News

The national military police are investigating a deputy bureau chief for alleged involvement in illegal timber trafficking. ...

General Sao Sokha, the commander of the National Military Police and chair of the National Committee for Prevention and Crackdown of Natural Resources Crime, told municipal and provincial governors to maintain the quality and quantity of materials and equipment seized from forest crimes so that ...

Kampong Speu provincial authorities shut down 10 sawmills temporarily in four villages of Baset district for buying timber and operating without permission on Saturday. Provincial governor Vei Samnang said on Sunday that the owners of sawmills did not buy wood logged from the forest. Instead, ...

A district military police deputy commander yesterday said the logs are being transported to the district military police headquarters for further action. “They were seized after local residents reported finding them while they were walking through the forest,” he said. “We are collecting the logs ...

A National Military Police taskforce has opened a corruption investigation against Brigadier General Kong Saokun, Preah Vihear provincial military police commander, who is suspected of funnelling about $20,000 from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. ...

A team of Pursat provincial and national military police seized eight trucks loaded with timber on National Road 55 in Kravanh district’s Samraong commune on Monday and yesterday. ...

Prey Veng province military police and the Wildlife Alliance on Friday night conducted a raid upon a truck transporting hundreds of kilograms of illegal wildlife destined for Vietnam. ...

A raid on Monday of a woman’s house in Prey Veng province turned up hundreds of animals, dead and alive, set to be sold in the illegal wildlife trade. ...

National Military Police spokesman Eng Hy said legal action is being “considered” after a news outlet published a report linking the force’s commander, Sao Sokha, to the illegal timber trade. ...

Mondulkiri provincial environment officials and National Military Police early yesterday morning confiscated a seemingly abandoned Toyota Land Cruiser loaded with more than 10 poles of luxury thnong timber in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, though no arrests were made. ...

Stung Treng provincial military police discovered four separate stockpiles of illegal timber over the past two days amounting to thousands of cubic meters, but have yet to report any arrests. ...

Illegal forest clearing is taking place at about three times the rate it did last year, but fines for forestry and wildlife crimes have fallen dramatically, according to a progress report released last week by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries (MAFF). ...

Military police said they arrested a well-known timber trafficker in Stung Treng province on Thursday after she and a group of stick-wielding thugs attempted to retrieve a pile of wood officers had seized a day earlier. ...

The government on Monday auctioned off the first lot of timber from roughly 70,000 cubic meters of illegally logged wood seized by authorities earlier this year, after a lack of interest forced more than a month of cancellations. ...

More than $85 million worth of timber was exported from Cambodia to Vietnam during the first half of the year, according to Vietnamese customs data, despite a blanket ban Cambodia has placed on all timber exports to its eastern neighbor. ...

Top officials on Monday said the government would be auctioning off some of the 70,000 cubic meters of wood authorities have seized in recent months, backtracking on a recent pledge Hun Sen made to stop the sales. ...

Authorities have unearthed an­other cache of high-grade logs buried near a well-known timber dealer’s sawmill in Tbong Khmum province, weeks after finding a stockpile of buried logs on the businessman’s property in the same district. ...

An Australian fugitive wanted by Thai authorities for the murder of a former Hells Angels member was arrested in Phnom Penh on Thurs­day and is being held by immigration police, officials said Friday. ...

After a wall of land separating a lake and a dirt quarry in Phnom Penh collapsed on Tuesday night, creating a fierce current that destroyed a fishing boat and left one of its crewmen missing, authorities Thursday refused to say who was overseeing the quarry ...

A day after making—and quickly retracting—claims to the media that disgraced Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei had been arrested, national military police spokesman Kheng Tito said Thursday that his comments had been made in jest. ...

Several high-ranking provincial military officials – including Prey Veng’s military police commander, some of whose men are under investigation for police brutality – are slated for reassignment to national positions, according to a document obtained yesterday. ...

Four military police officers have been suspended from their duties after an incident last week in which officials shot at, arrested and beat two men driving a rice truck that ran a checkpoint. ...

A senior National Military Police commander has denied accusations he’s been skimming his officers’ wages, insisting the money docked covered their food. Via a statement by military police spokesman Kheng Tito, the deputy chief of the Security Information Department, Hong Vynal, hit back at claims on ...

A Defense Ministry official has requested that vehicles bearing Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) license plates be exempt from paying the country’s road tax, noting that a recent increase in inspections by tax officials could hurt “military officers’ feelings.” ...