A Group of Soldiers Come to Intervene, Raiding the Battambang Forestry Department, to Take Back Wood – Friday, 10.7.2009

Posted on 11 July 2009.
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 620
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Battambang: According to a report delivered to Kampuchea Thmey, at 10:00 in the morning of 8 July 2009 – at Chrab Krasang village, Wat Kor commune, Battambang – a group of forestry administration officials launched a raid on a truck loaded with 20 pieces of neang nuon, a type of luxury wood, of more than five cubic meters, transported by businesspeople on a truck using the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces number plate 07.3-4326, driven by Sa Moeun, a soldier of the Border Battalion 502.

“Forestry administration officials said that after the truck was intercepted, Sa Moeun immediately told them that they could not confiscate the wood, as it belonged to Major-General Bun Seng, the commander of Military Region 5.

“The forestry administration officials went on to say that after Sa Moeun had said that the wood belongs to Major-General Bun Seng, forestry officials led official personnel to prevent the truck from leaving. However, just ten minutes later, a group of soldiers, who were all armed with weapons, came by car to intervene, to let the illegal truck go, while forestry official could only stand by and look on sadly.

“The Battambang forestry administration chief, Mr. Ly Chou Bieng, told Kampuchea Thmey via telephone that the fact that armed soldiers came to intervene to take back the neang nuon wood loaded on the truck, is seriously wrong. He has already filed a complaint to the Battambang Municipal Court to issue a warrant to request the wood back and to keep it as evidence, to solve the situation according to the law.

“But some people said that there is little hope for action from the Battambang Municipal Court issuing a warrant to bring the wood back as evidence, because obviously, there had been already a first attempt to crack down on a crime, but we did not have a handle to halt their actions, and once there was an intervention to take the wood, it is not easy to take it back.

“Civil servants in Battambang criticized that even though there is a law for this field, Mr. Sa Moeun, a soldier of the Border Battalion 502, ordered soldiers, armed with weapons, to intervene to get the wood back illegally, which is a crime, and furthermore he dragged the name of the commander of Military Region 5 into the event, while actually, Mr. Bun Seng simply does not even know anything about this case.

“Kampuchea Thmey phoned Major-General Bun Seng several times for a comment, but we could not reach him.”

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #1992, 10.7.2009
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Friday, 10 July 2009