"Mother Nature NGO is trouble, says Hun Sen", 26 September 2017

Prime Minister Hun Sen...lashed out at environmental NGO Mother Nature while speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam….

The NGO, which ceased operation…after the Interior Ministry cancelled its registration, had been a strong critic of the government’s lack of environmental protection policy.

“This NGO caused all kinds of trouble,”…Hun Sen said. “We could not do anything like this, or like that.”

When the government wanted to create more power through coal or gas, hydropower or nuclear power, the NGO said the projects would harm the environment, he added.

On one hand, people demand electricity at a cheap price, but on the other hand they try and stop development…Hun Sen said.

Mother Nature activists Dearm Kundy, 22, and Hun Vanak , 36, were arrested…after the NGO claimed it had new evidence of systemic smuggling of rare silica sand to Taiwan.