Raids Netted Excavators Owned by CPP Official

Twelve of the 29 excavators seized by military police in Kompong Thom province during Monday’s military police raids on illegal Tonle Sap reservoirs were confiscated from a farming collective run by a newly elected CPP commune chief. Peanh Poul, director of the Dry Rice Season Community, a collective of dry-season rice farmers, was appointed as commune chief in last month’s elections, but has yet to be sworn in. He said he thought he was repairing reservoirs that were not in a demarcated protected area. …