Time codes

00:00:54.80

Mau Chanthoern
It’s this way, right?

00:00:58.20

Which way now?

00:01:01.80

(Woo-hoo)!

00:01:03.90

Title
“Prey Lang forest
Cambodia”

00:01:57.50

In the past, there was a spirit protecting this forest.

00:02:01.60

No one could cut trees or hunt wild animals here.

00:02:05.70

Much is lost already, because now most people don’t believe in it.

00:02:07.90

They have stopped believing in the old ways, and indigenous communities are in decline.

00:02:35.20

We collect the resin and sell it to buy food.

00:02:39.20

If we lose the trees because a company comes here or if someone cuts the trees for timber then we lose everything.

00:02:55.80

Title
“Resin tree
Dam joa tuk”

00:03:01.50

Chut Wutty always told us not to be afraid of the loggers.

00:03:05.10

We have the right to protect the forest.

00:03:10.10

We don’t need to fear them.

00:03:10.40

He taught us that.

00:03:18.70

(Chut Wutty, unseen)
The most important resource for the people are the resin trees.

00:03:22.20

They inherit these trees from their ancestors.

00:03:28.20

The forest is like the skin protecting our bodies, without it we couldn’t survive.

00:03:36.20

They see me as their protector also, and I know that if I couldn’t help them, no one would.

00:03:58.90

Title
“Cinematography by
Vanessa de Smet”

00:04:01.90

Title
“Animation by
Septiawan Putra”

00:04:06.78

Title
“A film by
Fran Lambrick”

00:04:10.87

Title
“I Am Chut Wutty”

00:04:21.85

Title (Map)
Prey Lang forest
Cardamom Mountains
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
1989

00:04:26.83

Title (Map)
Prey Lang forest
Cardamom Mountains
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
2000

00:04:32.80

Title (Map)
Prey Lang forest
Cardamom Mountains
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
2004

00:04:39.72

Title (Map)
Prey Lang forest
Cardamom Mountains
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
2009

00:04:44.76

Title (Map)
Prey Lang forest
Cardamom Mountains
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
2014

00:05:07.70

Choun Phirom
His most controversial work was in Prey Lang forest.

00:05:14.20

He went there and stirred up trouble.

00:05:17.90

They weren’t happy that he was in their way.

00:05:18.80

Title
“Choun Phirom
Chut Wutty's nephew”

00:05:24.30

Marcus Hardtke
He had this silent strength that – that really impressed the other side too.

00:05:28.60

He wasn’t easily intimidated.

00:05:30.72

Title
“Marcus Hardtke
Wutty's closest friend”

00:05:38.80

Mau Chanthoern
I cared about him.

00:05:40.70

We worked to defend the forest together.

00:05:47.00

Prey Lang is ours to protect.

00:05:50.82

Title
“Mau Chanthoern
Prey Lang network”

00:06:04.00

Cheuy Oudormreaksmey
He was not afraid of dying; he knew what he was doing.

00:06:11.10

He told me that he would either die or be sent to jail in the end.

00:06:16.10

Finally he died.

00:06:18.50

It happened just as he said.

00:06:21.30

(Video Playing, reporter's voice)
“Chut Wutty is leading the campaign to save Prey Lang.”

00:06:23.89

Title
“Cheuy Oudorm
Chut Wutty's son”

00:06:24.80

(Video Playing, reporter's voice)
“He says corruption through all levels of government is at the root of the problem.”

00:06:33.60

I like going to the forest with him, but my father never wanted me to go because he was afraid something might happen to me.

00:06:52.00

This camera is a Canon 600D.

00:06:56.40

It was his camera that he always took with him.

00:07:01.40

He loved this camera.

00:07:03.40

He wanted me to study photography.

00:07:38.00

Chut Wutty
When we get home we’ll say ‘Dearest, I’m back safe and sound’.

00:07:40.50

I’ve been working for our children’s future.

00:07:43.20

I won’t be here forever.

00:07:46.70

We’ve been away from home for ten days in the forest.

00:07:52.00

Come and sit here!

