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Cambodian government’s reactions to the statement of Global Witness

Radio Free Asia
By Huy Vannak
27th November, 2008
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

Cambodian government officials and parliamentarians on Thursday have criticised the recent statement of Global Witness by saying that it is a political and a vindictive statement.

The swift reactions from the Cambodian officials happened after the London-based Global Witness has launched an attack on the Cambodian government on Wednesday which urged the donor countries to pressure the government to stop granting the oil and mineral concessions until the Cambodian parliament has ratified the investment laws regarding these two resources.

But a government spokesman and Minister of Information, Mr. Khieu Kanharith (pictured), criticised the Global Witness report. He said: “They (Global Witness) always take an anti-government position because they have deviated from their original policy and turned themselves into a political party that is anti-government. This is so because we have cancelled their contract as a forestry monitor for us. So since then, they hated us and were angry with us until now. So, what Global Witness had said is nothing new. But we have seen and the donor countries have seen what we have achieved are better than Global Witness’s which has no offices in Cambodia but only made a political statement.”

Mr. Cheam Yeap, a parliamentarian from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has also criticised the Global Witness report. He said: “Global Witness which is based in London does not love Khmer more than the Khmer people. So, what they (Global Witness) has raised are for the purpose of supporting the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. Whenever the donor countries meet to provide aid to us, they (Global Witness) always come to create obstacle in order to stop them from giving aid to Cambodia.”

In the last few years, Global Witness has always released its report at the same time when the donor countries meet to provide aid to Cambodia which this year Cambodian planned to request around $US500 million in pledges.

Before the Donor Summit last year, Global Witness has released its damning report on Cambodia’s deforestation titled “Family Tree of the Kleptocratic Elites”. In the new report the same Global Witness has criticised that the governance in Cambodia is still very weak.

Please note that, from 2010 Cambodia is expected to extract oils and gases which are expected to amount to between 400-700 million barrels.//

Telling the truth about "officials and Hun Sen's relatives corrupt activities" could earn Sam Rainsy a pay cut: Justice-a-la-CPP

Election body seeks Cambodian opposition leader's pay cut

October 30, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

Cambodia's National Election Committee has requested that parliament cut off lawmaker Sam Rainsy's salary, after the opposition leader failed to pay a fine for insulting leaders of the ruling Cambodian People's Party during this year's national election campaign.

The Phnom Penh Post says that in a letter to Assembly president Heng Samrin, the NEC said Sam Rainsy had yet to be punished for violating electoral law during campaigning.

The fine resulted from speeches given by Sam Rainsy referring to a report by the environmental watchdog Global Witness on illegal logging.

This Post says it implicated a number of high-ranking officials and relatives of Prime Minister Hun Sen in corrupt activities.

The report, titled Cambodia's Family Trees, was banned in Cambodia following its publication in January 2007.

Sam Rainsy fined US$2,500 for Global Witness claim [by the CPP-controlled Constitutional Council of Cambodia]

Thursday, 07 August 2008
The Mekong Times

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC) on Monday upheld the National Election Committee (NEC)’s decision to fine Sam Rainsy 10 million riel (US$2,500) for jibes he made against the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) during the election campaign.

The fine was initiated by the Kompong Cham provincial election committee after a speech Sam Rainsy made in the province referenced the controversial Global Witness report “Cambodia’s Family Trees.”

The report alleges that the members of the nation’s leadership are implicated in illegal logging.

The complaint was filed against Sam Rainsy by Benson Samay and Kea Eav, who are lawyers for the CPP. Both lawyers disagreed with the CCC decision, claiming that the fine was too small, and asked that the NEC scrap Sam Rainsy’s name from the nation’s list of political candidates.

Yim Sovann, a lawmaker for the Sam Rainsy Party, said he was not surprised by the decision, claiming that the nation’s institutions “claiming to be democratic are in fact all governed by the CPP.”

