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
