Showing posts with label Global Witness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Witness. Show all posts

Friday, June 22, 2012

Global Witness: Government responsible for the murders of activists

លោក​ឈុត វុទ្ធី ​ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​ការពារ​ធនធាន​ធម្មជាតិ​រូបថត៖ The Phnom Penh Post

អង្គការ​ក្លូបល​វិតណេស​ថា​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​ទទួល​ខុសត្រូវ​ការ​សម្លាប់​មនុស្ស

ថ្ងៃព្រហស្បតិ៍, 21 ខែមិថុនា 2012
ដោយ គង់ សុឋានរិទ្ធ វីអូអេ ខ្មែរ | ភ្នំពេញ
«នៅ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា​ជន​រងគ្រោះ​ប្រាំបួន​នាក់​ ក្នុង​ចំណោម​១១​ករណី​ក្នុង​នោះ​ពីរ​ករណី​ត្រូវ​សម្លាប់​ក្នុង​ឆ្នាំ​២០១២ ​បាន​បង្ហាញ​ភស្តុតាង​យ៉ាង​រឹងមាំ​ថា ​ការ​សម្លាប់​ទាំង​នោះ​ត្រូវ​ប្រព្រឹត្ត​ដោយ​មាន​ការ​ជាប់ទាក់ទង​ជាមួយ​ក្រុមហ៊ុន​ និង​រដ្ឋាភិបាល»។
រដ្ឋាភិបាលកម្ពុជា​ និង​ក្រុមហ៊ុនឯកជន​នៅ​កម្ពុជា​ជាប់ទាក់ទង​ក្នុង​ការសម្លាប់​ជនរងគ្រោះ​ក្នុង​ជម្លោះ​ដីធ្លី ​និង​ការការពារ​ព្រៃឈើ។ ​នេះ​បើ​ផ្អែក​តាម​របាយការណ៍​របស់​អង្គការ​ការពារ​បរិស្ថាន​មួយ​របស់​ប្រទេស​អង់គ្លេស ក្លូបលវិតណេសស (Global Witness)។

របាយការណ៍​ដែល​ចេញផ្សាយ​កាល​ពី​ថ្ងៃ​ពុធ​បង្ហាញ​ថា ​ករណី​សម្លាប់​លោក​ឈុត វុទ្ធី ​ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​ការពារ​ធនធាន​ធម្មជាតិ​ដែល​ជា​សកម្មជន​ការពារព្រៃឈើ​កម្ពុជា​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំងក្លា​ស្ថិត​ក្នុង​ចំណោម​នោះ​ដែរ​និង​ការបាញ់​សម្លាប់​កុមារី ​ហេង ចន្ថា​ អាយុ​១៤​ឆ្នាំ ​ក្នុង​បញ្ហា​ដីធ្លី​ក្នុង​ខេត្ត​ក្រចេះ។

របាយការណ៍​ស្តីពី​ជម្លោះ​ដីធ្លី​ និង​ព្រៃឈើ​ក្នុង​ពិភពលោក​បាន​ស្រង់​តួលេខ​ក្នុង​រយៈពេល​ជាង​មួយ​ទសវត្សរ៍​ចុង​ក្រោយ​បញ្ជាក់​ថា «នៅ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា​ជន​រងគ្រោះ​ប្រាំបួន​នាក់​ ក្នុង​ចំណោម​១១​ករណី​ក្នុង​នោះ​ពីរ​ករណី​ត្រូវ​សម្លាប់​ក្នុង​ឆ្នាំ​២០១២ ​បាន​បង្ហាញ​ភស្តុតាង​យ៉ាង​រឹងមាំ​ថា ​ការ​សម្លាប់​ទាំង​នោះ​ត្រូវ​ប្រព្រឹត្ត​ដោយ​មាន​ការ​ជាប់ទាក់ទង​ជាមួយ​ក្រុមហ៊ុន​ និង​រដ្ឋាភិបាល»។

Editorial: Land, forests, and greed

Friday, June 22, 2012
Sun.Star Davao newspaper (Philippine)

THERE is a disturbing survey conducted worldwide where the Philippines (again) is among the many countries where many killings have occurred. This is about killings over land and forests.