00:07:52.90

Title
“Chut Wutty
November 2011”

00:07:53.70

They come from abroad to take our land.

00:07:58.10

Why do you seem nervous?

00:08:02.10

Chut Wutty
He’s a virgin, that’s why. (Laughter)

00:08:08.20

What’s the news about illegal logging in your province?

00:08:10.00

(Woman)
We’ve seen police and the military carrying out logging.

00:08:12.40

Chut Wutty
We’ve got cameras.

00:08:13.10

How many do we have?

00:08:16.60

We need to be taking photos and working at the same time.

00:08:24.20

Chut Wutty (interview)
The industrial logging business in Prey Lang generates millions of dollars.

00:08:28.50

But local people do not have a share in it.

00:08:30.75

Title
“Chut Wutty”

00:08:31.40

Instead, they face the loss of their trees.

00:08:35.50

I understand that wealth is important and I want to be wealthy as well.

00:08:39.40

But I also want to see people live with freedom; to have their culture, their traditions, to be able to pursue their own lifestyle.

00:08:48.10

Their rights should not be infringed.

00:08:50.10

Can people take land belonging to the elite in Phnom Penh?

00:08:55.80

They cannot.

00:08:56.80

So why does it happen here, that their trees are taken away?

00:09:09.80

Mau Chanthoern
If we go to patrol twice per month, the forest can be saved.

00:09:13.90

But if we don't patrol, it will be destroyed.

23:59:50.70

00:09:36.80

(Man)
Look they were cutting the trees, and left this chainsaw.

00:09:41.10

(Man)
They left the timber as well, over there.

00:09:43.40

(Man)
Where’s the timber?

00:09:43.81

Let’s photograph this.

00:09:52.90

They’ve left their equipment there too.

00:09:57.50

How many planks in total?

00:10:00.50

You said it’s 78 planks?

00:10:03.60

(Woman)
How long is it?

00:10:04.40

(Man)
Yes – 78 planks.

00:10:05.78

(Woman)
How long are these ones?

00:10:10.10

(Man)
This Kokoh tree was cut down by loggers in Prey Lang.

00:10:14.00

They left behind one chainsaw and freshly cut logs that haven’t been transported out.

00:09:55.20

(Man)
Let’s pray to the spirits who watch over this area.

00:09:59.00

(Man)
Please save us Lok Ta and bring us luck!

00:10:02.90

Lok Ta says the forest is being cut down in Prey Lang.

00:10:10.20

(Man)
He can’t stop it, so we have to stop it.

00:10:11.10

When he hears the chainsaws, he runs away.

00:10:17.50

(Man)
It’s up to us to protect this forest.

00:10:19.80

When we’re here on patrol it gives him hope that he can still keep his forest.

00:10:28.00

(Man)
The spirits can’t help us now.

23:59:50.70

23:59:50.70

23:59:50.70

00:11:43.72

Mau Chanthoern
When I was very young my grandparents told me stories about Prey Lang.

00:11:52.81

I was 10 or 12 years old.

00:11:55.79

They said that years ago Prey Lang was so full of animals.

00:12:02.81

But over the years, the animals left because the forest is disappearing.

00:12:30.30

Chut Wutty
The loggers started cutting the forest in Tumring.

00:12:37.40

The company got the land as a concession.

00:12:42.50

And the concession was for planting rubber.

00:12:52.90

It was a deception to pacify the local people.

00:12:48.40

They were told, “Cutting trees in the land concession is only clearing degraded land” but in reality they cut high value forest and sold it off.

00:12:55.90

Marcus Hardtke
These concessions are not a viable development model for Cambodia.

00:13:01.30

Because it’s basically – you couldn’t call it development.

00:13:22.00

It is monopolizing a resource and exploiting a resource.

00:13:26.70

They could finish this in a few months – the clearing.

00:13:30.60

But they deliberately took two years or more just to have more time to exploit the surrounding areas.

00:13:39.00

Every idiot can hold a chainsaw.

00:14:15.80

Hun Sen
If you tap resin, the logging concessions aren’t happy.

00:14:19.90

And you don’t know when they’ll cut down your trees.

