By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
A day after three environmental activists were jailed for protesting the dredging of sand from a river in Cambodia, the exiled co-founder of their NGO said court officials were looking to punish other colleagues.
Mother Nature activists Sim Samnang and Tri Sovichea, along with co-founder Sun Mala, were jailed ahead of trial on charges of “threatening destruction,” The Cambodia Daily reported Tuesday.
If found guilty, they face up to two years in prison.
The three have been seeking to highlight the dredging of an estuary in western Koh Kong province by a company called Direct Access. The sand is then sent to Singapore, but the operation is being blamed for having a negative impact on riverbanks and fish stocks in the area.
Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, a Khmer-speaking Spanish national and co-founder of Mother Nature, was deported from Cambodia in February after immigration officials refused to renew his visa — a move that was decried as a bid to stifle the work of the NGO.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency from exile Tuesday, he said that he and his colleagues had frequently discussed the possibility of arrests as the NGO ramped up its campaigns on a number of issues, but said the jailings helped highlight “anarchic sand mining” in the area.
“We pushed in Areng Valley (where the Chinese Sinohydro company pans to build a dam); we pushed against illegal sand barges in three other estuaries, where it is not happening anymore… by pushing the line and doing in-your-face activism, there’s always going to be a risk attached,” he said.
“It’s worrying and we are concerned, and they [the activists] will be in jail, but at the same time, I knew this was unavoidable — we live in a dictatorship.”
Gonzalez-Davidson said he heard Tuesday that the Koh Kong provincial court is now seeking to bring in two more activists, one of whom is a member of Mother Nature.
“[I’]ve spoken to someone from the court that they have two more names and looking for them,” he told Anadolu Agency. “One is from Mother Nature, and the other is another activist. They are also looking for other ‘unnamed individuals,’ so it could be that they are after the entire team.”
He said the two are accused of the same charges as the three already in jail.
Dith Tina, Ministry of Mines and Energy spokesperson, could not be reached but the Daily reported Tuesday that as of last week, no decision had been made as to whether or not the license for Direct Access — which expires Wednesday — would be renewed.