"A Hidden Crisis? Increase in killings as tensions rise over land and forests" report by Global Witness ranks the Philippines fourth in reported killings between 2002 to 2011. Brazil has 365, Peru has 123, Columbia has 70, and Philippines has 50. Following the Philippines is Thailand with 20. Twenty-two other countries have ten and below reported killings for the same period. The report was released in time for the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

"Reports of killings carried out by men in uniforms, acting on behalf of private sector interests and/or governments, featured more commonly in Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and the Philippines. It is not possible to put a definitive figure on how many cases involve such actors, because eye witness accounts and monitoring organizations do not (sometimes due to fear of further attack) go into this level of detail," the report reads.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Statement in response to killing of prominent Cambodian forest campaigner Chut Wutty

26th April 2012

Statement in response to killing of prominent Cambodian forest campaigner Chut Wutty

We are shocked and devastated to learn of the killing of Chut Wutty, Director of environmental watchdog Natural Resource Protection Group (NPRG), in Cambodia today. Wutty was reportedly shot by members of the Military Police while engaged in field research into illegal logging and land seizures.

"Chut Wutty was one of the few remaining Cambodian activists willing to speak out against the rapid escalation of illegal logging and land grabbing which is impoverishing ordinary Cambodians and destroying the country's rich natural heritage. The extent of the risks he and other activists face has been laid bare in the most shocking and tragic manner. He will be very sorely missed," said Global Witness Director Patrick Alley. "The national government and international donor countries must publicly condemn his murder and take swift action to bring the perpetrators to justice."

Corruption and violence in Cambodia's forest sector has been well documented over many years. The Cambodian government and international donors have collectively failed to tackle this problem, leaving activists from forest-dependent communities and local civil society groups like Wutty standing up for basic human rights, the environment, and the rule of law on their own.

The work of activists such as Chut Wutty should be publicly celebrated as heroic. Yet the reality in Cambodia is that members of the military, business and political elite, who prey on the country's natural resource wealth for personal profit, view them as a direct threat. As this terrible incident shows, those who take on these vested interests face intimidation and even death.

The dangers faced by individual activists working on land and forest protection have always been severe; Wutty is not the first to be killed, and sadly, may not be the last. But the stakes for Cambodia's people and its environment are now just as high, as forest and land clearance proceeds at a devastating pace.

The world must not stand by and simply watch. Cambodia's international donor partners must prevail upon the government, as a matter of urgency, to open up its notoriously murky natural resource sector and hold the most powerful and violent illegal loggers and land grabbers to account.

Contact:
London: Patrick Alley at +44 7921 788 897; palley@globalwitness.org
Washington DC: Megan MacInnes at + 44 7540 891 837; cambodia@globalwitness.org

Thursday, April 26, 2012

ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​បរិស្ថាន ត្រូវ​ជន​មិន​ស្គាល់មុខ​បាញ់សម្លាប់ នៅ​ថ្មបាំង ខេត្តកោះកុង​

​លោក ឈុត វុទ្ធី ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​ការពារ​ធនធាន​ធម្មជាតិ (Photo: CCHR)
ថ្ងៃទី 26 មេសា 2012
ដោយ: មុនីរ័ត្ន
Cambodia Express News

ភ្នំពេញ: ​លោក ឈុត វុទ្ធី ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​ការពារ​ធនធាន​ធម្មជាតិ ត្រូវបាន​ជន​មិន​ស្គាល់មុខ បាញ់សម្លាប់​នៅ​ចំណុច​ឃុំ​ថ្ម​ដូន​ពៅ ស្រុក​ថ្មបាំង ខេត្តកោះកុង នាវេលា​ម៉ោង ១២ ​ថ្ងៃត្រង់ ថ្ងៃទី​២៦ ខែមេសា ឆ្នាំ​២០១២​។ ក្នុង​ហេតុការណ៍​នោះ មានការ​បាត់​ខ្លួន​អ្នកកាសែត The Cambodia Daily ពីរ​នាក់ (​ម្នាក់​ខ្មែរ​)​។​