00:14:23.90

We need to change people here.

00:14:27.60

Change from collecting resin, tapping resin, from tapping resin to tapping rubber.

00:14:38.90

In the new century, Tumring will be the place that changes before anywhere else from subsistence farming, working in different areas all the time, expending a lot of labour, to cultivating with security.

00:15:47.80

Title “Rubber Tree Dam kasou”

00:16:19.80

Title “Tumring Rubber Plantation”

00:17:32.30

Rubber Company CEO
This company is called Sokphaknica Investment Pro. Co. Ltd.

00:17:41.10

The company wants to expand to grow more crops in Tumring but we cannot find any more unused land.

00:17:50.75

Title “Rubber Company CEO”

00:17:56.30

In fact, the favourable land to plant rubber belongs to the local households.

00:18:05.60

If we get help from the government and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, we think that we can get that land to plant rubber trees.

00:18:18.10

But it seems impossible to obtain that land from the people because on that land they have their fields.

00:18:26.50

It’s a shame, I do not want them to have those fields, they will discard the old cleared land and move on to clear new land.

00:18:40.00

They cannot make money from doing that.

00:18:42.30

They do not have clear goals in their life.

00:19:50.10

Mau Chanthoern
Losing Prey Lang means we lose our livelihood.

00:19:54.00

All the people here depend on the forest.

00:19:59.90

If we work for the rubber company, when we get sick we don’t get paid.

00:20:05.20

It’s fine while you’re healthy, but then you’re left with nothing.

00:20:09.90

The forest gives us the freedom to support ourselves independently.

00:20:19.40

If we cannot protect Prey Lang, I am afraid that my son will be a labourer at the rubber plantation.

00:20:26.30

I want to protect the forest because I really do not want my son to be a labourer.

00:20:33.20

I don’t want that.

23:59:32.70

(Foreign language). Chanthoern talking to her son.

00:20:44.30

My husband and I always argue with each other.

00:20:47.70

He doesn’t want me to patrol the forest.

00:20:50.90

The way he thinks is so different from me.

00:20:55.80

I was married to my husband for a year.

00:21:01.50

Last year, when I was three months pregnant, he asked to separate.

00:21:08.90

I was angry at first, because I loved him but his love wasn’t true.

00:21:15.20

But later I considered it and I think we just had different values.

00:21:24.70

Because of the work that I do, some people love me, and some people hate me but the greater proportion hate me.

00:21:31.40

The loggers hate me because I always confiscate the wood they cut down.

00:22:01.00

Marcus Hardtke
Basically for the local population, partly indigenous people, they lose out.

00:22:06.30

And in the past they could avoid the worst and they just went further into the hinterland and continued to live there.

00:22:14.10

But this is getting difficult because there’s just no so much land and forest available anymore.

23:59:50.70

The new concessions especially in Prey Lang are using the same exploitation model as Tumring.

23:59:50.70

And it's even the same people doing it.

23:59:50.70

00:22:54.89

This is probably the biggest threat to the country.

00:22:57.09

This is certainly a threat to stability.

00:23:02.59

And so far we haven’t seen the government really realizing that.

23:59:50.70

00:23:07.01

Chut Wutty
As soon as one company had finished clearing the forest, another one came.

00:23:14.41

CRCK rubber company has not yet released any official documents to show the people living around Prey Lang forest even though those people’s resin trees were cut by the company.

00:23:31.60

No one has seen their documents.

00:23:34.60

So far more than 400,000 resin trees have been felled.

00:23:38.80

But have the communities received compensation?

00:23:42.20

Not even a single person.

00:23:46.40

The loggers cut far too much.

00:23:48.90

They cut the young trees; they cut in the conservation areas.

00:23:53.10

There’s no protection of resources here.

00:23:55.40

It’s anarchy.

00:24:07.80

(Mao Chanthoern)
On November 7th we set off to campaign in Prey Lang forest.

00:24:16.00

500 people came from four provinces.

00:24:20.40

Our purpose was to enter the company site, and to establish how much forest has been cleared, and whether it’s legally permitted.

