Loggers tell of Thai jails
The logger’s teeth were smashed with the butt of a rifle and his friend fatally shot by a Thai paramilitary force formed to provide support to the Khmer Rouge. Chakrya*, 24, had ventured across the Dangrek Mountains in Cambodia’s far north to log Siamese rosewood, a species highly prized for furniture manufacturing in China and Vietnam. ... Cambodian military units stationed on the border were the buyers, the men allege. In China, the wood has been known to fetch upwards of $25,000 per cubic metre. ... General Touch Ra, director of the Working Group on Cambodia-Thailand Border Relations, which oversees military operations along the vast frontier, said that it was difficult to persuade the loggers to give up the trade. ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/loggers-tell-thai-jails
