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| Gouache on paper by Liz Peterson |
Chut Wutty was the Director of an environmental organization in Cambodia called the Natural Resources Protection Group, where he investigated and reported on the military involvement in illegal logging and land takeovers. According to the advocacy group Global Witness, the Cambodian government has leased over 75% of arable land to industrial agriculture companies. The leasing of land by the government often occurs in secret without the involvement of the community, resulting in forced evictions and deforestation.
On April 26, 2012, Wutty was shot and killed by a security guard of a logging company that he was investigating in the Koh Kong province. He was accompanied by two journalists, one of whom wrote an account of the event for Newsweek magazine shortly afterwards (Death of a Forester, 8/26/12)
Wutty's killer, Ran Boroth, was put on trial after a short investigation and charged with "accidental murder."He was released from jail after several weeks and remains free.
Soon after Wutty's death, there have been two additional murders of Cambodian citizens during conflicts over land, including the brutal murder of reporter Hang Serei Oudom and the shooting of 14 year-old Heng Chantha.
Chut Wutty was married and had three children. A friend and fellow human rights activist Chhim Savuth noted that Wutty was well aware of the dangers of his work, saying "That is our lives and we know it's ugly, but we still do it because we love the trees, we love the natural resources." (http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-chut-wutty-foresaw-tragic-end)
Dateline broadcast a documentary about Chut Wutty's activism and murder soon after his death: http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/watch/id/601472/n/Death-in-the-Forest
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