00:24:29.30

At the company gate, the women stood firm at the front.

00:24:34.00

If we didn’t dare protest we risk losing everything.

00:24:41.40

(Man)
Hang on… Stop, stop!

00:24:44.40

(Man)
Wait a minute, the boss will come and sort the problem out.

00:24:55.10

(Man)
Don’t make trouble or it will be more than you can handle.

00:25:10.00

(Man)
Stop! You can’t enter!

00:25:12.70

(Foreign language). Shouting

00:25:42.80

Chut Wutty
The community decided to burn the timber once and for all so that loggers stop profiting from cutting the forest.

00:25:49.20

The people are extremely upset. They love the forest.

00:25:54.10

But they have no choice. They have to destroy the timber.

00:26:05.90

(Man)
A bit higher.

00:26:11.20

(Man)
A little bit more.

00:26:33.60

Chut Wutty
Initially I didn’t expect them to target me.

00:26:37.70

But when the military arrived, they came up to me from behind.

00:26:50.80

(Man)
If you’re going to arrest him, arrest all of us.

00:27:10.90

(Man)
Stop those cameras!

00:27:13.80

(Man)
Who pays you to do this?

00:27:16.00

(Man)
You have guns but we have nothing so which of us is powerful?

00:27:19.50

(Man)
We have no guns – why do you bring guns here?

00:27:22.80

(Man)
We are just defending ourselves, you can’t attack us like this.

00:27:40.50

Chut Wutty
Luckily the community immediately came to help me.

00:27:45.90

Without them I would have been in trouble.

00:28:17.00

We’ll protect the forest together no matter what.

00:28:19.70

It can’t get worse than this.

00:28:25.70

We’ll leave early in the morning.

00:28:33.40

The community saw the cruel actions of armed officers in confronting unarmed local people.

00:28:46.90

They are armed to protect people not to help businessmen log the forest of our country.

00:29:07.30

As you might have seen, this morning I went out to encourage the teams who volunteer to protect Prey Lang.

00:29:17.70

They were happy to be part of the operation.

00:29:20.80

They gave me a blessing for protection while I’m here.

00:29:24.70

They said that without me they would have had problems.

00:29:28.60

They said they placed their hope in me.

00:29:31.80

This is why I cannot give up my efforts.

00:29:37.90

If I don’t do the work, no one else would do it.

00:29:40.60

People are too afraid.

00:29:42.90

So I have to keep going.

00:29:52.90

Seng Sokheng
After the attack, when we were going home, we found that the government officials sent a force of military and police to some places along the road.

00:30:08.90

They were waiting to catch Chut Wutty and the foreigners with him.

00:30:15.80

Then they let us and the community activists go.

00:30:20.80

After hearing this, I informed Wutty that we had heard they were hunting for him.

00:30:27.90

I said, “You should escape to a safe place”.

00:30:50.20

Sam Chanty
I was selling fruit and crushed ice when he first saw me.

00:30:53.90

He came over to buy some water, so we met.

00:30:58.40

He told his parents to ask permission for him to marry me.

00:31:05.60

I sold some land that I inherited from my family to build our house because he didn’t earn much money.

00:31:14.20

He said to me, “What are you doing buying new wood?”

00:31:19.80

He didn’t like buying new timber cut from the forest so he was angry with me.

00:31:25.00

But I wanted beautiful wood for our house, and I had money to buy it.

00:31:34.90

After a while as his wife, I started to understand him more.

00:31:42.00

We got along and could live together.

00:31:47.90

When I heard that there was a conflict and that he was being threatened, when he got home, I asked him whether he was scared.

00:32:04.10

He said he wasn’t, because he was doing the right thing and that gave him courage.

00:32:19.10

Right after the attack, the US Embassy offered to send him to America and protect him.

00:32:35.90

But he refused because he loves his country.

00:32:40.00

After he refused, they made another offer that if he wanted to stay in the country they would pay for him to have a bodyguard.

00:32:56.90

He didn’t like that.

00:32:58.10

He liked being independent.

00:33:01.90

I was worried but he said he was fine.

