Tue, Jun 02, 2009
AFP
"We have never said that there is no corruption in Cambodia..." - CPP Ong YentiengPHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - Cambodia Tuesday rejected a US diplomat's reported statement that graft costs the country up to US$500 million every year, branding her assertion "politically motivated and unsubstantiated."
US ambassador Carol Rodley made the allegation Saturday at a Phnom Penh anti-corruption concert, remarking, "five hundred million is equivalent to the cost of constructing 20,000 six-room school buildings," said a local report.
In a letter to the US embassy on Tuesday, Cambodia's foreign ministry said it "absolutely refutes the politically motivated and unsubstantiated allegation made by the United States diplomat."
The letter added that the US$500-million corruption figure was a "biased assessment" that came from an opposition party-linked economic institute.
Rodley's use of it, the letter said, was "in contradiction of the good relations between Cambodia and the United States."
Senior minister Om Yentieng, chairman of the government's anti-corruption unit, said in a press conference Tuesday that Rodley's allegation "strongly affects the honour and reputation of the Cambodian government."
"We have never said that there is no corruption in Cambodia.... But when saying that the level of corruption in Cambodia is so serious like the allegation, we cannot accept it," Om Yentieng said.
The US embassy was not immediately available for comment, but a 2004 report by the US Agency for International Development said informants estimated annual diversions from Cambodian government coffers at US$300 - US$500 million.
Donors pledged nearly one billion dollars in development aid to Cambodia last year despite strong concerns over rampant corruption and demands by rights groups that donors get tough on the government's apparent refusal to reform.
Cambodia's cabinet also issued a statement Tuesday saying Rodley's US$500 million figure was "regrettable" as well as a "groundless" allegation that it considered a "manipulation of the truth."
10 comments:
Hun, where is the lawsuit?
What lawsuit?
You want them find out how much my wife, my childrens, my brothers, my sisters, my nices, my nephews have the money?
I am not so fool like ah Kew Kagnarith!
One eye mad/e from Japan
Idiot Hun Sen, why don't you make a law suite against US Embassador?
yes, i agree with all of you suggestion. lawsuite quake
corruption has existed since the dawn of time, not special to only cambodia, hello! don't be so ignorant. it's like buddha said, it like finding a needle in a haystack to expect everyone to have no sadness or suffering. i mean, of course, it could get better, but don't expect it to happen overnight, though! you corrupt too if you get a chance. corruption knows no boundary, so don't be so hypocritical already! god bless cambodia.
that said, it's not right to be so corrupted. two wrongs don't make it right!
where the anti-corruption law? cambodia needs it the most! god bless cambodia.
The United States is not only meddling in Cambodian internal affairs, but to other countries as well with its tortuous policy, and therefore, I'm not surprised.
PPU
Come on, Carol. Have you looked in your own backyard?
PPU
ong yenting is one of hun sens' barking dogs
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