Photographing in prohibited zones? Just delete fotos

[Constantine Phaulkon]

Below is a cautionary tale (if you believe the official account). Just to make this story relevant to this forum, a lot of riders will take photos in prohibited areas unwittingly, so, if asked by the police (or what passes as police) to delete your photos, I would comply.

As for the story, does anybody know if guns are legal to carry in Cambodia? I find it surprising that the deceased had an AK-47.

A quick Google search indicates:
*In Cambodia, only licensed gun owners (for sporting purposes only) may lawfully possess firearms and ammunition.
*Applicants for a gun owner’s license in Cambodia are required to prove genuine reason to possess a firearm, for example, sports shooting only.
*In Cambodia, the maximum penalty for illicit possession of firearms is 6 months to 2 years imprisonment and a fine from 500,000 to 2,000,000 Riel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-17859016

26 April 2012 Last updated at 12:15 ET

Cambodian environmental campaigner shot dead by police
Chut Wutty Chut Wutty is said to have angered many influential people while campaigning for Cambodia's forests

A leading Cambodian environmentalist who investigated illegal logging has been killed in a confrontation with police, officials say.

Chut Wutty was shot dead while travelling in a threatened forest region in the south-west.

Details of the incident are unclear, but police say an officer was also killed in the exchange.

Mr Wutty had been helping indigenous people organise protests against the exploitation of protected forests.

Chut Wutty was driving through a remote area of Koh Kong province with two journalists from the Cambodia Daily newspaper at the time of the incident.

The BBC's Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh says there have been suggestions that military police ordered the reporters to delete images from their cameras and that Mr Wutty objected.

Precisely what happened next is unclear, but shots were fired, and the environmental activist was fatally wounded.

A military police commander said one of his officers was also killed, while "doing his duty".
Outspoken

Mr Wutty was one of the most outspoken activists in Cambodia. One of his colleagues told the BBC that he had angered many influential people.

He had received death threats in the past and sometimes carried an AK-47 rifle in his car.

The campaign group Global Witness says he had been one of the "few remaining Cambodian activists willing to speak out against the rapid escalation of illegal logging and land grabbing".

It says that corruption and violence around Cambodia's forests have been "well documented", and that the killing of Mr Wutty's demonstrates that "those who take on these vested interests face intimidation and even death".

The two journalists travelling with Mr Wutty were initially held by police, but they have now been released.

The local UN Human Rights office is investigating the incident.

 

[Midnitemapper]

Thanks for posting this article.
This certainly sounds like that encounter escalated until there was a rather nasty ending.

Here in Laos there seems to be more and more incidents were tourists, mostly on motorcycles. Have been detained and "fined" by police.

The area around Phou Koun being rather active at the moment, there have been at least 4 groups pulled into this police station with "fines" up to 4,000 baht.
If you are riding in Laos, stay clear of the areas East of Kasi 13N and South of Phou Khoun on road 7. Were once the occasional tourist wandering in this area was a nuisance, you are now a [highlight=#ffff40:1gqkkgh8]$$$$[/highlight:1gqkkgh8] money to be taken. This is the unfortunate reality, of a pattern of people paying to avoid a sticky situation.

Most recently Alex's encounter...
laos-ride-reports/11-days-solo-in-north-laos-t1737.html

 

[Midnitemapper]

Just picked this one from LaoFAb. hom Penh Post article

*Environmental activist Chut Wutty shot dead*
>
> Phnom Penh Post, Thursday, 26 April 2012
>
> Cambodia’s most outspoken activist against illegal logging was shot
> dead yesterday while escorting journalists near a protected forest in
> Koh Kong province, where he has repeatedly attempted to expose illegal
> logging rackets that include military officials.
>
> Chut Wutty, the director of Natural Resource Protection Group, was
> killed after military police apprehended him at Veal Bei in Mondul
> Seima district on behalf of a company that asked them to stop him from
> shooting photos of their development, military police spokesman Kheng
> Tito said.
>
> “And the company asked the military police in that area to come to
> intervene, and later on, the shooting happened,” he said, adding that
> this had occurred at about 12:30 in the afternoon.
>
> He said that military police officer In Rattana, 31, was also killed
> in the shooting.
>
> While he said he could not confirm it, he told the Post he believed it
> was possible that Chut Wutty had been armed, but was unable to say who
> fired first because he had yet to receive a report from his officers.
>
> Two journalists from the Cambodia Daily that were travelling with Chut
> Wutty, Phorn Bopha and Olesia Plokhii, had been detained by military
> police, said the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Kevin Doyle, who called
> for their safe return.
>
> They remained in “the company of the army or military police in the
> forest,” he said.
>
> Rights group Licadho immediately dispatched investigators, and the
> organisation’s Koh Kong provincial coordinator, In Kong Chet, said
> that after talking to ballistics police, he had established that Chut
> Wutty was shot as he tried to drive away from the military police.
>
> “Mr. Chut Wutty went to shoot a photo in a place where a lot of trees
> were being cut and then one military police came asking him for the
> memory [card] from him,” he said.
>
> He alleged that In Rattana threatened to shoot a defiant Chut Wutty
> and opened fire with an AK-47 when he attempted to drive his car away,
> but was also killed when a bullet ricocheted off the vehicle.
>
> “The first bullet hit Wutty’s knee and [In Rattana] continued hitting
> his stomach, so that caused Wutty’s death, and other two bullets hit
> Wutty’s car and ricocheted hitting Rattana and killing him,” he said,
> adding he had examined their dead bodies.
>
> Thong Narong, Military police chief in Koh Kong province, said his
> officers were still investigating the case.
>
> Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said he also
> could not confirm details but that it was very regretful if Chut Wutty
> had indeed been shot.
>
> “If it’s true, personally, I share my condolences with his family,” he
> said.
>
> The group was reportedly travelling toward the Stung Atai dam in
> Pursat province’s Veal Veng district where Chut Wutty had alleged that
> the company licensed to clear the area, MDS Import Export, had
> conspired with military and forestry administration officials to
> illegally log.
>
> Chut Wutty had been the country’s most vocal critic of the military’s
> alleged role in illegal logging conducted by companies granted land
> concessions in protected forests and related government corruption.
>
> Last December, after being repeatedly apprehended by military police
> after escorting the Post to the Central Cardamom Protected Forest in
> southwestern Cambodia, Chut Wutty asked for his photograph to be taken
> fearing he could soon be killed.
>
> His younger brother Chheuy Wutty said his brother’s body will be
> repatriated to Svay Meas village, his home town in Vihear Sour
> commune, Kchlach Kandal district, Kandal province.

 

[LivinLOS]

Rather than a tourist accidentally photographing in an areas tho, this is a prominent activist, whose had many death threats and powerful enemies.. Getting killed over it..