00:33:21.40

Marcus Hardtke
He had to be a one-man army.

00:33:23.00

He had to do the work on the ground - the organizing, patrolling.

00:33:26.50

And he also had to do the policy work and inform the world and try to find new alliances.

00:33:36.90

You know he was never really into this kind of publicity.

00:33:41.80

He just wanted to get the job done.

00:33:43.70

This was what made him effective from the ground.

00:33:48.10

And he was not afraid to talk.

00:33:50.60

And in Cambodia now the major NGOs and many of the donor representatives and (UN agencies).

00:33:59.50

They are simply too afraid to talk – to even talk about these problems.

00:34:04.90

That’s why he became more prominent.

00:34:13.50

Sam Chanty
He didn’t name the corporation but he told me there were people offering him bribes if he would stop reporting corruption to foreign media.

00:34:34.90

He didn’t know who was behind it.

00:34:39.10

He was offered bribes many times but he refused.

00:34:43.60

Then my husband started investigating illegal yellow vine harvesting.

00:34:49.70

He started writing reports on that.

00:35:19.30

Olesia Plokhil
This is a creeper plant that has really bright yellow on the inside.

00:35:23.90

If you cut it you look at either end and it’s very kind of a really fluorescent yellow.

00:35:29.40

It’s quite beautiful.

00:35:32.00

Wutty and I started talking in the end of March.

00:35:35.70

And as we continue to talk a lot of our conversations focused on his work in illegal logging and the areas in which he was working and trying to prevent illegal loggers.

00:35:43.80

And one of those areas that he actually kept really talking about was the Cardamom Mountains.

00:35:48.40

He was one of the few people and probably the only person that I could go to for you know concise, factual, you know unbiased, really truthful information.

00:35:57.50

And he said, “You know I really respect what journalist do but you know you’re on your phone a lot, you’re inside a lot.”

00:36:02.80

He said, “Come see what is actually happening on the field.”

00:36:08.60

But Wutty was convinced that yellow vine was actually being produced en masse for a drug production.

00:36:13.20

And this was something that Wutty was very passionate in exposing.

00:36:19.40

That morning we were not really talking much about illegal logging.

00:36:22.20

There was no real stress.

00:36:23.70

It was a nice morning and we were just enjoying the Cardamom’s and looking out and thinking about what the future would hold for that area.

00:36:32.70

And then finally, around two hours after we had left Pursat, the south of Pursat province and headed south towards Koh Kong, Wutty abruptly stopped the car and said, “Okay, we’re here”.

00:36:45.10

And I said, “Where are we?”

00:36:52.30

(Man)
Yes, this way. It’s the right road.

00:36:56.70

Stop here!

00:37:00.90

Marcus Hardtke
That’s a lot.

00:37:14.30

Olesia Plokhil
Wutty was very tense as soon as we got to the site.

00:37:17.30

And it was a way that I haven’t seen him before.

00:37:19.20

So as soon as he stopped the car, he said, “This is an illegal yellow vine factory.”

00:37:23.20

“We have to make this quick.”

00:37:24.10

“Let’s go.”

00:37:24.70

“We’re here”

00:37:25.20

You know, “Grab your notepads.”

00:37:26.40

“Let’s go.”

00:37:26.90

And even when we are walking through the clearing, he looked at us and he said, “You’re too slow.”

00:37:33.50

“Aren’t you journalists?”

00:37:34.40

“Let’s go.”

00:37:34.80

“You know you’re on the job.”

00:37:37.20

We walked across the road.

00:37:37.80

Wutty spoke to a guy there.

00:37:40.10

And there was military hammocks also around and some scattered industrial tools.

00:37:44.80

And we walked through there and we saw a big stack of yellow vine.

00:37:51.40

Marcus Hardtke
And there was enough time to radio in the bigger guys and asked what to do and take this opportunity to make trouble.

00:38:02.50

They must have known who he was.

00:38:11.10

Olesia Plokhil
And then all of a sudden the guy in beige military fatigues puts up his hand and kind of wave overs – motions over something.

