Oknha Dy Chouch says that he is not involved in illegal logging in Kampong Thom

06 October 2007
By Mayarith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The defense lawyer of Hun Sen’s younger cousin declared for the first time, following the accusation of his involvement in an (illegal logging) scandal about 4 months ago, that he is not involved that the illegal logging in Kampong Thom province.

Oknha Dy Chouch issued a clarification letter yesterday, saying that there is a number of people who used his name to conduct their private business.

Dy Chouch’s name was included in Global Witness’ list of Cambodian officials reported in Global Witness’ Cambodia’s Family Trees (Relatives of the thieves of the Nation in Khmer) which was distributed at the beginning of June, stemming from his involvement in the destruction of natural resources, and pocketing the revenue for himself. Dy Chouch’s former wife is Seng Keang whose name also features in the Global Witness report.

Okhna Dy Chouch declared in the clarification letter that he is divorced from Lok Chumteav Seang Keang for several years already and he said that before the divorce, the activities of Seng Keang did not involve him.

Oknha Dy Chouch asked the authority to take legal action against anyone who uses his name to do business.

Khieu Kanharith: Global Witness report affects Cambodia's national security -sic!-

Khieu Kanharith provides clarifications to the NA committee on the Global Witness case

02 July 2007
By Sok Serei Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

On Monday, the National Assembly (NA) committee on foreign affairs and international cooperation, and information, summoned Khieu Kanharith, the Minister of Information (MoInf), to provide clarifications on the reason why the MoInf banned the publication of the Global Witness report in Cambodia. The report accused relatives of Cambodian government leaders, and high ranking government officials, of involvement in illegal logging in Kompong Thom province.

SRP MP Son Chhay, chairman of the above NA committee, told RFA on Monday that the MoInf ban of the report in unacceptable.

Son Chhay said: “The MoInf banned the publication of the Global Witness (report) about illegal logging in Tumring and at other national parks, involving government officials, this is a problem which we want to have more information about.”

Regarding this issue, Khieu Kanharith said: “In summary, this is an explanation to the NA question, they must understand a lot about what the MoInf must perform, and what else must be planned (by the MoInf) to be performed in the future.”

After direct clarification from Khieu Kanharith, Son Chhay said that he agreed with some of the points in the publication reviews, but he does not agree on the ban of research documents, including the Global Witness report which (the government tries to) link to national security matters.

Son Chhay added: “There must be some reviews of published information, but in the past activities, we did not see that it (Global Witness report) affects the national security.”

Dr Pung Chiv Kek, President of Licadho human rights organization, said that Cambodian people have the rights to freely receive information. “In order for our country to have democracy, there should not be any ban in the publication of information.”

On 8 June, the MoInf sent a declaration to all newspaper and magazine publishers to stop all publications of the Global Witness report. In this banned report, the London-based Global Witness leveled serious accusations on the relatives of the prime minister of Cambodia, on the relatives of Chan Sarun, the minister of agriculture, and on the relatives of Ty Sokhun, the director of the Cambodian forestry department, saying that they are involved in illegal logging in Cambodia.

These accusations were met by rebuttal claims from the accused government officials who said that the accusations were baseless.

Cambodian officials respond to Global Witness report with ban and threat of violence

Press release 6 June
Global Witness

UK-based NGO Global Witness today condemned the Cambodian government’s decision to ban its latest report, as well as the violent threat against Global Witness staff made by the prime minister’s brother.

Released on June 1st, ‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’ reveals how the illegal destruction of Cambodia’s forests is carried out with impunity by family members and business associates of Prime Minister Hun Sen, his wife, and other senior officials.

On Sunday Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith issued a statement saying that the government was banning the report and would confiscate any copies it found in Cambodia. On Tuesday Hun Neng, the governor of Kompong Cham province and brother of Hun Sen, was quoted in a Cambodian newspaper as saying that "If (Global Witness staff) come to Cambodia, I will hit them until their heads are broken."

“This is senseless censorship,” said Global Witness Director, Simon Taylor. “Attempts to suppress this report will not make the facts that it presents disappear. We would very much like to know the legal basis for this decision.”

“The threat against our staff is entirely unacceptable,” added Taylor. “Such crude intimidation by a senior public official says little for the government’s commitment to upholding human rights and freedom of expression.”

Cambodians’ right to freedom of expression is guaranteed by Article 41 of the country’s constitution, and by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cambodia ratified in 1992.

Global Witness is calling on the government to ensure full and credible investigations and prosecutions of all those responsible for the cases of illegal logging, corruption, smuggling, attempted murder and kidnapping detailed in the ‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’ report.

