At least 13 people were arrested Tuesday in a dramatic crackdown on illegal logging near the Thai border as military paratroopers swept into a Pursat province logging site, rappelling from a helicopter and chasing loggers to the border.
All of the suspects were Thai, according to RCAF General Chea Dara, who directed the operation. Other accounts have the arrests at 16 Thais and three Cambodians. The suspects are being held at provincial military police headquarters in Koh Kong town.
Phnom Penh officials had been tipped off that military personnel were possibly involved in illegal logging near the Thai border. NGO officials, including personnel from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness, made three surveillance flights over the area during the past two weeks.
Global Witness in the past has called illegal logging by the military the single greatest threat to the preservation of Cambodia’s forests and to revenue collection by the government.
On Tuesday, a helicopter carrying officials and several dozen
soldiers circled the site, located 10 km from the Thai border and close to Koh Kong province, three times before noon. As workers were spotted hiding equipment and fleeing into the jungle, paratroopers from the military’s elite 911 unit slid down ropes to surround the workers.
Some trucks and loggers escaped and crossed into Thailand, Chea Dara said. “I have written a report to my commander in order to ask for cooperation with the Thais.”
Officials found a small tent and confiscated six chain saws, a pickup truck, a bulldozer and a large number of logs. The bulldozer had apparently been used to clear a road to carry the timber to the border. Workers had been cutting logs into plywood.
About 150 military paratroopers and 150 military police—all from Phnom Penh—took part in the operation.
“I could not say who is behind the Thai people,” Chea Dara said. “We are continuing to follow up on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s order to stop illegal logging. We hear there is more logging on the border. This is very serious.”
One investigator said RCAF soldiers and locals have been logging in the area for at least the last two weeks. He estimated that between 50 cubic meters and 80 cubic meters of wood have been cut daily. The trees are being cut down and processed at sawmills during the day and transported by truck through the forest and into Thailand at night, he said.
“Every evening, around 8 pm, they bring them out,” he said.
The crackdown comes the month before foreign donors are set to meet with the government, with illegal logging possibly one item on the agenda. The crackdown was to continue today and through the next week, officials said.
Two helicopters deployed troops in the Mondol Sema district of Koh Kong province and other areas along the border, according to the deputy commander of military police chief, Vong Pisen.
(Additional reporting by Saing Soenthrith)