​លោក ថុង ណា​រ៉ុង មេបញ្ជាការ​កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ​ខេត្តកោះកុង បាន​ឲ្យ​ដឹងថា “​ចំពោះ​ករណីនេះ ខាង​កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថកំពុងធ្វើការ​អង្កេត ថា​ករណី​បាញ់សម្លាប់​នេះ កើតឡើង​ដោយសារ​អ្វី​? ហើយ​សមត្ថកិច្ច​កំពុងធ្វើការ​សាកសួរ​អ្នក​នៅ​កន្លែងកើតហេតុ​”​។

​ចំពោះ​ព័ត៌មាន​ដែលថា មន្ត្រី​កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ ជា​អ្នកបាញ់​សម្លាប់​ប្រធាន​អង្គការ​បរិស្ថាន ត្រូវបាន​លោក​មេបញ្ជាការបញ្ជាក់ថា “​គឺ​កំពុងតែ​ចាំ​សួរ​អ្នកដែល​នៅ​កន្លែង​កើតហេតុ ទើប​បានដឹង​ច្បាស់​”​។​

​ជាការ​កត់សម្គាល់ លោក ឈុត វុទ្ធី ជា​សកម្មជន​ការពារ​បរិស្ថាន ដែល​ធ្លាប់​ធ្វើការ​ជាមួយនឹង​អង្គការ​ការពារ​បរិស្ថាន Global Witness ចាប់តាំងពី​ទស្សវត្សរ៍​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩០៕​

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Deforestation in Cambodia - Opinion by Reader H. M.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXb2qpFL0KM

In fact, PM Hen Xun failed to stop deforestation in Cambodia. Therefore, he must cut his neck off as he promised, and keep the land for Cambodian people producing the crops, foods, etc... If he doesn't do so .... he'll be a dog.


H. M.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

As the chair of ASEAN for 2012, Cambodia should abide by its legal obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms

Rights groups call for end to forced evictions in Cambodia

Jan 24, 2012
DPA

Phnom Penh - Five international rights groups called Tuesday for Cambodia to end forced land evictions and deemed such action 'a blot on the country's reputation.'

Amnesty International, Witness, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action.

'As the chair of ASEAN for 2012, Cambodia should abide by its legal obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms,' the letter said, referring to the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

'One of the most dangerous places for an ordinary Cambodian to be is living on a piece of land that a rich man and his government cronies want,' said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rights groups urge Cambodia to end mass evictions

Cambodian police walk in line during the eviction of residents at a slum village in the centre of Phnom Penh, on January 4

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
AFP

Five leading human rights groups on Tuesday urged ASEAN chair Cambodia to end all forced evictions in the country and free seven people who were detained after a recent land protest turned violent.

"As the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2012, Cambodia should abide by its legal obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms... and end the practice of forced evictions that is a blot on the country's reputation internationally," the campaigners said in an open letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Cambodia recently took over the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member regional ASEAN bloc.

The signatories of the letter, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Witness, also called for the release, "pending further investigation", of seven residents who were arrested during an eviction of some 300 families from an area in the capital Phnom Penh on January 3.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

PM talks gas and oil with Thai assembly head

Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post
But Global Witness Campaigner George Boden warned earlier this week that if Cambodia did not vastly improve its laws to regulate extractive industries the benefits of those resources would be isolated to the ruling elite. “The Cambodian government has a track record for corruption, and its oil laws are not fit for purpose,” he said in statement.
PRIME Minister Hun Sen held talks with the President of the Thai National Assembly Somsak Kiatsuranont in the capital yesterday, paving the way for the extraction of contested oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Thailand.

Since Yingluck Shinawatra led Pheau Thai party to take power in Thailand in August, efforts to resolve the disputed Overlapping Claims Area have been bolstered by a series of high-profile visits from the new Thai Prime Minister and her brother Thaksin Shinawatra.

Yesterday’s talks between Hun Sen and Somsak focused on restoring diplomatic relations between the neighbours so both Kingdom’s could begin exploiting resources in the 27,000-square-kilometre OCA, the premier’s personal spokesman Eang Sophalleth said.

“God has created Cambodia and Thailand as neighbours and we have joint potential mineral resources [oil and gas],” Eang Sophalleth said Somasak told Hun Sen.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Failure to hold foreign governments to account means that our aid is wasted[: Global Witness' Simon Taylor]

Fonors who are handing over millions of our pounds have the right to ask for minimum standards of transparency.

