Since 2008, nearly 30 people have been shot dead after illegally crossing into Thailand from Cambodia-most of them making the crossing to participate in illegal logging operations, according to The Phnom Penh Post.
Prime Minister Hun Sen thinks the dead loggers have nobody but themselves to blame, labeling them "provokers." Sen also said that his government's Anti-Corruption Unit would investigate army commanders and civilians involved in illegal logging, and that whistleblowers would be granted anonymity.
"Sometimes they are provokers, and when [Thai soldiers] shoot, it is difficult to blame them, because [the victims] have gone to provoke," Sen told The Phnom Penh Post.
However, one opposition leader in Cambodia views the situation quite differently. Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, labeled the dead loggers victims of a failing government.
"[A logger] goes to log because he is poor," Sovann told the Phnom Penh Post. "He is poor because the leader makes him poor. The leader does not have the possibility to find a job for him, nor can he provide him with the farmland he needs to live. Just because they are guilty of illegal logging, it doesn't mean they deserve to be shot."
The full story can be read here.