Global Witness: While Hun Neng's hammer fails to crack nut, Hor Nam Bora calls for "regime change" at Global Witness

Cambodia Calls for Regime Change at Global Witness

Thu., Feb. 10, 2008
Global Witness

Cambodian Hammer fails to crack nut - Cambodian Embassy in London calls for regime change at Global Witness

Following Global Witness’ recommendation that new World Bank President Robert Zoellick take advantage of his recent trip to Cambodia by calling for a credible investigation into evidence of an illegal logging network surrounding the Cambodian Prime Minister and other senior officials (exposed in Global Witness’ June 2007 report ‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’), the Cambodian government, increasingly desperate to defend their already tarnished public image, has issued a press release demanding a change in Global Witness’ leadership and a call to the organisation’s donors to cut funding.

The August 5 press release describes Global Witness’ request to Mr Zoellick as both “amusing and disturbing” and urges funders to “review the credibility and ill-intention of Global Witness Director,” adding “his discriminatory nature may be ill suited to lead Global Witness in the current situation and the future.”

“Cambodia’s Family Trees is based on several years of rigorous investigations into Cambodia’s forest sector and offers an in-depth exposé of illegal logging, kidnapping and attempted murder by relatives of the prime minister and other senior officials. I fail to see why calling for a credible investigation into these findings is either amusing or disturbing,” said Global Witness Director, Simon Taylor. “This latest announcement from the Cambodian Embassy is symptomatic of the government’s reluctance to deal with the facts presented in our report. Attempts to suppress our activities will not make these very real issues of governance and natural resource mismanagement disappear,” he said, adding “Either respond to our calls for an investigation to prove impunity in Cambodia does not exist, or stop complaining.”

“It’s also worth noting that the Cambodian government are happy to benefit from the freedom of the press here in the UK, whilst our report is banned in Cambodia and the prime minister’s brother is reported to have threatened Global Witness staff with violence,” said Taylor.

The press release highlighted economic growth over the past decade in Cambodia and improvements in the investment climate. Yet last month a World Bank survey of corruption in 207 countries ranked Cambodia in the bottom ten percent, as did the 2006 Transparency International "corruption perceptions index". The Cambodian government is still repaying millions of dollars siphoned off in a graft scandal that forced the Bank to temporarily suspend three key aid projects last year. Meanwhile, an estimated 35% of the Cambodian population continues to live in poverty.

“Quoting economic growth rates is meaningless if the vast proportion of state assets are under the control of an unaccountable elite,” said Taylor. “Changing the status quo will necessitate addressing the rampant corruption which allows a small group of individuals to profit from the exploitation of Cambodia’s natural resources at the expense of the country’s poor. There must be an effective judicial investigation into our report’s findings and the international donor community must insist that this happens.”

Ends

Notes:

(1) Global Witness exposes the corrupt exploitation of natural resources and international trade systems, to drive campaigns that end impunity, resource-linked conflict, and human rights and environmental abuses. Global Witness was co-nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for its leading work on ‘conflict diamonds' and awarded the Gleitsman Foundation prize for international activism in 2005. For more information see
http://www.globalwitness.org
(2) For more information on World Bank governance indicators, see
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/home.htm
(3) The report ‘Cambodia's Family Trees' can be downloaded from
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/546/en/cambodias_family_trees
(4) For further information on Transparency International’s “corruption perceptions index” visit
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2006
(5) For more information on poverty in Cambodia visit
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTCAMBODIA/Resources/293755-1181597206916/E&D_execsummary.pdf
(5) References to the threat from the prime minister’s brother are drawn from an article by Douglas Gillison and Yun Samean, published in the Cambodia Daily on June 5 2007. In it, the prime minister's brother and Kompong Cham provincial governor Hun Neng is quoted as saying: "If they (Global Witness staff) come to Cambodia, I will hit them until their heads are broken."
(6) The press release issued by the Cambodian Embassy can be found at:
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/566/en/global_witness_must_stop_activities_and_defamation_to_discredit_the_image_of_the_royal_government_of_cambodia_from_now_and_for_good

Retalation from the family of "the Nation thieves" against alleged Global Witness "plot"

Government Assails Global Witness ‘Plot’

By Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
06 February 2008

The Cambodian government accused resources monitor Global Witness of plotting to discredit the government Monday, following reports the US is considering a ban on corrupt officials.

In a release issued Monday, the Cambodian Embassy in London said the UK-based organization deliberately sought “to discredit and plot against the government.”

The statement follows a potential US visa ban on corrupt officials in foreign countries who benefit from the exploitation of natural resources.