01 Nov 2010
Letter to The Telegraph (UK)

SIR,

The creed that foreign aid is automatically virtuous is indeed curious (Peter Oborne, Comment, October 29). Aid can, given well, be a life-saver. But, in our experience, this blanket approach to aid-giving has been counterproductive and, in the worst cases, harmful.

We're talking not only about human rights abuses, as reported by Human Rights Watch from Ethiopia, but also the facilitation of large-scale corruption. Corruption is not just about the aid money getting stolen.

In highly corrupt, resource-rich countries such as Cambodia, aid can end up providing basic state services while allowing the incumbent government to use the country's natural resources to fund their own luxurious lifestyles. For many of the poorest countries, natural resources offer the biggest potential for wealth generation. But these resources are finite: once gone, so are those countries' economic futures.

The donor-recipient relationship needs to be more reciprocal, and donors who are handing over millions of our pounds have the right – indeed the responsibility – to ask for minimum standards of transparency over natural resource revenues that will ensure our aid money is not undermined.

Simon Taylor
Director, Global Witness
London EC1

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Global Witness Skeptical of Anti-Corruption Measures



Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Wednesday, 13 October 2010
“The Cambodia government has a track record of pacifying its international aid donors with reformist rhetoric and commitments to transparency, while in fact doing little to change their actual behavior.”
The environmental watchdog Global Witness on Tuesday lambasted the government's recent anti-corruption efforts as unpersuasive and warned donor countries a new law would not attack the problem at senior levels of government.

“This strategy will will not succeed in catching the real villains,” Global Witness representative George Boden said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the recent passage of anti-corruption legislation and the formation of an anti-corruption investigative unit. “This does not represent a break from the well-documented and entrenched patterns of corruption at the highest levels of Cambodia's government, and it should not be welcomed as such.”

The anti-corruption law and Anti-Corruption Unit have been criticized as toothless to attack the pervasive corruption across the government. But government officials have dismissed the criticism and called Global Witness' statement untrue.


Global Witness, which was expelled from the country in 2005 after critical reports of the timber trade, said the ACU was too close to the executive branch of government to effectively prosecute “senior political figures.”

“The threat of defamation against whistleblowers is also likely to deter many from coming forward,” the group said. It also called Om Yentieng, the head of the ACU, “a close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen [who] has links to mining interests.”

“Global Witness has repeatedly documented how senior Cambodian government officials have sold off the rights to the country’s natural resources in dubious deals, against the interests of ordinary Cambodians and the environment,” the group said. “Senior figures close to the prime minister have personally benefited from this wholesale stripping of the country’s assets, and yet very little action has been taken to address this situation.”

“The Cambodia government has a track record of pacifying its international aid donors with reformist rhetoric and commitments to transparency, while in fact doing little to change their actual behavior,” Boden said. “This anti-corruption strategy looks like the latest example of this tactic.”

Keo Remy, a spokesman for the Anti-Corruption Council, a policy body built by the new law, dismissed the statement. Specifically, he said, the law was set up to protect informants.

“The government did not establish this law in vain,” he said. “It was established with the willingness to crack down on corruption.”

Donors, meanwhile, had shown “a lot of support” for the anti-corruption measures, he said, adding that all countries, including Global Witness' UK, have forms of corruption.

“But for Cambodia, we knew this, and we made a law, and the government showed its willingness to prevent and counter it,” Keo Remy said.

New Cambodian anti-corruption plan will not stop high-level offenders

12/10/2010
Press Release
Source: Global Witness

Cambodia's new anti-corruption strategy is a welcome step forward but there are some serious flaws in its design that mean it will fail to tackle corruption at the top of the political elite, warned Global Witness today. The lack of separation between the new Anti-Corruption Unit and the executive is a major weakness that makes prosecution of senior political figures extremely unlikely.

"The need for a credible anti-corruption initiative is clear but as it stands this strategy will not succeed in catching the real villains", said Global Witness campaigner George Boden. "Cambodia's donors should not be fooled: this does not represent a break from the well-documented and entrenched patterns of corruption at the highest levels of Cambodia's government, and it should not be welcomed as such."

