Rights group urges donors to get tough with Cambodia

Jun 16, 2007
DPA

"The five billion dollars in aid ploughed into Cambodia in the past decade has yielded little in return for the donors or the Cambodian people" - Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch Asia director

Phnom Penh - A New York-based human rights group Saturday urged international donors to make the Cambodian government more accountable for the way it uses aid, citing the recent banning of a logging report in the lead-up to a vital donor meeting next week.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the statement ahead of a Consultative Group (CG) meeting of international donors scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, during which it said donors are expected to pledge more than 600 million dollars to the aid-dependent country.

HRW said the banning of a recent report on illegal logging by London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness which claimed to link high ranking government officials and their families to the illegal trade had made a mockery of the Cambodian government's claims of commitment to human rights.

Cambodia sacked Global Witness as its independent forestry watchdog in 2003 and later banned it from the country. It has strongly denied the allegations made against it in the report, claiming the document is revenge in retaliation for the group's sacking.

Some individuals named in the report have threatened legal action and Cambodia has asked the group's donors to curb its funding.

Human Rights Watch urged Cambodia's international donors to 'not accept any more empty promises' from the Cambodian government on human rights, the rule of law and good governance. It said human rights violations went unpunished, corruption was rampant and 'natural resources are still being plundered.'

'The five billion dollars in aid ploughed into Cambodia in the past decade has yielded little in return for the donors or the Cambodian people,' HRW Asia director Brad Adams said in the statement.

'The meeting has become an empty annual ritual, with the government making and breaking promises every year. There will be more promises made this year, but without serious donor pressure they, too, will be broken.

'The government's reaction to the Global Witness report shows its lack of commitment to freedom of expression and public debate,' Adams said.

The consultative group comprises 18 key donors to Cambodia including Germany, Japan and South Korea, and the Asian Development Bank, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.

Adams charged that Prime Minister Hun Sen 'continues to run circles around the donors, making the same empty promises every year and laughing all the way to the bank.'

The Cambodian government has been scathing of HRW allegations and demands in the past, accusing the group of harbouring a political agenda and of refusing to acknowledge its efforts at ongoing reforms.