00:38:21.60

And all of us turned and simultaneously we all see the same thing.

00:38:24.90

And it’s two motor bikes coming toward us blurring from the haze of the sun.

00:38:29.40

And all three of them have AK-47.

00:38:47.60

Finally they said, “We want your cameras”.

00:38:49.30

Then they yanked one of the cameras out of our hands.

00:38:56.20

I hear “Koh Kong, Koh Kong”.

00:38:57.40

So it seems to me like what’s happening is they will allot – you know they will allow us to leave the site if we follow them or they follow us to the military police headquarters in Koh Kong.

00:39:07.00

We get into the car.

00:39:08.20

Wutty turns the key and it doesn’t start.

00:39:13.30

Wutty looked at me and said, “I told you we should have been out of here”.

00:39:16.60

“I told you, we should have been fast.”

00:39:18.50

And he wasn’t blaming me but he was almost explaining like – it was almost like “I’m sorry we got fucked.”

00:39:26.70

Wutty goes and lifts the hood of the car and he tells me to come with him.

00:39:30.80

And he shows me three wires.

00:39:32.80

And he said – he says, “Hold these together”.

00:39:34.30

And I’m thinking, “Hold these together?”

00:39:36.40

You know, I mean is this dangerous?

00:39:38.40

And he says, “No, I’m going to start the engine.”

00:39:40.10

“You’re going to hold this together and you’re going to push them down on to some metal – metal piece”.

00:39:44.80

So Wutty is inside the car now and I pushed the wires together, put them on the thing and the engine starts.

00:39:51.80

And so I’m lowering the hood.

00:39:53.30

My hands are shaking.

00:39:53.50

(Unintelligible) and scrambles unto the back seat.

00:39:57.20

Wutty is yelling, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

00:39:59.90

I reached for the hand of the door handle.

00:40:01.60

And as soon as I reached for the hand handle, I heard shots.

00:40:05.40

And I ducked immediately because I think that there will be more shooting.

00:40:08.40

And I ducked and I crouched there for about 2 seconds and then I get back up and I don’t think about running.

00:40:17.10

I just ran.

00:40:22.90

Wutty’s been shot.

00:40:35.00

And as we turn our bodies and heads toward the scene which was about 100 feet away from us.

00:40:44.50

I saw a military police officer – one of the military police officers lying motionless on the ground next to the left hand front tire of the car.

00:41:03.00

Immediately I think, you know, it’s a cover up.

00:41:37.70

Cheuy Oudormreaksmey
When someone called and said he had died I couldn’t believe it.

00:41:45.40

I felt devastated.

00:41:57.40

About three hours before his death, he called me and said he was going to try and finish today and come back.

00:42:07.30

I feel such regret when I think of him saying this.

00:42:24.80

This is him at O’Saom.

00:42:30.90

These are the photos he took of the forest there on the last day.

00:42:39.60

I think someone intended to kill him.

00:42:42.50

I think it was someone related to the timber company.

00:42:47.00

They did not want him investigating and taking photos.

00:42:52.20

Then the conflict mounted and they asked the military to kill him.

00:43:01.60

He looks so angry.

00:43:06.70

Because this man was blocking the door to the car.

00:43:11.00

His expression is so angry.

00:43:15.00

That’s the last photo in his camera, there aren’t any more.

00:44:07.50

At first I thought that he did not think about our family because his life was his work.

00:44:14.90

If he started work on something, he was determined to succeed.

00:44:22.80

He didn’t rest much.

00:44:26.20

He would go to sleep at 1 am and wake up at 3 or 4 am.

00:44:31.00

He thought a lot about things.

00:44:34.80

His life was not carefree like other people’s.

00:44:43.00

The burden of caring for the family has come to me.

00:44:48.10

Without him, my family will find it very difficult because he was the foundation of our life together.

00:44:59.70

But I am not hopeless, I will try to carry on and I will struggle through somehow, even though I could not be the same as him in order to care for my family.

00:45:30.90

Sam Chanty
Whenever he came home, I told him to be careful, not to get too close to the military police because they were hired by the logging company to guard the timber.

