Illegal logging: Cambodia’s murderous problem
WHEN Baquer Namazi, the oldest American known to be held in Iran, was released on medical leave January 28 from a Tehran prison, it was an unexpected act of mercy. There was even some hope Namazi, an 81-year-old former diplomat for Unicef, might be granted parole. On Tuesday, those hopes were dashed as the authorities ordered the ailing Namazi to return to jail.
Namazi was rushed to the hospital January 15 after suffering a severe drop in blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. It was the fourth time he’d been hospitalised in the past year, including for emergency heart surgery in September. His doctors recommended a further threemonth medical leave.
“How can the Iranian authorities knowingly risk my father’s life, knowing it will end in a tragedy?” said Babak Namazi, one of Baquer’s sons.
Another son, Siamak, 46, a dual citizen who had been an advocate for improved US-Iranian relations, remains imprisoned as well. Babak said his brother had been abused while in prison, including through electric shock. In a secretive October 2016 trial, the two men were convicted of collaborating with a hostile power – the United States. Their convictions and 10-year sentences were upheld in November. Details of the charges against them have never been fully explained.
At least two other US citizens are known to be imprisoned in Iran: Xiyue Wang, a Princeton graduate student who was seized while working on his doctoral thesis, and Karan Vafadari, a Tehran art gallery owner. Another American, Robert Levinson, has been missing in Iran for more than 10 years. Other foreign citizens have also been detained.
These detentions have worsened tensions between Iran and the West following the 2015 deal under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for a lifting of economic sanctions. The result is that some Westerners, especially those with dual Iranian citizenship, are now more cautious about visiting Iran. Iranian officials say that the US or its allies have unfairly imprisoned or prosecuted at least 14 Iranians, mostly for what the officials call unfounded charges of sanctions violations.
Granting Namazi a shortterm medical leave and then extending it seemed like one possible way to break the logjam. The Trump administration has reportedly asked Iran to set up a private channel to discuss such humanitarian issues, but there has been no response from Tehran, the hard-liners who control Iran’s judiciary and intelligence services are refusing to budge.
Trump and his State Department should continue trying to engage. It’s not in the interest of either country for any political prisoner to die in jail.
BEFORE becoming a forest ranger, Theun Soknay was a student at a boarding school in Mondulkiri province. He later worked as a tour guide at the Bunong Place, and obtained a bachelor’s degree, before working at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) for four years, where he developed the Jahoo Gibbon Camp. In 2017, his passion for preserving the environment led him to pass the national exam to become an official ranger with the Ministry of Environment.
From the Bunong indigenous community, he was determined to protect his ancestors’ forest. But Soknay was gunned down on January 30 as he was on patrol, along with Thol Khna, a staff member of Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia, and Sok Vathana, a military police officer.
The authorities are now claiming an alleged confrontation as the cause of the murders and have arrested six suspects, charging them with premeditated murder. This sounds eerily familiar to the alleged circumstances surrounding well-known environmental activist Chut Wutty’s death back in 2012, and to that of many other forest rangers killed since without any independent investigations having been undertaken. Unfortunately, those arrested are not always the real killers, and even less often those who are truly responsible for the dangerous conditions in which Soknay and his colleagues find themselves in.
The real cause of these tragedies lies in the illegal logging industry in Cambodia that supplies China’s insatiable demand for rosewood timber to be turned into luxury furniture. This industry was valued at a whopping $2 billion by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency in 2014, with Cambodia occupying the fifth place in the list of biggest contributors.
Despite Prime Minister Hun Sen’s promise to give his life to stop illegal logging, a government ban on timber exports to Vietnam in January and the creation of a high-level task force headed by National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha in early 2017, illegal logging continues in Cambodia’s national parks, in community protected areas, in areas designated as land concessions, and in wildlife sanctuaries.
This is all happening under the full control of business tycoons like Try Pheap and Kith Meng, who have close links with the ruling party. Millions of dollars are paid as bribes to provincial and district governors and officials in the armed and police forces to protect the industry. Impunity reigns, while ministry officials point fingers at one another. Meanwhile, proud foot soldiers, border patrol agents, and hardworking forest rangers on patrol have become easy targets for highranking officials working for the big companies.
Saving what remains of Cambodia’s forests will be even harder now that the ruling party has effectively hijacked the country and cracked down on free speech, dissolving the main opposition party, labelling human rights workers and environmental activists as part of a “colour revolution”, and shutting down independent media.
But that doesn’t mean we should give up the fight. We must remind those responsi- ble – such as the minister of environment – that this is not about party politics. Regardless of who wins the elections or who is in charge, protection of our environment and of our natural resources must be a priority.
The murder of those who seek to protect our forests must be investigated independently, so that no doubt may arise over the real circumstances of their deaths. The minister of environment should be the first to lead this fight, to show that the murder of Soknai – one of his own staff – will not go unpunished.
Meanwhile, we all have a part to play in honouring these heroes who believed in saving Cambodia’s forests and paid for it with their lives. Forgetting them would mean giving up the fight.