Global Witness has repeatedly documented how senior Cambodian government officials have sold off the rights to the country's natural resources in dubious deals, against the interests of ordinary Cambodians and the environment. Senior figures close to the Prime Minister have personally benefitted from this wholesale stripping of the country's assets, and yet very little action has been taken to address this situation.


The new anti-corruption strategy offered an opportunity to form a genuinely independent oversight mechanism. Instead the government has established a body which risks being undermined by undue executive influence. The threat of defamation against whistleblowers is also likely to deter many from coming forward.

The head of the new Anti-Corruption Unit is a close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen and has links to mining interests. The concentration of the unit's decision making powers in this man's hands seriously undermines the chances of there being any real challenge to the behaviour of the prime minister's corrupt cabal of family members, senior businesspeople and government officials and politicians.

In spite of the obvious flaws, Cambodia's international aid donors have said the strategy will ‘play a major role in improving public sector governance' and ‘improve Cambodia's international competitiveness'.

"The Cambodia government has a track record of pacifying its international aid donors with reformist rhetoric and commitments to transparency, while in fact doing little to change their actual behaviour. This anti-corruption strategy looks like the latest example of this tactic," said Boden. "Donors need to get serious about promoting transparency as a central plank of their engagement with the country."

/ Ends

For more information contact George Boden on +44 207 4925899 or Oliver Courtney on +44 207 4925848

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

State must be become transparent

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Eleanor Nichols
Global Witness
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post


Dear Editor,

Steve Finch is right: The Cambodian government must do more to disclose payments made by companies operating within the country’s extractive-industries sector (“Go further with disclosure and embrace EITI, September 10).

The Ministry of Economy and Finance’s recent publication of revenues from the extractive industry for the first half of 2010 is a welcome first step towards improving transparency within a notoriously opaque sector.

However, it remains unclear whether the 112.21 billion-riel payment received in March 2010 corresponds to the US$28 million payment made by French oil company Total in January for rights to offshore Block 3.

The continued uncertainty reiterates the need for the kind of transparency offered by the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative, which if implemented would give public access to such detailed information.

But regardless of how long the Cambodian government takes to endorse the EITI, many of the international petroleum companies currently allocated exploration rights in Cambodia will soon be required to disclose information on all payments they make to the government.

The recently passed United States Financial Reform Bill requires companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose all payments made to foreign governments on a country-by-country basis, as a condition of their stock exchange listing.

Eleanor Nichols
Global Witness

Friday, July 16, 2010

CAMBODIA: Sand dredging prompts fishermen’s protests

Fishermen report a drop in the number of fish in the area (Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN)
Dredgers remove 25,000 metric tonnes of Cambodian sand each day (Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN)

KOH KONG, 15 July 2010 (IRIN) - Fish are the primary source of income for residents of this sleepy, rustic border town in southwestern Cambodia, but when the area’s sand dredging vessels prowl the waters to plough up the riverbed, the fish all but disappear.

“When they were dredging a lot, we stopped bothering to even go out since it was not possible to catch anything,” Dol Sareem, a 60-year-old fisherman, told IRIN. “In those months, we caught half as much fish.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen banned sand exports in May 2009, yet sand mining continues in Koh Kong Province - the epicentre of the country’s corrupt dredging industry - enriching local elites and leaving fishermen to suffer, said international watchdog Global Witness.

There has been a lull in the sand operations since April, but local fishermen including Dol Sareem, who lives in Koh Kong’s main fishing community of dilapidated wooden homes with corrugated tin roofs, became so distressed by the impact of sand dredging that they joined several hundred people to protest in front of the provincial government office last December.

“It has improved since they have not been dredging these last few months but it’s still not like before,” he said.

Fishermen operating along the nearby River Kampot were less restrained in expressing their frustration. In February, they destroyed dredging equipment which they believed was responsible for the collapse of a riverbank.

Law not enforced

Dredging extracts sand below the sea floor, disturbing marine life and, more significantly, the spawning grounds that replenish it.

Dredgers remove 25,000 tons of sand each day from the Cambodian seas to export primarily to Singapore, where it is used for land reclamation, according to a Global Witness report in May.

The group valued a year’s worth of Cambodian sand at US$250 million on the Singapore market.

