N.Korea's succession faces challenges: minister

Kim Jong-Il (C) is believed to have speeded up the succession plan after suffering a stroke in August 2008 (AFP/KCNA via KNS/File)

27 Nov 2011
AFP

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il faces challenges in transferring power to his youngest son, according to South Korea's top official on cross-border affairs.

"I assume that the power succession is under way, though the internal and external environment is not that good," Unification Minister Yu Woo-Ik told Yonhap news agency in an interview published Sunday.

Kim, 69, is believed to have speeded up the succession plan after suffering a stroke in August 2008.

In September last year he gave his youngest son Jong-Un senior party posts and appointed him a four-star general, in the clearest sign yet that he is the heir apparent.

Nepotism and cronyism in Scambodia

Then-Prince Sihanouk (L) and Future-dictator Hun Xen (R)

With some luck, a teacher in Cambodia can supplement his low salary with a second income as a motodoop in order to feed his family (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

Thursday, October 20, 2011
Op-Ed by Pissed off

Qualification for and obtaining a top job based on education in Cambodia is a wishful thinking, especially under the current regime. You will be used for your knowledge and experiences as long as you don't interfere with the flow and the interests of the elite or into garbage and possibly incinerator shall you be tossed!

Family tie is a unervisal characteristic of human being and is not special in any race. Cambodian family tie is not any more special or better than that of any race under the sky.

Giving jobs to your own family members without open and fair competition based on qualification is nepotism and it is blatantly everywhere in Cambodia and some undemocratic countries from top to bottom.

The case of Hor Nam Hong and his sons is a blatant example of nepotism. Norodom Arun Reaksmey's case is an example of cronyism or political favoritism, i.e. you scratch my back well, I will scratch yours. Keep scratching my back, buddy and don't worry about the state of the nation and thus her people, I will remember to scratch yours when one of my hand is free or when I have a moisturizing lotion to go with it.

Hor 5 Bora sent to the rescue of Hun Sen’s regime against Global Witness

Hor 5 Bora, Hor 5 Hong's son and Cambodian ambassador to the UK, an ardent defender of the Hun Sen's regime

Government reply to Global Witness

27 Nov 2008
By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

The Cambodian ambassador to the UK talked about “provocation” after a NGO appealed to donor countries by raising issues about the management of oil revenue.

The Global Witness communiqué warning donor countries about the use of natural gas and oil resource is a “villain campaign to discredit the image of Cambodia,” the Cambodian embassy in London said in its communiqué issued on Tuesday 25 November.

“It is naive from Global Witness to think Cambodia's international donors do not well aware of their ill-intentioned purpose of damaging Cambodia’ past and recent economic developments.” the Cambodian embassy communiqué added.

According to Global Witness, Cambodia almost did not keep up with any of its promises regarding the fight against corruption, the management of natural resources and human rights. According to Global Witness, “Cambodia is on the verge of a petroleum and minerals windfall, but both sectors are already exhibiting early warning signs of the corruption, nepotism and state capture…”

The Cambodian embassy in London retorted by quoting a recent speech given by vice-PM Sok An who said “We do not want to be mere spectators in our petroleum industry,” and that he was involved in the setting up of efficient legal mechanism for the management of the oil sector.

The Cambodian embassy also warned donor countries against Global Witness, in particular it addressed its message to the Netherland, Canadian and Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) “to ask for an urgent review of Global Witness’ program of activities and policies and, a strict control to poor management and leadership of Global Witness.”

Aid donors urged to pressure Cambodia over oil management

November 26, 2008
Kyodo News

PHNOM PENH - A London-based environmental advocacy group urged international donors Wednesday to use their leverage over Cambodia to bring about improved governance and transparency of Cambodia's petroleum and mining sectors.

"Cambodia is on the verge of a petroleum and minerals windfall, but both sectors are already exhibiting early warning signs of the corruption, nepotism and state capture which plagued Cambodia's forest sector," Global Witness said in a statement.

