Officials Confiscate Luxury Wood

Border military officials confiscated luxury rosewood that was abandoned by laborers near the foot of An Ses Mountain in Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district on Sunday afternoon, according to a local media report. The report accused border officials of turning a blind eye to illegal activities such as people entering Thailand to cut wood or others hired to transport the logs back into Cambodia across the officials’ patrol areas for nearly eight years.

A man who refused to give his name and claimed to be a border military commander in Preah Vihear province said: “To my knowledge, there has been no discovery or crackdown on wood in the past few days. I update daily on that. If there is such a case, I will know about it, but I have not heard about that.” The media report said border officials at An Ses found more than 50 pieces of rosewood, weighing more than 400 kilograms, that was to be sent to the provincial court for legal proceedings. No arrest was reported.

Entering Thailand to cut wood has been a dangerous move in recent years with 14 people being shot in 2015, resulting in five deaths and nine injuries, while in 2014, 25 were shot and nine were killed, according to Ministry of Interior figures. Lor Chan, provincial coordinator for Adhoc in Preah Vihear, said that despite frequent shootings by Thai authorities, Cambodians were still choosing to risk crossing the border to fell illegal timber.

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