The report, entitled Shifting Sands, said the industry lacks transparency and government regulation, and could severely damage marine ecosytems essential to the livelihoods of many fishing communities.

“Companies operating in the sand sector as well as Cambodia’s regulatory agencies are ignoring environmental and social safeguards, and international industry best practices,” the report said.

The Cambodian government rejects the report’s findings. Cambodia’s embassy in London released a statement calling Global Witness an “international troublemaker” and describing its report as “malicious and misleading”.

The response by government officials closer to the ground, however, has been contradictory.

Pech Siyon, Koh Kong’s director of the Department of Industry, Energy and Mines, told local media he expected the main dredging company, LYP - named after Ly Yong Phat, the senator with the ruling party who is identified by Global Witness as the leading figure in the industry - would resume export operations in the near future.

Cambodia targeted

Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have placed restrictions on sand exports because of the environmental destruction it causes.

As a result, Global Witness says, Singapore has turned to Cambodia, where laws are lax.

According to Chourn Bunnara, who is based on the Cambodian coast with the NGO Fisheries Action Coalition Team, fishing communities have been largely powerless to raise concerns with the government about dredging vessels violating the ban.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Cambodia promises aid use [-More broken promises?]

Jun 2, 2010
AFP

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA vowed on Wednesday to use international aid effectively and bring reforms after criticism that billions of dollars in donor money has done little to improve the impoverished country.

Opening a two-day meeting between the government, donors and development partners, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the country would continue public administration, land, judicial and financial reforms.

'The royal government has made its utmost efforts to firmly and deeply implement various reform programs and consider them as a life or death issue for Cambodia,' he said. Mr Hun Sen went on to say his government will ensure 'the effective, transparent and accountable utilisation of the development resources provided by development partners.'

But, speaking on behalf of donors, World Bank country director Annette Dixon complained 'progress has been limited' in government work to improve strategic planning and aid management. 'It is important for the government to take the lead in aligning resources to development priorities,' she said.

The World Bank last week began to investigate allegations that mismanagement of its US$28.8 million (S$40.6 milion) land-titling project has left more than 20,000 people facing forced eviction from their homes in the capital Phnom Penh. The programme was created to implement a system of land ownership in Cambodia after the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime destroyed legal documents, but there has been criticism about evictions at the hands of the army and police.

Formal pledges of aid to Cambodia will be announced on Thursday and are expected to reel in over one billion dollars for this year. However, activists have complained of rampant cronyism and corruption. Cambodia received more than US$951 million in pledges last year, despite demands by rights groups that donors get tough on the government's apparent refusal to reform. 'The Cambodian government has been promising to reform for years but nothing had changed,' Global Witness campaigns director Gavin Hayman said in a statement. 'Donors simply cannot continue to turn a blind eye.'

Foreign donors concerned about accountability in Cambodia

Wed, 02 Jun 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's donor conference opened Wednesday with warnings that access to land, improved transparency, and accountability for use of natural resources will be essential for the country's development goals.

World Bank country head Annette Dixon noted that 4 million Cambodians - about 30 per cent of the population - live in poverty while many more "live precariously near poverty."

"Life continues to be extremely challenging for the majority of Cambodian rural families, who remain vulnerable to shocks," she said.

Dixon applauded reforms in managing public finances, and said the government had strengthened social protections for the poor.

She said donors remained "strongly committed" to development efforts help the poor, despite global financial woes, "which in turn heightens the need to improve aid effectiveness and accountability for results."

Cambodian officials, non-governmental groups and foreign donors are meeting for two days to discuss the country's most pressing issues. On Thursday, donors will announce how much money they will give to help the government for it development goals.

In 2009, donors provided 951 million dollars, around half the government's budget. The finance ministry said it expected pledges of more than 1 billion dollars this year.

Prime Minister Hun Sen told the conference that good governance was "the most important prerequisite for a sustainable and equitable economic development and social justice."

"In the context of this vision, the Royal Government considers the fight against corruption as a top priority," he said, citing a new anti-corruption law, and an ongoing crackdown on illegal logging and fisheries, as evidence of the government's commitment.

Hun Sen said agriculture was the top development priority for the predominantly rural population, saying it could bolster economic growth and ensure food security.