The report’s findings include the following:

• Cambodia’s most powerful illegal logging syndicate – known as the Seng Keang Company – is controlled by individuals related to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chan Sarun and Director General of the Forest Administration Ty Sokhun.
• The Seng Keang Company has illegally logged vast tracts of Prey Long Forest, yielding a timber haul worth more than US$13 million annually. Its targeting of resin trees has damaged the livelihoods of hundreds, if not thousands of families living in the area.
• Leading members of the syndicate are heavily implicated not only in illegal logging, but also tax evasion, kidnapping, bribery and attempted murder. There is substantial evidence that the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Chan Sarun, and Director General of the Forest Administration, Ty Sokhun, have illegally sold at least 500 jobs in the Forest Administration.
• The elite Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Brigade 70 unit makes between US$2 million and US$2.5 million per year through transporting illegally-logged timber and smuggled goods. A large slice of the profits generated through these activities goes to Lieutenant General Hing Bun Heang, Commander of the Prime Minister’s Bodyguard Unit.

“The reaction to this report raises a serious question for Cambodia’s international donors,” said Taylor. “Is the government sincere in its pledges to strengthen governance and the rule of law, or is it simply paying lip service to these ideals to secure aid and international respectability?”

‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’ can be downloaded from www.globalwitness.org.

For more information and interviews, please contact Global Witness on + 44 (0)207 561 6396.

Group Denounces Government's Ban on Forestry Report

The 3-S gang implicated by Global Witness: Prime Minister Hun Sen (L), Ministry of Agriculture Chan Sarun (M), Director General of the Forestry Administration Ty Sokhun (R) (Photo: Cambodia's Family Trees, Global Witness)

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
04/06/2007

"The fact of the matter is that in the current climate in Cambodia, those who are involved in illegal logging are those who are loyal to the CPP or to the prime minister, and it is those political networks that this report exposes" - Global Witness spokeswoman

The government this weekend ordered the seizure of a scathing report by the forest monitor Global Witness that implicates Prime Minister Hun Sen, and the Minister of Agriculturethe head of the Forestry Administration in illegal logging and the corruption that follows it. A spokeswoman for the group said Monday she wasn't surprised by the ban, given the laundry list of officials and business partners the report entails.

The report, which is available on the group's Web site in Khmer and English, points to the highest levels of government as complicit in illegal logging and the wholesale stripping of Cambodia's forest cover. The government banned copies of the report on Sunday, claiming it was politically motivated and the work of a spiteful organization.

The Global Witness spokeswoman, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the group's work, said the ban was more evidence of government failure to face corruption.

"We do deplore the government's decision to ban and confiscate this report and would like to raise the question as to what legal basis this decision has been made," she said. "We see their attempts at censorship as indicative of their reluctance to address the core issues of corruption that we have raised here and also of complete denial of freedom of speech."

The report, "Cambodia's Family Trees," is an extensive look into how illegal logging works in the country: where the logs are felled, how they are transported, processed, shipped and sold. It includes charts and graphs and photographs.

The spokeswoman denied any political motivation by the group, pointing out that Global Witness had reported on the Khmer Rouge and Funcinpec in 12 years investigating the sector in Cambodia.

"The fact of the matter is that in the current climate in Cambodia, those who are involved in illegal logging are those who are loyal to the CPP or to the prime minister, and it is those political networks that this report exposes," she said.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Sunday the report was without evidence and the authors had not given the accused a chance to respond.

Center for Social Development Director Seng Theary called the government ban a violation of free expression and "against the line of thought of democracy."

"In democracy we give freedom in writing reports, doing research, having all kinds of opinions in society," she said. "We believe that, when we have an opinion, an idea, they are not wide open. Therefore we want to have competition in expressing ideas and opinions, so there would be all kinds of information in society, so that the people can decide and choose, to see if those ideas are correct."

US Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle said Sunday the US supported the Global Witness report and encouraged the government to find solutions to corruption in logging.

Khieu Kanharith told the Cambodia Daily on Sunday the report was meant to incite political problems and was the work of a group disgruntled by its broken relationship with the government. Global Witness was fired as the official forestry monitor of the government in 2003, and closed its office in 2005, when some international staff were banned from the country, the spokeswoman said. The group continued investigating without announcing its presence, she said.

"The report is a rigorous piece of research, which Global Witness has done over a number of years, into illegal logging in the forest sector," the spokeswoman said. "We have attempted to report in an impartial manner on those who are involved in the industry. It just so happens that those who are closely involved in illegal logging in Cambodia at this present moment in time are closely linked to the prime minister, the minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the director of the Forestry Administration."

The report came from numerous interviews with people closely involved in the illegal trade, she said, and the group gave each individual in the report a chance to respond.

"We have written letters to all those people named in the report, giving them the opportunity to answer questions and put across their point of view in regards to the content of the report," she said.

The report names Prime Minister Hun Sen, wife Bun Rany, and cousin Hun Chouch as complicit in forest crimes, as well as Hun Chouch's ex-wife, Seng Keang, and business partner Khun Thong.

The report also indicts Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun and Forest Administration Director Ty Sokhun, among other high-ranking officials and powerful businessmen. The report also blamed international donors for failing to use the leverage their foreign aid gives them to help preserve Cambodia's fast-dwindling forests.