- Written by Meck Dara & George Wright
- bbc news
Mother Nature is a group of young activists working to protect Cambodia’s environment from widespread destruction. However, the group has been increasingly targeted, and some have been jailed for their activism.
Thong Lata and Long Kunthea are passionate young environmental activists who protect Mother Nature. Both men also spent more than a year in prison in appalling conditions for daring to challenge the government.
Lata, now one of the group’s best-known activists, was a student working in a supermarket to earn a living when she attended a workshop at a university in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, in 2014. It would change his life forever.
The event was led by Alejandro González Davidson, the Spanish co-founder of the environmental organization Mother Nature. Gonzalez Davidson, who is fluent in Khmer, Cambodia’s native language, spoke passionately about the proposed hydroelectric dam in the Cardamom Mountains in western Cambodia and the destruction it would cause to the local environment.
Long Kunthea, 24, was inspired to join the group after watching Lata’s video in 2017. Until then, he had shown little interest in politics or the environment. “Like any other Cambodian, I was scared,” she says. “I don’t even have the courage to click on political articles.”
In the video, Lata and other activists, up to their necks in sand, present their findings. Kunthea was captivated by the funny yet grim video. She wasn’t alone. This video alone earned her over 4.5 million views and 150,000 shares on Facebook.
“I felt like they were heroes,” Kunthea said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has long been accused of profiting from the plundering of the country’s natural resources, a charge he denies. However, according to Amnesty International, Cambodia is the most deforested country in the world, having lost around 64% of its tree area since 2011 alone.
Other conservation and rights groups say the country has lost about half its wetlands in just 15 years, and in Phnom Penh alone, 15 of its 25 lakes have been filled in during a construction boom.
Mother Nature was founded in 2013 to support local community movements against a proposed hydroelectric project in the Cardamom Mountains. The project was finally canceled in 2017 after years of protests by the group.
Since then, young activists, most in their late teens and 20s, have investigated everything from sand dredging to illegal logging and environmental pollution.
The group’s popularity has grown since they began documenting their discoveries in playful and informative videos uploaded to their Facebook page, where they currently have 432,000 followers.
However, their criticism of the government comes at a cost.
Government spokesperson Fai Sifan said the government supported environmental movements, but claimed Mother Nature activists had ulterior motives.
“These children’s motivations are completely different from the mission of environmentalists. They have nothing to do with the environment. It’s something else,” he said.
As a result, they carried out severe repression against the group.
In September 2020, Kunthea was preparing to walk to Hun Sen’s residence in central Phnom Penh to protest the reclamation and construction of one of the city’s largest lakes.
Her fellow Mother Nature activist Phuong Keorasmy was scheduled to film the one-woman march. Shortly after starting the march, the two were locked up in a police car and taken away for questioning.
“I was alone, but there were four or five officials asking me questions and yelling at me,” Kunthea recalled. “They asked me if my march was an attempt to commit terrorism. I was speechless… How could they commit terrorism?”
The two young activists were taken to court and charged with inciting to commit a serious crime or causing civil unrest. Mr. Lhasa was arrested and charged with the same crime shortly thereafter.
All three are being held in pre-trial detention and could face up to two years in prison.
Kunthea and Keolasmei had to share a cell with up to 150 women.
Keorasmy, 20, said she tried to keep herself busy by reading books by Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela, but the harsh realities of prison were sometimes hard to escape. Fights periodically broke out as inmates fought for space. A woman in another cell committed suicide.
Kunthea believes the government locked them up to send a message.
“These are threats and intimidation not only against me and my family, but against other young people who dare to stand up to protect our natural resources.”
Mr Kunthea, Mr Lasa and Mr Keolasmey were found guilty in May and given prison terms and heavy fines. In July, they were further indicted on conspiracy charges and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
Three other Mother Nature members have since been arrested in June and charged with conspiracy and lese majeste. The law imposes harsh penalties for insulting the monarchy and has been used by the government to target critics. It is not clear what the activists were accused of saying to insult the monarchy.
All six were released by the Court of Appeal in November. Kunthea, Lata and Keorasmy walked free for the first time in more than a year.
But that freedom is fragile. Because they are out on bail on outstanding conspiracy charges, they must report to police every month and could be rearrested at any time if a preliminary judge decides to send the case to trial.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said what Hun Sen and his “cronies” didn’t expect was “young people’s anger over environmental destruction and the rise of Mother Nature and other activists. “How have we taken advantage of the environmental demands of that generation?” Action by exposing what was really going on. ”
“President Hun Sen has used the age-old tactic of “killing chickens to scare monkeys” to intimidate key activists and those who want to stand up for their rights and the environment. We are pursuing it,” he added.
Mother Nature co-founder Gonzalez Davidson, who was expelled from Cambodia seven years ago and later charged with conspiracy and lese majeste, says the group will continue to operate in the country but will not be officially staffed for the time being. He said no. .
Regardless of the risks, Kunthea, Latha and Keorasmy all vowed to continue their research, although they will publish their research on their personal Facebook pages for the time being.Lata recently uploaded This is the first investigation after being released from prison.
“Life in prison was a terrible mental torture for us,” Rasa said. “But it made us mentally stronger and allowed us to face other big obstacles.”
The accusations were “sham and ridiculous,” he added. “It is impossible to suggest that you can cause chaos in society and overthrow the government.”
Keorasmy says stepping away from activism now would send the wrong message to other budding activists in Cambodia.
“We are their models,” she says. “If we stop, who will have the courage to do it?”