Cambodia's donors risk disaster with blind eye to poor governance of country's oil and minerals

London, 25 November 2008
Global Witness

For immediate release

Cambodia's international donors must insist on improved governance and transparency of Cambodia's oil and mining sectors at the upcoming Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum, anti-graft watchdog Global Witness said today. Governance of the sector is so poor that the donors risk losing the best chance in a generation to lift Cambodia out of poverty as well as wasting taxpayers' money from donor countries.

Ambassadors from donor countries - which provide the equivalent of half of Cambodia's annual budget - are scheduled to meet in Phnom Penh next week for a yearly review of the government's progress in meeting reform targets set at their last meeting. Hardly any of the commitments made by the Cambodian government for improving governance and human rights in the past five years have been met, yet development aid has continued to flow (see attached chart).

"Cambodia is on the verge of a petroleum and minerals windfall, but both sectors are already exhibiting early warning signs of the corruption, nepotism and state capture which plagued Cambodia's forest sector," said Global Witness Campaigns Director Gavin Hayman. "With the imminent arrival of significant revenue from oil and mining, 2008 could be the donors' last chance to use their leverage to put conditions in place to improve the lot of the average Cambodian."

Global Witness has surveyed Cambodia's oil and mining sectors and found that the small number of elite powerbrokers who run the state have sold off potentially valuable concessions to foreign companies in a manner that is non-transparent and highly dubious. So far, at least 60 mineral exploration licenses have been allocated to private companies, many of which are owned or beneficially controlled by members of Cambodia's political and military elite. All of the offshore oil concessions in Cambodian territory have been allocated and at least one of Cambodia's onshore oil blocks in the Tonle Sap basin has been granted for exploration.

To date, basic transparency or anti-corruption provisions in the allocation of the state's public assets have not been met. The government has not held any public open-bidding rounds for oil or mining rights, has failed to publish information on which companies have been awarded access to the resources, and has backtracked on endorsement of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

"Decisions are being made now about the allocation of the country's oil and mineral resource wealth, which will determine whether the revenue generated moves the country out of poverty or headlong into the resource curse. It's crunch time for the donors," added Hayman.

Global Witness is calling for donors to insist on a moratorium on the granting of any new concessions in the oil and mining sectors until the government has the basic legal, social and environmental framework in place to manage them and the revenues produced. Also, given the complete lack of transparency in the industry to date, a review of all existing concessions is needed to ensure Cambodia is getting a fair deal.

Global Witness plans to publish a report on Cambodia's extractive industries in early 2009.

For further information please call +44 207 561 6385 or +44 7872 600870

Premier Lost Ally, Not Power, in Chief's Crash

The late Hok Lundy is pictured directly behind Prime Minister Hun Sen as the premier returns from a trip to Beijing in October. (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

By Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 November 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Prime Minister Hun Sen lost a strong ally within the Interior Ministry when the plane carrying late police chief Hok Lundy crashed Nov. 9, but officials say the prime minister's power will not be affected by a replacement.

Officials said last week that the loss of Hok Lundy, who led the national police since 1994, would be great to the government, but they were convinced national stability would not be affected.

"Nothing will change, stability will remain," said Em Sam An, secretary of state for the Interior Ministry, as he greeted a delegation of Vietnamese officials during funeral ceremonies for Hok Lundy last week. "We are sorry to lose the man. But our forces are in place and in good order. No problems will arrive. The situation in our country is getting better."

Hok Lundy was a powerful member of the Cambodian People's Party, appointed by Hun Sen "as part of an internal power play in the CPP" to take control of the police from CPP stalwarts Chea Sim, who is president of the Senate, and Sar Kheng, who is Minister of the Interior, said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

Hok Lundy's appointment came at a time of instability, following a failed coup attempt against Hun Sen and then co-prime minister Norodom Ranariddh, in 1994. His death, in a helicopter crash in Svay Rieng province, was a loss of a powerful right hand, but was not destabilizing, Adams said.

"After Hun Sen, he was probably the most feared man in Cambodia," Adams said.