He also pledged to pay more attention to granting land concessions to the poor. Land concessions are a highly contentious subject, with large investors in possession of more than a million hectares.

Non-governmental organizations said improvements in some health indicators showed similar gains could be made in governance, land use and natural resources. They called for reform of the judiciary, which is seen as corrupt and inefficient.

On Tuesday, the Britain-based organization Global Witness, called on donors to pressure the government to deliver meaningful reforms in the face of "gross mismanagement" of its natural resources.

Global Witness is not participating in the conference.

Foreign donors meet to help the dictator oppress Cambodia?

Foreign donors meet in Phnom Penh for aiding Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, June 2 (AP) - (Kyodo)—International aid donors opened the annual Consultative Group meeting here Wednesday to decide on the level of aid disbursements to the country for 2010.

More than 100 representatives from 16 donor countries, including Japan and the United States, and from seven international financial organizations such as the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, are attending the forum. They are expected to make aid pledges at the end of the two-day meeting.

The group has met annually since 1996, and as of today, Cambodia has received foreign aid worth about $4 billion.

In December 2008, considering the global economic crisis, Cambodia had sought about $500 million for 2009, but it received $951.5 million, almost double, as China pledged $257 million, followed by the European Union with $214 million and Japan with $113 million.

Cambodia received aid pledges of $690 million in 2008.

Delivering a speech at the opening of the forum to the group, Prime Minister Hun Sen promised that his government will continue to tackle several key issues including corruption, judicial reform, and land disputes, all of which have been often cited by the donors as being areas of concern.

On Monday, Global Witness, a London-based environmental advocacy group, urged international donors to tackle the gross mismanagement of the country's natural resources.

"The Cambodian government has been promising to reform for years, but nothing had changed," said Global Witness Campaigns Director Gavin Hayman.

Three days ahead of the meeting, members of parliament of Cambodia's opposition Sam Rainsy Party issued a statement praising and acknowledging the progress made in several areas but saying more work remains in key sectors.

Cambodia is one of the world's poorest nations with some 35 percent of its 14.5 million people living below the poverty line, defined as earning less than $1 a day.

British NGO calls on Cambodia to honour reforms

Wednesday, June 02, 2010
ABC Radio Australia

A British N-G-O is calling on donors to Cambodia to ensure the government makes good on long-delayed reforms in exchange for donations expected to form around half the country's budget.

The call by Global Witness comes ahead of this week's key donor conference in Phnom Penh, where nations are expected to pledge around one billion U-S dollars.

UK-based Global Witness said donors must insist the government makes good on regularly repeated promises of reform in exchange for foreign taxpayers' cash.

It says donors must stop turning a blind eye to the problems, and warns that continued bad practices mean foreign taxpayers are propping up a corrupt elite.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

But Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last week hit back, calling Global Witness "a gang of thieves" and accusing it of colluding with unnamed foreign organisations to undermine the Cambodian people.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Tackle Cambodia mismanagement, donors urged

1st June 2010
Source: Global Witness

International donors must act on entrenched natural resource-related corruption in Cambodia, says Global Witness

Cambodia’s international donors must tackle head on the gross mismanagement of the country’s natural resources at tomorrow’s government-donor meeting, campaign group Global Witness said today. Donors gave Cambodia $1bn in aid last year, despite evidence of widespread corruption and mismanagement of public funds and repeated failures to implement promised reform.

Ambassadors from donor countries will meet in Phnom Penh from June 2-3 for the regular review of the government’s progress towards meeting reform targets. They are expected to agree to continue to provide aid to the tune of $1bn a year - a figure almost equal to Cambodia’s entire domestic revenue through the national treasury in 2008 - even though the government has failed to meet agreed benchmarks.

“The Cambodian government has been promising to reform for years, but nothing had changed,” said Global Witness Campaigns Director Gavin Hayman. “Our latest report shows that the political elite has no intention of loosening its stranglehold over the country’s natural resource wealth. Donors simply cannot continue to turn a blind eye.”

