Group urges probe into attack on Cambodian forest activist (Washington Post)

[geovalin]

By Sopheng Cheang | AP April 5 at 6:44 AM

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A leading international environmental group has called on the Cambodian government to investigate an attack on a young forest activist who was slashed with a machete while she slept in a hammock after patrolling for illegal loggers.

Global Witness said Phan Sopheak, 25, was injured on her feet in the March 26 attack by unidentified perpetrators in Kratie province. Phan Sophek is a member of the Prey Lang Community Network, a grassroots movement in northeastern Cambodia. Its members said the assailants were trying to cut her throat, Global Witness said.

“Cambodia’s forests have become like a piggy bank for Cambodia’s elites and their cronies, who routinely flout forest protection laws to pillage them for valuable timber, or sell off the land illegally for mining and agribusiness concessions,” said Josie Cohen, a campaigner at Global Witness, which investigates economic networks behind environmental destruction.

read more

source

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/group-urges-probe-into-attack-on-young-cambodian-activist/2016/04/05/8f55b7ce-fb11-11e5-813a-90ab563f0dde_story.html