Gen. Neth Savoeun, Hok Lundy's deputy and Hun Sen's nephew-in-law, has been named to replace the late police chief. Hok Lundy faced accusations of murder, extrajudicial killings and human trafficking, as well as collaboration in the 1997 grenade attack on opposition supporters that killed 16 people.

Neth Savoeun, who was the head of the criminal police section in the Phnom Penh Municipal Police, comes from the same security system, Adams said.

"Even in the 1980s, [Neth Savoeun] had a reputation for being among the most violent members of a very repressive security system," Adams said. "He too has been implicated in many serious human rights abuses and other crimes over the past two decades."

That appointment will likely not be challenged by Sar Kheng, Adams said.

Gen. Neth Savoeun declined comment.

Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry and adviser to Sar Kheng, dismissed the allegations, saying the police were on a five-year plan to maintain stability.

Even the US had shown Hok Lundy was "clean," he said, and had offered him a visa in 2007 to visit Washington for talks with the FBI.

"We know that Brad Adams has never talked good about our country, Cambodia," Khieu Sopheak said. "The facts differ from what he says."

He denied a factional split within the CPP, citing the party's win of 90 of 123 National Assembly seats in July's elections as proof of unity.

"Brad Adams' comments bear no merit," he said. "I mean, the dog barks, and the CPP cart moves ahead to 90 seats."

Kek Galabru, founder of the rights group Licadho, declined to comment on Hok Lundy's reputation, following Cambodian tradition, but said she hoped the new police chief would better honor human rights.

"I am speaking carefully because he has died, and we should not curse the dead," she said. "Cambodians know His Excellency Hok Lundy, so I don't need to comment more. The US government denied him a visa, so we all know there were a lot of allegations."

Her sentiments were echoed by Lt. Gen. Sok Phal, another Hok Lundy deputy, who warned reporters off strong criticism last week, asking they not "write something irrelevant which would impact the Khmers or our leaders" and should "write proper articles in his name, as the leader of the national police."

Hun Sen: Neth Savoeun was specialized to be the national police commissioner since he was born ... not because he's Hun Sen's nephew-in-law -sic!-

In the executive branch, “I am the one who decides” of transfers and nominations: Hun Sen

17 November 2008
By Duong Sokha
Ka-set
Unofficial translation from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On Monday 17 November, Prime minister Hun Sen denied rumors spread by the local news media according to which Kep Chuktema, the governor of Phnom Penh, would have been transferred.

“Who decides about it?” Hun Sen asked while adding that a royal decree and another sub-decree would soon confirm Kep Chuktema’s position. “Above me, there’s only the king and the National Assembly! Transfers in the executive branch are my prerogatives!” Hun Sen stormed.

Another barking from Hun Sen: the contest led by some of the successors to the position of national police commissioner which was vacated following the death of Hok lundy who was killed in a helicopter crash on 09 November. Hun Sen reported that the selection of Neth Savoeun, the former deputy police commissioner, to fill in this position was not neutral, “because he is my nephew, they said” (Neth Savoeun is married to the daughter of Hun Sen’s older brother). “Why my nephew can’t fill in this position, whereas since his birth, this is his specialty, and also according to the hierarchy, he was the number two of the police, right after Hok Lundy,” Hun Sen launched.

Hok Lundy loyalist tipped to become next police chief [-Neth Savoeun is Hok Lundy No. 2?]

General Neth Savoeun grieves at Tuesday’s memorial service for Hok Lundy. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Thursday, 13 November 2008
Written by Sam Rith and Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

Neth Savoeun is only name on the shortlist, police brass say, but the official word has yet to come on his appointment

NATIONAL Police General Neth Savoeun is the most likely successor to top cop Hok Lundy, police officials said Wednesday, but said that no official appointment has been made.

"It is just a plan. It will not be official until a royal decree is released," said Teng Savong, deputy director of the National Police.

An assistant to Neth Savoeun who did not want to be named told the Post Wednesday that, while the appointment is widely expected, neither he nor Neth Savoeun had seen an order by King Norodom Sihamoni formalising the arrangement.

