Cambodian activist shot dead

A prominent Cambodian anti-logging activist who helped expose a
secretive state sell-off of national parks was fatally shot on
Wednesday in a remote southwestern province, said police.

Chut Wutty, director of the Phnom Penh-based environmental watchdog
Natural Resource Protection Group, died after military police opened
fire near a Chinese-built hydroelectric dam in Koh Kong, said Colonel
Kheng Tito, a spokesman for the National Military Police.

Chut Wutty, who was in his forties and leaves a wife and two children,
had a reputation for speaking out against logging and corruption by
government and big business.

He campaigned against the government's granting of so-called economic
land concessions to scores of companies to develop land in national
parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

He was particularly critical of Cambodia's military police, who are
often deployed to protect private business interests.

The destruction of Cambodia's forests and the forced eviction of rural
families by armed men connected to influential businessmen was "so
sad," Chut Wutty told Reuters in February during an investigation in
Koh Kong not far from where he was shot.

Chut Wutty's death is a "tragedy," said Neang Boratino, a coordinator
in Koh Kong province for the respected Cambodia Human Rights and
Development Organization(ADHOC). "This is a threat to all forestry
forestry activists who work for the preservation of the nature," he
said.

Chut Wutty is the most prominent activist to meet a violent death
since Chea Vichea, a labour leader who fought for better pay and
conditions for garment workers until his 2004 assassination.