Border Killing

A group of young men from a village on the Thai border in Oddar Meanchey province say a Thai soldier shot and killed their friend on Friday after a border patrol caught the youths picking mushrooms on the Thai side of the border. Peng Pek, 25, said he and his six friends crossed into Thailand on Friday to gather mushrooms. As they approached the Cambodian border at a spot near the O’dar river, a Thai soldier fatally shot Sok Samnang, 19. “We are young, poor students who were picking mushrooms to earn money for school,” Peng Pek said. “When we saw the soldiers we ran, and they fired at us three times. When the gunman saw Sok Samnang fall down, he stood there laughing.” Peng Pek said that many of the boys from his village of Aphiwat regularly gather mushrooms across the border, selling them to Thai merchants for 2,000 or 3,000 riels per sack. Oddar Meanchey Governor Pich Sokhin said authorities often warn villagers not to cross the border because of the military presence there, but could not comment on what steps would be taken with the Thai authorities. A funeral was held for Sok Samnang in his village on Sunday.