Tomorrow’s meeting follows a series of revelations of high level corruption and governance failures over the last 18 months, including:
  • The mysterious circumstances surrounding a multi-million dollar payment in signature bonuses and “social funds” made by French oil giant Total to the government. No information about the whereabouts of these payments has been made public by the authorities.
  • A total lack of transparency in the latest bidding round for oil and gas exploration rights, held in late 2009. No information about the result has been made public by the government;
  • An investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into possible violations of anti-graft legislation by multinational mining company BHP Billiton during operations in a country widely reported to be Cambodia;
  • The bankrolling of Cambodia’s military by private businesses, formalised by Prime Minister Hun Sen in February 2010. The following month a CPP Senator used the Battalion he sponsors to guard a plantation owned by his company against community protests;
  • An escalation of land grabs resulting in urban and rural forced evictions;
  • Condemnation by civil society of a new Anti-Corruption Law passed in March 2010 which fails to protect whistleblowers, and of the lack of independence of the new Anti-Corruption Unit.
Earlier this month Global Witness published Shifting Sand which outlined how a largely unregulated sand trade between Cambodia and Singapore was threatening coastal ecosystems and local livelihoods. It named two of Cambodia’s senator-tycoons as benefitting directly from the trade, and estimated that more than $10m in royalty fees could be missing from national accounts.

Global Witness is calling on Cambodia’s donors to make aid dependent on basic governance reforms which will enable Cambodia to harness its own resources for development. “Donors must take a coordinated stand against the horribly subverted dynamic of aid in Cambodia in which their country’s money props up the basic functions of the state, leaving an elite free to exploit the state’s assets for personal profit and gain further power,” said Gavin Hayman. “Taxpayers rightly expect development aid to be spent on genuine poverty reduction rather than underwriting corruption and state failure.”

/ENDS

Notes

1) In April 2010, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that the French company Total had made a payment of US$28 million to the government. US$8 million of this was for a social development fund as part of its agreement to explore for oil offshore, and an additional US$20 million signature bonus went to the government. Information can be found at http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/961/en/multi_million_dollar_payments_to_cambodia_by_french_oil_giant_total_should_be_scrutinized_by_countrys_donors

2) In April 2010, it was announced that the company BHP Billiton is under investigation for potential anti-graft violations by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Information can be found at http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/958/en/global_witness_statement_on_bhp_billiton_engagemen

3) Information about the private sponsorship of the Cambodian military, can be found at http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/935/en/global_witness_urges_cambodias_donors_to_condemn_s

4) Information about land grabs and forced evictions in 2010 can be found at www.ngoforum.org.kh

5) Information about the anti-corruption law can be found at http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/press/files/221Jointstatementondraftanti-corruptionlaw11march2010-Eng.pdf

Global Witness investigates and campaigns to end natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses
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NGO says Cambodia's donors must demand reform for cash

Tue, 01 Jun 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - The British non-governmental organization Global Witness said Tuesday that foreign donors must pressure the Cambodian government to deliver meaningful reform in the face of "gross mismanagement" of the country's natural resources.

"The Cambodian government has been promising to reform for years, but nothing had changed," said Gavin Hayman, the group's campaigns director.

Donor nations were scheduled to meet in Phnom Penh Wednesday and Thursday to discuss pledges. Last year, they provided almost 1 billion dollars in assistance, around half Cambodia's annual budget.

Finance Minister Keat Chhon said in April that he expected donor pledges to match or exceed last year's sum.

In a statement released to coincide with this week's meeting, Global Witness, which monitors natural resource exploitation, claimed evidence of widespread corruption and mismanagement of public funds.

Donor nations' "money props up the basic functions of the state, leaving an elite free to exploit the state's assets for personal profit and gain further power," Hayman said.

"Taxpayers rightly expect development aid to be spent on genuine poverty reduction rather than underwriting corruption and state failure," he said.

Cambodia is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries by the anti-graft monitor Transparency International, which last year placed the country near the bottom of its annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

Government spokesman Prak Sokhonn declined to comment on the statement by Global Witness, but last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at the group, a regular critic of his government, describing the organization as "a group of thieves."

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party acknowledged some progress had been made in health, education and child protection since the last donor meeting in December 2008 but highlighted problems with land disputes and evictions.

"Titling of land must be increased, and a moratorium on evictions and arrests should be implemented until all land is formally adjudicated according to the law," the party said.