More than 12 tons of drugs and precursors were seized from two labs on mango farms in Kampong Speu and a Phnom Penh BKK 1 condominium, leading to the arrests of five individuals, antidrug police said.
Monks and villagers say that a group of people purportedly hired by the military to cut down Kampong Speu’s Metta forest are continuing to destroy a densely forested area full of wildlife, and are now only about 200 meters from a pagoda inhabited by a nature-protecting monk.
Locals attempting to protect the Kampong Speu forest say ten trailers full of logs per day are being removed with the oversight of soldiers.
Local police claimed soldiers were on holiday, not shooting at patrollers in a Kampong Speu community forest, as residents allege they were again targeted by soldiers last week.
In Kampong Speu, a forest-dwelling monk hoots to mimic animals’ cries and talks of living in harmony with nature. But the community forest where he lives has been handed to the military, and nearby residents are camping among the trees to protect the land.
The Southern Cardamom National Park received a mob of nearly 300 people Sunday morning, arriving on “uncountable” motorbikes and tuk-tuks and armed with axes and hoes to cut down trees, according to police.
Residents say they have no employment opportunities in Kampong Speu’s Oral district, forcing them to log a nearby forest to earn a living, but only after paying local officials a bribe.
Villagers said members of the elite Brigade 70 overseeing a Tuesday land clearance in Aoral district beat them and fired warning shots.
Six Oral district residents have been summoned to a Kampong Speu court for questioning for incitement as part of their efforts to protect a community forest that is being cleared by soldiers.
Oral district residents are pitching tents in community forests to fend off soldiers who have received rights to the land by government order, as the Kampong Speu provincial administration pursues lawsuits against the residents for not making way.
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