THIRD PARTY SCREENING: Why did Chut Wutty die? Logging and killings in Cambodia and beyond

Talk July 12, 2012 7:00 PM

THIRD PARTY EVENT ORGANISED BY GLOBAL WITNESS

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On April 26th, Cambodian anti-logging activist Chut Wutty was killed by military police near one of the protected areas he was monitoring. The shooting was one of the most shocking episodes in the fierce battle to save the country’s forests from destruction by powerful, corrupt elites who have accumulated vast wealth from their plunder while the people remain devastatingly poor.

Wutty worked with many communities who find themselves in the firing line, fighting for their rights and those of the forest. This exclusively commissioned film explains why they stood firm in the face of extreme intimidation and state-sponsored brutality, and why he was willing to pay the ultimate price to protect the forest from the march of the loggers.

A showing of the ten minute film will be followed by interviews with colleagues of Wutty’s about their cause and the threats they face. This will then be followed by a session chaired by Global Witness on the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict in Cambodia and elsewhere internationally.

Chair by Christopher Mitchell, Managing Director of OR Media Ltd and Chair of the Global Witness Trust. He is an award-winning writer, producer and director whose films, mostly on international affairs, have been shown on most of the world’s leading TV networks. He has written for the Sunday Times and Independent on Sunday, and been a visiting lecturer at Oxford University, the Royal College of Art and the National Film School.

With:

Mike Davis, Head of the Conflict Resources Campaign at Global Witness.

Markus Hardtke and Sen Samnang, who have both worked with Wutty to protect Cambodia’s forests and other natural resources from destruction for many years.