Almost a month after a Ratanakkiri police officer was shot dead while trying to apprehend a man allegedly hired to kill her, the president of the Highlanders Association emerged from hiding and returned home Saturday.
Ratanakkiri Provincial Governor Kham Khoeun has ordered local authorities to keep watch over ethnic minority leader Dam Chanthy, and human rights workers will be doing the same, said Pen Bonnar, coordinator of rights group Adhoc’s office in Ratanakkiri.
Dam Chanthy said despite her fears she plans to continue teaching ethnic minority villagers about their land rights later this week.
“I am still concerned about my safety,” Dam Chanthy said Wednesday. “But I cannot keep hiding without work.”
On July 15 and 16, two unidentified men visited Dam Chanthy’s farm in Bokeo district while she was away and allegedly said they had been hired to kill her.
Bokeo district deputy police chief Buth Sophat was allegedly shot and killed on July 17 by a man named Ny after police tried to question him about the death threats against Dam Chanthy. Ny escaped after the shooting.
On Aug 4, district police officers surrounded Ny at a house. He was killed following a gunfight with police, deputy provincial police chief Hor Ang said.
Police have also arrested several other men in connection with Buth Sophat’s killing but have not said whether they have found those who hired the would-be assassins.
Dam Chanthy said the assassination plot may have been related to her work. Efforts by the Highlanders Association to educate ethnic minority members about their land rights have brought them into conflict in the past.
This year, Ratanakkiri authorities threatened to shut the organization down after minority villagers in O’Yadaw district organized peaceful public protests in an effort to block a government move granting their ancestral lands as land concessions to a private company.
