The body of a 55-year-old woman who was shot dead by a Thai soldier while she was foraging in the forest along Oddar Meanchey province’s border with Thailand was recovered Friday, a local official and a rights monitor said Sunday.
Phan Chem, 55, was shot in the head on the Thai side of the border while collecting wild tubers and mushrooms with two grown daughters, according to Phang Sam Ath, chief of Samraong City’s O’Smach commune.
“The Thai soldiers shot and killed her, but two of her daughters, who are 25 and 20, ran away to escape the gunfire,” Mr. Sam Ath said.
On Friday, local authorities received permission from Thai border police to recover Phan Chem’s body, he said.
“There were 10 villagers who went to search for her body and found it at 11 p.m. that night.” Srey Naren, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said eight people from Oddar Meanchey have been shot and killed by Thai soldiers along the border this year.
The victims are often individuals searching for valuable timber. Senior Cambodian officials have repeatedly asked Thailand to prosecute, rather than shoot, people who enter the country illegally.