US Congress has recommended the State Department specifically consider a 2007 Global Witness report linking more than a dozen top officials and businessmen to Prime Minister Hun Sen and his family.

The Cambodian Embassy Monday called for international regulations and guidelines for Global Witness, calling its leadership “uneducated.”

Cambodia has seen “remarkable progress,” the embassy said, citing a number of high-level visits from US and European officials.

Global Witness Director Simon Taylor told VOA Khmer Wednesday the embassy statement “indicates how far Cambodia needs to come to understand what this issue is about.”

“Annually they promise, annually they fail to deliver, and annually the donors fail to respond to the problem adequately,” he said.

In the past decade, corrupt Cambodian elites “have presided over the destruction of the forestry estate,” Taylor said.

Meanwhile, Cambodians “absolutely desperate to get it right” are “thwarted by the people around them.”

With offshore oil exploration on the horizon, “crunch time is coming” to address corruption, he said.

Congrats Global Witness for award on investigations in Cambodia

Global Witness Awarded for Investigations

By Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
01 February 2008

The international monitoring group Global Witness was given a development award in Washington Thursday, for its investigations into resource exploitation in countries like Angola, Burma, Cambodia and Liberia.

Global Witness received the Commitment to Development Ideas in Action Award, given each year by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for Global Development.

Global Witness was selected because its founders “managed to change the world in fantastic ways,” Moises Naim, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine, said at the awards ceremony.

Global Witness started with three individuals seeking to end the timber trade along the Thai-Cambodia border in the early 1990s, which was funding both the Khmer Rouge and the government as they fought, said Patrick Alley, a founder of the group.

Corrupt Cambodian officials continue to reap benefits from an illegal timber trade, Global Witness says.

In its 2007 report, “Cambodia’s Family Trees,” the group singled out more than a dozen officials with close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen who profit from the trade.

Global Witness is now working with the US government to have those officials added to a State Department ban from US entry, said Global Witness founding director Simon Taylor.

US Could Ban ‘Kleptocrats’ From Entry

By Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
23 January 2008

Click to listen to Heng Reaksmey reports in Khmer

Top Cambodian officials implicated in illegal logging could face a ban from US entry, according to a new US law.

Under a recently inacted 2008 spending law, the State Department must compile a list of foreign government officials and their immediate family members suspected of involvement in corruption in natural resources depletion.

Any name the on the “anti-kleptocracy” list will not be granted entry into the US, with exceptions for UN meetings or law enforcement requirements, according to the law.

“If it now it becomes hard to, you know, go and stay in your nice house in Manhattan or wherever you happen to have it, then too bad,” said Simon Taylor, director of the resource monitor Global Witness.

A 2007 Global Witness report, “Cambodia’s Family Trees,” names a number of high-level officials and family members as part of countrywide illegal logging rackets.

Congress has urged the State Department to consider the report when making its list of Cambodian officials.

A State Department spokesman said Wednesday the US “takes all allegations of corruption seriously.”

The US “shares many of the concerns” raised by the Global Witness report and is “reviewing all relevant information” to compile its list, the spokesman said.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Congress was seeking to ban Cambodian officials as a way to attract votes ahead of a presidential election and said the move to ban corrupt officials was not a “presidential decree.”

In fact, Congressional elections are not held this year, and the US does not run on a decree system.

The potential ban was welcomed by some conservationists in Cambodia.

“It is right for the United States to deny entry visas for those violating international law, because logging is an important issue,” said Hieng Rith, director of the Cambodia National Research Organization. “When all the trees are logged, there will be no rain. By definition it’s just like destruction against humanity, as humans will die if there is no rain.”

The Global Witness report, issued in June 2007, angered Cambodian officials and was immediately banned across the country.

It said Cambodia’s forests were being stripped clean by a network of Cambodian elite that generated its wealth from the seizure of public assets, including wide swaths of forests.

Officially ejected from the country in 2006, Global Witness spent years investigating the networks of illegal logging.

The report implicates more than a dozen officials, including Forestry Minister Chan Sarun, Forestry Administration Director Ty Sokhun and military officers of the elite military Brigade 70, which Global Witness called a “private army” of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The officials have denied wrongdoing in the past, and were unavailable for further comment Wednesday.

