Hun Sen fires forestry director

Ty Sokun (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Wednesday, 07 April 2010
Cheang Sokha and Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen announced Tuesday that Ty Sokun, director of the Forestry Administration, has been removed from his post for failing to successfully crack down on illegal logging.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), the premier said Ty Sokun had taken insufficiently swift action against logging offenders across the Kingdom.

“I think Ty Sokun has no more ability to resolve this issue. I’m beginning to despair ... [so] it is time to remove,” Hun Sen told an audience of several hundred government officials.

“If he is not removed, Ty Sokun would work until he died and still not resolve this problem. Ty Sokun, don’t feel disappointed – consider this a life lesson and try to work harder,” Hun Sen added.

Ty Sokun will be moved to the position of undersecretary of state at the MAFF, Hun Sen said, replaced as Forestry Administration director by his current deputy, Cheng Kimsun.

Ty Sokun said Tuesday that the chances for success in his former position had been limited, and that many illegal loggers have connections to rich men and high-ranking officials who threaten forestry officers.

“I am proud to have been given a new position by the prime minister, and I will make an effort to work harder to combat forest crime and illegal fishing and to support law enforcement,” he said.

Cheng Kimsun, the former deputy director of the Forestry Administration, said he was “surprised” by his promotion, and pledged to continue the fight against illegal logging.

“My first job is to continue to combat illegal logging and find and arrest the perpetrators who are receiving bribes from the illegal loggers,” Cheng Kimsun said.

Cheng Kimsun will face the possibility of punishment and jail if he, too, performs inadequately, Hun Sen said Tuesday.

Ty Sokun was implicated in Family Trees, a 2007 report on the logging trade by the watchdog group Global Witness, which said that under his leadership, the Forestry Administration “played a key role in facilitating ... illegal logging and other criminal activities”.

“There is substantial evidence that [Minister of Agriculture] Chan Sarun and Ty Sokun have illegally sold 500 or more jobs in the Forest Administration,” the report stated, estimating that Ty Sokun had made hundreds of thousands of dollars from bribes paid to him.

Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, said the sacking of Ty Sokun “comes as a bit of a surprise”, though he noted that it is of a piece with the government’s recent efforts to publicly crack down on illegal logging. Hun Sen issued a directive in January calling on government agencies to step up their efforts against the illicit timber trade, referring to its practitioners last month as “national traitors”.

“I think the prime minister is really waking up to this issue and realising he must tackle this problem in Cambodia,” Hang Chhaya said, though he added that Ty Sokun “should not be used as a scapegoat for the whole issue”.

“It’s systematic in the way these things operate,” Hang Chhaya said.

In his speech, Hun Sen warned that government officials who attempt to flee warrants for their arrest could face life imprisonment.

“You cannot hide or escape anymore,” Hun Sen said.

Ty Sokun said last week that since Hun Sen’s January directive, government officials had conducted more than 100 raids and collected more than 3,000 cubic metres of timber. He said that prosecutions are pending against more than 100 government officials and businessmen involved in the illegal logging trade, though military police spokesman Kheng Tito said Tuesday that only 14 people had been arrested as a result of the crackdown as of the end of March.

Three forestry officials were arrested in Pursat province last week for allegedly transporting lumber illegally into Koh Kong province, and four forestry officials in Kampong Cham province were questioned last Thursday in connection with a similar case.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KHOUTH SOPHAK CHAKRYA AND JAMES O’TOOLE

It took Hun Xen almost 3 years since the GW report before sacking Ty Sokhun? How about Hun Xen's relatives?

Ty Sokhun

On Tuesday, June 5, 2007, Everyday.com.kh posted the following report on Ty Sokhun:
"Ty Sokhun, the Director General of the Forestry Administration, who was named in Global Witness (GW) report as being one of the persons involved in illegal logging, had angrily reacted by calling Global Witness’ staff as ‘crazy people.’ Ty Sokhun recognizes that Khun Thong, who is also named by Global Witness, is indeed his father-in-law, but Ty Sokhun said that Khun Thong and his other relatives are not involved in illegal logging. Ty Sokhun told The Cambodia Daily on Monday that Global Witness produced lies in all the pages of its report, and he said that Global Witness issued this report only to attract attention and to obtain financial gain. He said that Global Witness report is laughable."

Hun Sen Sacks Top Forestry Official

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 April 2010

Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly fired the head of the government’s forestry administration Tuesday, claiming the official proved unable to stop rampant illegal logging in the country.

