[CPProt.net] story

[Dougald O'Reilly]

“Grave Looters Still Supplying Steady Demand”
Cambodia Daily
31 October 2005
 
The looting of ancient graves in Banteay Meanchey and Oddar Meanchey 
province is continuing unabated, several police and government 
officials said Sunday.
 
Yorth Ray, deputy police chief of Banteay Meanchey’s Thma Pouk 
district, said people from neighboring Svay Chek district have been 
discretly looting graves in his district for at least three years.
 
“We have measures to stop them,” he said. “We will go and investigate 
this case and crack down on them early this week.”
 
Yorth Ray said some of the looters had been detained and “educated” but 
they simply continue looting in other communes or districts.
 
“They don’t profit much.. Some don’t make any money at all,” Yorth Ray 
said. “But some are lucky and find the graves of rich people.”
 
Ministry of Culture Secretary of State Chuch Phoeurn said much of the 
looting has moved from Banteay Meanchey to Oddar Meanchey. He said he 
and other ministry officials tried to stop looting in Banteay 
Meanchey’s Phum Snay several years ago but that their efforts may have 
been in vain.
 
“We went to Phum Snay during the day to stop the digging, but they 
continued digging at night,” he said. “Everything was destroyed in the 
end, and now they are digging in Oddar Meanchey.”
 
But he stressed that it was wealthy buyers—not poor villagers—who were 
the root of the problem.
 
“Rich people buy antiquities and ask people to dig up ancient graves 
for them,” he said. “If there is no buyer, there are no diggers.”
 
He said his ministry had repeatedly asked local officials to take 
action to stop looting, but that so far little has been done. The 
ministry, he added, might file a complaint against the local 
authorities themselves.
 
“Provincial authorities are responsible for enforcing the laws,” he 
said.
 
Banteay Meanchey province deputy police chief Sam Chit insisted that 
looting was on the wane.
 
“We have very few places where people are digging graves,” he said.
 
Yoem Thim, deputy governor of Oddar Meanchey province, also claimed 
that there is no more digging in his province since police cracked down 
on looters in Banteay Ampil district last month.
 
He said more than 30 people in the district were arrested, detained for 
two days, and educated about why looting is wrong.
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