Hundreds of personnel from the elite Bodyguard Unit have garrisoned the northeast corner of Phnom Tamao forest, which was stripped clean in 10 days, with soldiers now leading reforestation efforts ordered by the prime minister.
The military personnel — primarily in charge of protecting the Cambodian prime minister — were seen to be managing the outflow of trees being transported by workers but also blocking access to the cleared forest. They detained five VOD journalists and four activists in the forest on Wednesday, who were later released by district police.
Around 500 hectares of land in the forest was razed earlier this month by workers after the land was privatized to developers including Leng Navatra and Khun Sea this year to build a satellite city. A wildlife rescue center, run jointly with Wildlife Alliance, sits in the same forest.
Amid an uproar over deforestation, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced he was canceling the development and ordered the reforestation of the land. Replanting started last week, though little coordination was evident among the different groups involved, including an influential tycoon and environmental activists.
Hun Sen posted a voice message to his Facebook page after 11 p.m. on Tuesday announcing that he had ordered 1,000 soldiers of his bodyguard unit to lead the removal of felled timber, prepare the land, and start the reforestation effort.
“To solve the problem faster during the rainy season, I have ordered around 1,000 bodyguards to help with clearing the land and replanting in the area, using 113 trucks for [placing] good soil and plants,” he said in the recording.
Hun Sen repeated his announcement from last week that the privatization of Phnom Tamao was canceled, adding that the Agriculture Ministry was working on an official decree to protect the forest “forever.”
He added that the bodyguard unit would replant the forest using trees that are luxury or high-grade species.
“I hope that my message will explain to the people to prevent them from believing the ill-intentioned people who always slander. The bodyguard came there to help plant the trees.”
Twelve hours earlier, five reporters from VOD and four activists from the Khmer Thavrak group were detained by Bodyguard Unit soldiers for attempting to document reforestation efforts.
Reporters were first blocked along a peripheral road on the eastern edge of the forest by men wearing “BHQ” hats, which is the acronym used by the Bodyguard Unit. “You are not allowed to enter. Only those who are bringing food can go,” said one of the men.
The reporters then used a different route to get to the Wat Tmor Antorng pagoda in the forest and were using a drone to document the clearings nearby. The Bodyguard Unit members and other security personnel reached the area in a white pickup truck with Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.
The soldiers were confrontational during their interaction with reporters and slapped a VOD reporter and an activist, as they loaded them onto the truck. They also confiscated equipment and smartphones from the nine and then led them to a base camp.
As authorities drove reporters to an area inside the clearing, northeast of the pagoda, they witnessed several large covered military transport vehicles, as well as a dozen tents. There were also several excavators operating along the way to the campsite, which appeared to be moving piles of timber and sand within the clearing.
A man in plainclothes who identified himself as a bodyguard and did not give his name told reporters they had received orders from Hun Sen to occupy the forest.
The reporters and activists were later transferred to the Bati district police office, where they were detained for about six hours. District police released reporters and activists after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and returned all of their equipment confiscated by soldiers.
Police said reporters were only “invited for questioning” because they were flying a drone in a “restricted area” and warned them from using Tuesday’s reportage, including drone footage, to spread “fake news and incitement.”
Before Hun Sen’s speech late Tuesday night, there had been no public pronouncement that Phnom Tamao had been made into a military zone or restricted area.
Bodyguard Unit chief Hing Bun Heang told VOD on Wednesday that the area was open to visitors, but he wanted them to come in through the “front entrance” to see the replanting.
“Please come to check, we are planting, there is no measuring the land to give to the private people,” he said, adding that “uncle” would be there, referring to himself.
Bun Heang said the guards had intervened with reporters because the excavators in the area were dangerous, but then he said that photos of the previously cleared area “could cause a problem.”
“We want [people] to take pictures of what we already planted,” he said later. “The place near the hill is not yet finished so it looks bad when they shoot it.
When a reporter asked why her colleague was slapped, Bun Heang laughed and then said he thought both parties went “too far.”
“It’s lucky there was a deputy commander there…[if not] I think it could have gotten worse,” he said.
Government spokesperson Phay Siphan and Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon did not reply to requests for comment.
Environment Ministry spokesperson Neth Pheaktra said that the forest was under the mandate of the Agriculture Ministry, and did not answer questions on whether the military had the requisite expertise to restore a forest.
Prime Minister Hun Sen again used the elite Bodyguard Unit to procure longan from farmers in the northwest who were facing export issues. A farmer criticized the ad hoc procurement scheme — led by Hing Bun Heang — and was convicted last August.
Additional reporting by Mech Dara