Ty Sokhun was “no longer capable” of settling the deforestation issue, Hun Sen said in a speech broadcast nationwide from the annual meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the forestry department.

Hun Sen said Tuesday Ty Sokhun had made “grave mistakes” as head of the forestry administration.

The government is currently in the middle of a crackdown on illegal logging, but environmentalists say the sweep has been too little and too late in coming.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Tuesday authorities were working to “clear out” officials involved in deforestation.

“The action will be taken nationwide,” he said. “If not we cannot resolve [illegal logging].”

In a 2007 report, the environmental watchdog Global Witness singled out Ty Sokhun and other forestry and agriculture officials, as it accused the country’s elites, many of them close to Hun Sen, of exploiting timber resources.

The country lost as much as $2 billion in timber resources between 1993 and 2001, the group said, in report that was later banned by the government.

Meanwhile, the crackdown continues. Chhum Socheat, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, which is heading the campaign, said military forces would first sweep border areas near Thailand and Vietnam, seeking to arrest criminal organizers.

More Than Half Original Forest Remains ... in Ty Sokhun corrupt forestry department's dreamland

Chea Sam Ang, deputy director of Forestry Administration.

More Than Half Original Forest Remains: Official

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
27 February 2009

Cambodia has lost about 13 percent of its forest cover since the onset of the Khmer Rouge regime, with only about 60 percent of original forest remaining, a forestry official said Thursday.

“Based on a 2006 evaluation, there is 59 percent of the forest remaining, compared to 1970, when there was 73 percent,” said Chea Sam Ang, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture’s forestry administration, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

The decline of the forest was from the growth of the population, he said, denying allegations of destruction of the forest and wildlife. Some wildlife thought extinct had even been found, he said.

Meanwhile, heavy fines and imprisonment of five to 10 years await illegal hunters and wildlife traffickers, he said. Preservation of wildlife needed the participation of the people, he said.

Chea Sam Ang applauded the government’s policy on forestry, despite worries from critics about deforestation.

“Hello VOA” callers said they had seen enough government preservation efforts in their areas, especially the provinces of Banteay Meanchey, Kratie and Ratanakkiri, where wildlife killed daily.

Ty Sokhun, one of the man pointed out by Global Witness for illegal logging, is involved in forest protection program: Travesty at work?

Ty Sokhun, one of the person pointed out by Global Witness for his involvement in illegal logging in Cambodia (Photo: Global Witness)

Cambodia to increase forest protection

Moscow. Jan 23, 2009. (Lesprom.com). The Forestry Administration of Cambodia is preparing a program with the aim of stopping decimating of the country’s forests. The program is planned to be launched in September, informed Lesprom Network according o the Xinhua’s news.

“The program would prioritize the use of law enforcement to crack down on illegal loggers, the identification and demarcation of forest areas, increased community participation in forest conservation, and investment in research projects related to the country's forests”, said Ty Sokhun, director of the administration.

Cambodia aims to roll out forest preservation program [-Can the govt be trusted to maintain such program?]

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Forestry Administration of Cambodia hopes to implement by September a program designed to prevent development projects from decimating Cambodia's forests, national media reported Thursday.

The program would prioritize the use of law enforcement to crack down on illegal loggers, the identification and demarcation of forest areas, increased community participation in forest conservation, and investment in research projects related to the country's forests, Ty Sokhun, director of the administration, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

Currently, the administration has completed 30 percent of a draft document detailing the program, Ty Sokhun said, adding that they hope to hold forums for public discussion of the program in May and to implement it in September.

"We strongly believe that this program will not only make forests in Cambodia more abundant but also improve the lives of people living in rural communities and reduce poverty throughout the country," he said.

Meanwhile, Keng Pou, a member of the Phnong minority group living in Ratanakkiri province, called for the government to assist local efforts to encourage forest preservation.

"We need the government to encourage us, and support and protect us when we are fighting against illegal loggers," he told the Post.

He said some members of his village have sustained serious injuries while fighting off illegal loggers.

Kun Kim Said Behind Timber Smuggled in Boats Towing Dragon-Boats to Phnom Penh

Left to Right: 4-star General Kun Kim, Chan Sarun, and Touch Naroth

23 Nov 07
By Savery
Sralanh Khmer
Translated from Khmer and posted online

The crime of transporting good quality timber from the provinces to timber depots in Phnom Penh takes place everyday before this timber is smuggled out of the country and sold in Vietnam, China, and a number of other foreign black markets. The timber transporting traders claim that they enjoy the backing of the wives of high-ranked government officials, police or army generals, or relatives of Prime Minister Hun Sen, as well as senior officials in the Agriculture Ministry.

