A Cambodian journalist who exposed illegal logging has been murdered. The body of Hang Serei Oudom, a reporter with the Vorakchun Khmer Daily, was found yesterday (11 September) in the boot of his car.
A senior police officer, Song Bunthanorm, said the vehicle was abandoned in a cashew nut plantation in northern Ratanakiri province. He said Oudom, 44, had suffered several blows to the head, probably with an axe.
Oudom's editor, Rin Ratanak, said: "He wrote stories about forest crimes involving business people and powerful officials in the province. Most of his stories were about illegal logging of luxury wood."
Illegal logging contributed to a sharp drop in Cambodia's forest cover from 73% in 1990 to 57% in 2010, according to the United Nations.
Oudom wrote regularly about deforestation and timber smuggling. His last story, posted on the newspaper's website last week, accused the son of a military police commander of smuggling and extorting money from people who were legally transporting timber.
Pen Bonnar, a human rights group coordinator, said: "We are really worried for the journalists and activists who are working to protect the forest."
In its haste to develop the impoverished nation, the Cambodian government has been criticised for allowing well-connected firms to clear hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) of forest land for projects such as rubber and sugar cane plantations and hydropower dams.
Source: AFP
