Cambodia: Environmental Activist Is Killed at Checkpoint Near Forest

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 27, 2012

The military police said that a prominent Cambodian environmentalist was fatally shot in a confrontation Thursday near a forest where illegal logging is said to take place. Kheng Tito, a military police spokesman, said Chut Wutty, the director of the National Resources Protection Group of Cambodia, was shot in a clash at a checkpoint in Koh Kong Province during which Mr. Chut Wutty also fatally shot a police officer. Mr. Kheng Tito said that the activist had been guiding two journalists from The Cambodia Daily newspaper but that he did not know what caused the violence or who shot first. A member of the Cambodian human rights group Licadho said Mr. Chut Wutty was shot when he refused to hand over digital photos taken in the forest.