During the recent Water and Moon Festivals this year some of the large motorboats that towed the dragon-boats for the race in Phnom Penh hid luxury wood in their hulls with some of them reportedly smuggling hundreds of cubic meters of high-priced timber in this manner. In the timber shipment via the motorboats towing the dragon-boats to Phnom Penh this time some timber merchants claimed that four-star General Kun Kim, deputy supreme commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and one of the officials closest to Prime Minister Hun Sen, was the main share holder in their business.

Sources said that there were about 10 motorboats towing the dragon-boats to Phnom Penh and each of them carried hundreds of cubic meters of luxury wood arranged at the bottom of the hulls with tree saplings placed atop. The dragon-boat rowers were arranged to sit atop the tree saplings in a bid to deter inspection by the authorities. The sources said that these timber carrying motorboats moored in Tonle Sap River off Phsa Toch Market close to the Caltex gas station. Both the Economic Police [EP] officers and Forest Administration [FA] officials were said to be afraid to search the boats. In fact, they were afraid not of the power of Kun Kim but of the power of the timber traders' dollars.

A Phnom Penh FA official told Sralanh Khmer that in the night of 21 November 2007 a few FA officials and EP officers drove cars and piloted outboards to negotiate with and take bribes from the tycoons behind the shipment of sawn timber in motorboats from Kampong Cham and Kracheh provinces that were at anchor off Phsa Toch Market. When the local police officers came to question and inspect the boats, the timber traders told the workers who were unloading the timber to tell the police that Kun Kim had shares in their stocks.

The sources said that one of the timber smuggling motorboats that night was named Vatthanak-Sambat. Another motorboat mooring nearby, named Chey Chumneah II, was also suspected of transporting good quality wood. However, the names of the other motorboats in that area were covered up with pieces of cloth.

A witness of this incident said that before 9:00 PM in the night of 21 November outboards of the FA officials and those of the EP officers were seen racing behind these 10 motorboats that were towing the dragon-boats. Three large motorboats suspected of transporting hundreds of cubic meters of wood (in each boat) left the Phsa Toch Market mooring place and sailed to drop anchor at another place in Prek Phneou. It was suspected that these boats were taking their shipments of timber to a timber depot belonging to a businesswoman named Chae Moy.

The sources said that this wood smuggling incident was also reported to Phnom Penh Police Commissioner Touch Naroth, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun, FA Director-General Ty Sokhun, and the EP bureau head and deputy heads. But these men did not dare to stop the boats. They instead sent representatives to negotiate with the timber merchants. After pocketing the bribes, they just let them go, presuming that Kun Kim was behind these shipments of timber to Phnom Penh.

The sources said that luxury wood transported by motorboat, car, and train come to Phnom Penh everyday with the merchants who are waiting to buy the timber ready to pay off the EP officers and FA officials each time a shipment reaches Phnom Penh. However, if the timber smugglers fail to pay the bribes their shipments would be immediately sequestered. No matter where the smuggled timber is hidden, the EP and FA know about it. And each time there is an arrest and confiscation the media would be invited to take pictures and telecast the captured goods with these officials and officers acting as if they have just made a big score in suppressing forest crime. In reality, this usually follows the failure in the negotiation to extort bribes from the timber traders.

Sralanh Khmer yesterday was unable to contact General Kun Kim and many other figures involved for clarification on these criminal shipments of luxury wood through motorboats towing dragon-boats from the provinces that were moored off Phsa Toch Market in the night of 21 November.

It should be noted that a number of local newspaper reporters were beaten up by unidentified persons and powerful officials and some of them were given death threats in Pursat province just because they took pictures of cars transporting timber and published news about the illegal logging and timber transporting in Pursat. Concerning these warnings and persecutions, the authorities have never discovered and arrested any criminals behind them.

5 containers of precious wood seized in Sihanoukville

Ty Sokhun, director of the forestry department and one of the person implicated in illegal logging by Global Witness (Photo: Global Witness)

11 September 2007
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Sihanoukville authority seized 5 containers of precious wood at the Sihanoukville port while they were waiting to be shipped overseas.

According to preliminary information, the Sihanoukville customs authority already seized the containers and the authority still continues to look into the people involved in the shipping.

Say Hak, the governor of Sihanoukville, told RFA on Tuesday that the containers were seized, however, he is still waiting for a detailed report from the customs authority.

Say Hak said: “I saw it, I am asking them to provide a detailed report. Earlier the 5 containers were arrested. They (exporters) had all the legal papers, they have all the export documents, that’s the story. That’s all I have.”