00:45:57.90

It could have been In Ratana who shot him, or Ran Boroth.

00:46:02.20

But we don’t know which of them fired.

00:46:02.20

Choun Phirom
A day after the funeral, I heard on the news that they’d caught one of the men who shot him, Ran Boroth.

00:46:32.90

Right after, I heard that a committee was created to investigate my uncle’s shooting.

00:46:42.40

Witnesses were being questioned.

00:46:47.20

To this day, I would say the case has been at a standstill.

00:47:08.85

Title “Ly Kosal Ran Boroth's defense lawyer”

00:47:15.70

Ly Kosal
In Ratana got his gun and fired to scare Wutty away from the site.

00:47:23.10

So at that time my client Ran Boroth saw what was happening and worried that further gunfire might lead to injury of the journalists so he shot In Ratana in the chest, killing him.

00:47:45.70

If my client hadn’t taken control of this situation, it is possible that the two journalists could have been killed.

00:47:59.20

Olesia Plokhil
There’s a lot of things that don’t match up though.

00:48:01.10

There were at least four shots fired.

00:48:04.20

One at Wutty, two at the military police officer and one bullet that was found lodged in the hood of the car.

00:48:09.60

And there were less casings and not found.

00:48:11.50

The order of certain things was not the way it was supposed to be.

00:48:14.50

Again the scene was tampered with.

00:48:15.90

The military police officer’s body was moved.

00:48:18.70

So there’s a lot of uncertainty.

00:48:19.90

The – the official investigation, there was four possible scenarios.

00:48:29.50

I think the point of the story is that a man died because he was standing up for what is truly his in the Cambodia and constitution.

00:48:38.50

And – and in the UN declaration of Human Rights.

00:48:41.70

And – and he died for doing the right thing.

23:59:12.50

(Transcript) It was widely assumed that In Ratana shot Chut Wutty.

23:59:12.50

Ran Boroth was convicted of manslaughter.

23:59:12.50

He was released two weeks after his trial.

00:49:22.50

Mau Chanthoern
We got a call to tell us that Wutty died at Koh Kong.

00:49:27.50

For us he was a hero because of his work in Prey Lang.

00:49:31.50

We feel so sad that he died alone in the wilderness.

00:49:47.40

After Wutty was killed, our community was threatened.

00:49:50.40

They said, “Aren’t you afraid of dying like Wutty did?”

00:49:56.80

But we are not afraid.

00:50:16.00

(Man)
Quiet, quiet!

00:50:16.00

So, shall we read this report then?

00:50:16.00

The illegal loggers who cut timber in Prey Lang forest are accused by the Prey Lang Network representative who states that the illegal loggers whose names are given above.

00:50:38.20

Those loggers paid bribes to the Forest Administration at Tumring.

00:50:45.00

All the loggers are named but I’m the only one who is named making the accusation.

00:50:50.00

It’s a disaster.

00:50:51.20

Friends, this is what we need to discuss.

00:50:57.00

(Man)
Let’s not put your name.

00:50:59.80

It’s from the whole Prey Lang Network.

00:51:02.90

Let’s change it.

00:51:02.90

I can’t sleep I’m so worried.

00:51:05.50

We made too many accusations.

00:51:10.40

Do they want to kill me?

00:51:26.30

Mau Chanthoern
If we don’t patrol we will die when the forest disappears, so we risk our lives to defend it.

00:51:33.10

I would be glad to die protecting the forest.

00:51:38.70

Better than that the forest is destroyed.

00:51:48.60

Choun Phirom
I am Chut Wutty.

00:51:54.60

Seng Sokheng
I am Chut Wutty.

00:51:58.70

Cheuy Oudormreaksmey
I am Chut Wutty.

00:52:04.50

Mau Chanthoern
I am Chut Wutty.

00:51:07.70

Protector of Prey Lang forest.

00:52:20.92

(Transcript)
Globally, two environmental activists are killed each week. Over the last decade the rate of killing has doubled.

00:52:30.78

The Prey Lang Network continues to patrol the forest.

END OF RECORDING