All of them are part of a circle of kleptocrats and cronies surrounding Hun Sen, Taylor said.

“Either he’s looking the other way, because they’re too close, which doesn’t say much for his authority, or he’s part of the problem,” Taylor said.

Global Witness was “disappointed” that language in the bill was removed that would have banned US companies from doing business with listed kleptocrats, but Taylor said the group would continue to push for stronger language in the future.

“Here we are in Cambodia ten years down, we’ve had a decade worth of billions of dollars of delivery, and very little delivery, I think, beyond personal wealth expansion in Phnom Penh and a few other centers," he said. "And meanwhile, the average lot of the average Cambodian hasn’t gone up that much, and the assets of the state have been stolen and parked offshore.”

For more information, see the Global Witness report, and the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

US could ban travel for Cambodians tied to illegal logging

Cambodia intricate family trees of the thieves of the Nation (Global Witness)
Click to zoom in

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The US has passed a law that could see travel bans for Cambodian officials accused of looting the country's natural resources, a move hailed Wednesday by conservationists as a strike against illegal logging.

The law, enacted in December, endorses calls by the US Congress to deny visas to Cambodian officials identified in a 2007 report by the environmental watchdog Global Witness as being guilty of plundering Cambodia's forests.

London-based Global Witness's caustic study, titled "Cambodia's Family Trees," accused a "kleptocratic" elite of systematically clearing Cambodia's woodlands.

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

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

A Cambodian government spokesman could not be reached Wednesday for comment on the US legislation.

But the law "sends a clear message that the exploitation of Cambodia's natural resources by a small group of powerful individuals at the expense of the country's poor is unacceptable," Global Witness director Simon Taylor said in a statement received Wednesday.

The legislation, which authorises spending by Washington, instructs the US State Department to identify foreign officials, and their relatives, who are believed to have "been involved in corruption relating to the extraction of natural resources in their countries."

It also endorses a congressional subcommittee recommendation to "prohibit corrupt Cambodian officials identified in the June 2007 Global Witness report ... from entering the United States."

But it is unclear if the law will result in visa refusals for individual Cambodians.

US embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle told AFP that "there is no ban ... no specific names have been given to the embassy."

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.

US to pull the welcome mat from under the feet of corrupt Cambodians named in Global Witness' Cambodia's Family Trees?

Some of the people named in Global Witness report: The dons
(Click to zoom in)

Bill Seeks to Ban Corrupt Cambodians from Entering US

Brian Calvert, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
26 September 2007

The US Congress will request the State Department to deny visas to corrupt Cambodian officials, especially those named in a recent Global Witness report, and will ask for a report on the number of Montagnard asylum seekers in Cambodia, according to an annual bill waiting to become law.

The annual Foreign Operations bill sets out funding for the State Department and other international agencies.

The bill is currently under discussion between members of both houses of US Congress before it will be sent to the president to be signed into law.

The Senate's version of the bill includes a suggestion to the State Department that it restrict corrupt Cambodian officials from entering the US.

Those named in this year's Global Witness report, "Cambodia's Family Trees," should be prohibited entrance, according to a Senate report from the committee in charge of money appropriation.

The Global Witness report, which was banned in Cambodia, accuses a number of top officials with links to Prime Minister Hun Sen and his family of abetting the destruction of Cambodia's forests.

The Senate Appropriations Committee also requested a report from the Secretary of State on the number of Montagnard refugees in Cambodia.

Cambodia has seen a steady influx of Vietnamese hill tribe refugees seeking asylum, and the Senate committee requested a report on them by March 1, 2008.

The committee sought to allocate $57 million in assistance for Cambodia, including $15 million in an economic support fund.

It urged the administration of the president to make clear its support for democracy and human rights.

Download for Cambodia's Family Trees (aka Elitus Kleptocraticus)

The 'modus vivendi'

The "family"

The "Dons"

The "Cosa Nostra"

The "operation"

The above are excerpts from Global Witness publication: "Cambodia's Family Trees". A copy of the report in PDF format can be obtained by right-clicking (and save it to your computer) at the links below:

Khmer Version

Part 1 (2.6 MB)
Part 2 (6.9 MB)

English Version

Low resolution version (5.0 MB)
Medium resolution version (35.2 MB)