A source indicated that the several hundreds of cubic meters of precious woods in the containers are worth several tens of thousands of dollars.

Pen Siman, the director of the customs department, and Ty Sokhun, the director of the forestry department, cannot be reached on Tuesday about this issue. No source is willing to provide actual information on this issue.

SRP MP Son Chhay said: “We heard about this issue, we can see that the prevention of the export (of woods) is not effective. Large quantity of export still takes place in corridors along the Vietnamese border. The exports are now done at the seaport also. We, just like all citizens, want the authority and the government to work efficiently, the laissez-faire in the illegal logging, and the continued export (of woods) in this manner, will create a complete destruction of our forests within the next 2 to 3 years, just as the forest experts predicted.”

Illegal logging and illegal wood trading still constitute a main attention for the Cambodian public and for the forest protection communities in Cambodia. The Cambodian public and the forest protection organizations are constantly demanding a stop on illegal logging, and the illegal wood trade in Cambodia.

In November 2006, the Cambodian court sentenced 15 people to 7 to 17-year of jail time, accusing them of corruption, illegal logging, and the destruction of the Virachey national park located in the Dragon Tail area in Ratanakiri province, in Cambodia’s northeast, between 2003 and 2004.

Bye, Bye, USA ... for Hun Sen and cronies involved in illegal logging?

The United States Capitol in Washington, DC. US senators want to ban Cambodian officials tied to illegal logging from entering the United States.(AFP/File/Karen Bleier)

Thu Jul 19, 2007
US senators seek travel ban for Cambodians tied to illegal logging

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - US senators want to ban Cambodian officials tied to illegal logging from entering the United States.

The move was sparked by a recent report from the forestry watchdog Global Witness, which accuses top officials, including relatives of Prime Minister Hun Sen, of stripping the country's timber.

The Senate appropriations committee, in a document dated July 10, has urged US President George W. Bush to exercise Presidential Proclamation 7750, "to prohibit corrupt Cambodian officials identified in the June 2007 Global Witness report... from entering the United States."

The proclamation, signed by Bush in 2004, allows Washington to prevent foreigners "engaged in or benefiting from corruption" from entering the US.

"The committee encourages other countries, particularly in Europe and Asia, to implement similar restrictions," said the Senate document, which was seen by AFP Thursday.

The document, which contains proposals for all foreign operations, helps determine US foreign aid for the coming year.

"This US Congress bill sends a clear message to corrupt governments around the world that stripping a nation's natural resources for personal gain is no longer internationally acceptable," said Global Witness Director Simon Taylor.

"It is now up to all other donor countries that profess an interest in the welfare of the Cambodian people to impose their own sanctions on those kleptocrats who are destroying Cambodia's prospects for sustainable development."

London-based Global Witness's caustic report, titled "Cambodia's Family Trees," accused a "kleptocratic" elite of looting Cambodia's forests.

It named several figures close to Hun Sen, including Forest Administration Director General Ty Sokhun and Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun, as being directly involved.

In response, an outraged government banned the Global Witness report from Cambodia and continues to dismiss its allegations.

Chan Sarun was quoted by local media Thursday as saying the US would not be so stupid as to ban Cambodian officials because Global Witness's accusations were "groundless."

The US embassy in Cambodia acknowledges that illegal logging remains a problem but has defended the government, saying many officials are working to stop this activity.

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.

Ty Sokhun calls GW “crazy” – Hun Neng said he will beat up GW staff until their heads split should they visit Cambodia

Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Ty Sokhun, the Director General of the Forestry Administration, who was named in Global Witness (GW) report as being one of the persons involved in illegal logging, had angrily reacted by calling Global Witness’ staff as ‘crazy people.’ Ty Sokhun recognizes that Khun Thong, who is also named by Global Witness, is indeed his father-in-law, but Ty Sokhun said that Khun Thong and his other relatives are not involved in illegal logging. Ty Sokhun told The Cambodia Daily on Monday that Global Witness produced lies in all the pages of its report, and he said that Global Witness issued this report only to attract attention and to obtain financial gain. He said that Global Witness report is laughable.

Hun Neng, the Kompong Cham provincial governor and Hun Sen’s older brother, also reacted angrily by saying that he is thinking about legal means to deal with Global Witness which accused Leang Vuoch Chheng, his wife, and Hun To, his son, of involvement in illegal logging also. Hun Neng said that if Global Witness staff comes to Cambodia, he will beat them up until their heads split.

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.