Hok Lundy was killed Sunday in a helicopter crash while flying to Svay Rieng province in bad weather. Mechanical failure, which officials say caused a fire, is the most likely cause of the mishap.

His death raised speculation of a power struggle within Cambodia's National Police, which Hok Lundy, a close ally and relative by marriage to Prime Minister Hun Sen, had commanded since 1994.

He was frequently the target of human rights groups, who accused him of a vast array of abuses, including human trafficking and murder. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that Neth Savoeun was unlikely to be any better.

"[He] should be under investigation by the police, not be the National Police chief. He will almost certainly continue to politicise the work of the police," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

"This is a very disturbing appointment."

Neth Savoeun, 52, who is married to Hun Sen's niece, joined the police force in the 1980s, rising to the post of Phnom Penh municipal police chief during the early 1990s and head of the Justice Department in the Ministry of Interior's Penal Crimes Division.

Hun Sen Relative Tapped as Police Chief: Cambodia's Family Trees?

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
11 November 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

A police general who served under the late Hok Lundy and is an in-law of Prime Minister Hun Sen has been selected to lead the nation’s police force, following a deadly helicopter crash Sunday.

Gen. Neth Savoeun, who has served in the police as well as the Ministry of Interior and is married to Hun Sen’s niece, was officially decreed as national police chief late Monday.

The former chief, Hok Lundy, a powerful Cambodian People’s Party general who continually faced allegations of serious human rights abuses, died Sunday night, when a helicopter transporting him to his home province of Svay Rieng crashed.

“King Norodom Sihamoni officially signed the decree to appoint Gen. Neth Savoeun late Monday as the national police chief to replace Hok Lundy,” Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak said Tuesday. “I and all Cambodian police welcome the new appointment. Neth Savoeun has a lot of experience in the police.”

Neth Savoeun, 52, was police chief of Phnom Penh during the State of Cambodia, served as the head of the justice department in the Interior Ministry’s Penal Crimes Division after the 1993 elections, and recently became a deputy national police chief under Hok Lundy. He married Hun Sen’s niece, Hun Kimleng, in the early 1990s.

Contacted Tuesday, Neth Savoeun declined to comment on his appointment, saying he was busy with funeral ceremonies for Hok Lundy, who is scheduled to be buried in Svay Rieng’s Rumduol district Saturday.

“I’m not thinking about who [specifically] is appointed,” Chan Soveth, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc said. “But I want the person appointed as the new general of national police to have a good background, not to be involved in corruption, not be involved in human trafficking, or drug trafficking, or involved in killings. So I hope that the government has decided to appoint Neth Savoeun because his background is not involved in these.”

During his 14-year tenure as chief, Hok Lundy was accused of all these crimes, including collaboration in the 1997 grenade attack on opposition supporters, which killed 16 people, and extrajudicial killings during the 1997 CPP coup. He was denied US entry on suspicion of human trafficking in 2006, but had in recent years become an ally of the FBI for regional counterterrorism.

Under Hok Lundy, the national police force was routinely criticized for torture, corruption and abuse of power.

Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, said Neth Savoeun lacked qualifications.

“As I’ve known him before, he has not graduated from the Police Academy, and his rank comes from his relations to a high-ranking official, or nepotism,” said Kem Sokha, who was arrested by the national police in 2006 and spent 17 days in jail on charges of defamation.

Asked whether Neth Savoeun could reform the national police, Kem Sokha said, “I don’t think it depends on Neth Savoeun. Whatever the national police chief did before, it was dependent on the government. [Police] weren’t independently allowed to do anything.”

Can Cambodia become an Asian tiger?

Wed, Jul 30 2008
Money Matters

Neither very democratic nor well-run, the country has nevertheless seen economic growth of more than 10% a year since 2000

Cambodia’s ruling party won re-election in an imperfectly democratic ballot on 27 July. Corrupt, impoverished, with high population growth and poor infrastructure, the country might seem a basket case.

Yet, with Vietnamese backing and nearly 10% annual economic growth since 2000, it may be turning into another Asian Tiger.

