and Vietnam.
Years of rampant illegal felling in Cambodia have devastated the country's own luxury timber stocks.
Cambodian officials, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, have repeatedly urged Thailand to arrest trespassers instead of firing at them.
The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.
Thai forces allegedly shot dead at least 69 Cambodian loggers last year for illegally crossing the border, according to information released by Cambodia's interior ministry last month.
4 comments:
That is the way the government of a country really protect the interests of their country and their people, properties, and territorial integrity. Not just the Thais, any other country in the world, would shoot to kill first and ask question later, their government do not fuck around when it comes to protect their national properties. I applaude the Thais government.
With the exception of a country in this universe, Cambodia, Khmer, Kampuchea, come on in take anything you want, live anywhere you please, do anything you wish, even a place anyone to come in to organize criminal interprise, Khmer people and their government so nice, No Racist at all, and so dumb dumb, Khmer really practice the law of friendliness and No Racism, come on in and take anything you want, No Racism, by the way Khmer population almost extinct, give it maybe another century, is it too long. God please help Khmer, we are so pathetic.
We can not allow 100% of our people illiterate
Khmer military need to stop talking and start shooting these baboons. An eye for two if the wanted these baboons to start listening. Khmer lives worth 100 time more than these baboons lives. These baboons do NOT understand human law and therefore, we need to teach them the law of the
jungle. Wake up Khmer !!! We've been kind to these animals far too long and it's time for us to start killing them....
These Khmers are human beings, they are not animals and certainly not criminals. They just cross the border to find work. Civilized people would just arrest them ,not kill them like the Thais. The Thais are real barbarians!
nothing new here, thai soldiers have been shooting at khmers ever since there are thai and khmer.... when khmers crossed the thai/cambodian borders to take refuge in UN refugee camps [ to get away from pol pot and the viets communism], do you think that we were welcomed by the thais with open armed ? they shot and killed , they raped women and robbed any unlucky khmers who ran into them -- i had a friend who got killed by them and they threw his body away...to prevent the UN from being aware about it...there are plenty of stories to go around just ask the people who lived in those camps before being taken to the 3rd country.
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