Cambodia is neither very democratic nor very well-run. Its leader Hun Sen was backed by Vietnam when it overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979, and he has been prime minister since 1985.

Cambodia ranks at No. 162 on Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, well below the threshold at which normal business becomes difficult—a sale of land to foreign investors in 2007 seems to have benefited mostly the ruling elite.

Like its neighbour Vietnam, Cambodia is suffering an imported inflation problem because of rising food and fuel costs. The government’s solution has been to cease reporting the country’s consumer price index “to avert the possibility of disorder and turmoil”.

Nevertheless, there are signs of progress. Cambodia has enjoyed economic growth of more than 10% a year since 2000, led by its main export industry, garments.

Its annual population growth has declined from 2.3% in 2000 to 1.8%, facilitating rapid economic growth by reducing the strains that high population growth places on education and infrastructure.

Cambodia’s public sector absorbs only 12% of its gross domestic product (GDP), its budget and payments are close to balance, and it expects to open a stock exchange in 2009.

Foreign investment is the key, as it has been in Vietnam, where it totalled 65% of GDP in the first half of 2008. Cambodia permits 100% foreign ownership in most sectors, and foreign investment is expected to double in 2008 from $2.7 billion (Rs11,475 crore today) in 2007 (30% of GDP), with China and South Korea the leading investors.

Corruption and a lack of public sector transparency stand in the way.

But with rapid growth in Vietnam, greater prosperity in Thailand, its other neighbour, and the US market open to its exports, Cambodia could be set to become an Asian Tiger in its own right.

'Nepotistic' Hun Sen Said Arranging for Son Hun Manet To Become Defense Minister

15 Nov 07
By Sreika
Moneakseka Khmer
Translated from Khmer and posted online

The rumor that Hun Sen's eldest son Hun Manet is going to be Defense Minister has triggered a general alarm within the Cambodian People's Party [CPP] because there are many CPP army chiefs suitable for this position. Besides, since the power between the Chea Sim and Hun Sen factions has already been clearly defined why there is this rumor about Hun Sen's eldest offspring becoming Defense Minister?

According to the schema of the power sharing arrangement between the Chea Sim and Hun Sen factions, the Ministry of National Defense [MND] belongs to the Chea Sim side while the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces [SCAF] goes to the Hun Sen side because within the military frameworks the SCAF can give orders in battles or carry out military undertakings while the MND takes care of policy only. It is for this reason that Hun Sen has accepted the power within the SCAF frameworks, allowing the Chea Sim faction to take over the MND. As for Ke Kimyan, longstanding army chief of the CPP in the Chea Sim faction, he has agreed to give up his top post in the SCAF in exchange for the post of Defense Minister to be relinquished by Tie Banh because in the CPP Tie Banh is regarded as an old ox waiting to drop dead from the foot-and-mouth disease.

Moreover, because the government led by the CPP wanted to maintain tight diplomatic (as received) relations with Thailand, both politically and militarily speaking, the seat at the MDF has been reserved for Tie Banh for a long time. Now, however, the ties between Thailand and Cambodia, both political and military, have become dormant or moribund since the coup d'etat in Thailand last year or since Thailand was controlled by the generals. Consequently, Tie Banh now seems to be much less worthy to the CPP, in the eyes of both the Chea Sim and Hun Sen factions, because Tie Banh is neither a Chea Sim or a Hun Sen man. He is a member of the wing of Say Phuthang, the second most powerful man in the CPP during the Communist era. Therefore, when the Chea Sim and Hun Sen factions are wrangling over the power in the armed forces, Tie Banh is automatically going to be rejected.

According to a high-ranked CPP official, because of the plan to redistribute the party's internal power within the armed forces, the CPP leaders have all agreed with one another that in the coming term Kun Kim will be Supreme Commander and Ke Kimyan Defense Minister. But suddenly there was a rumor floating around. The recent rumor that Hun Sen's eldest son Hun Manet is going to be the next Defense Minister has shocked people throughout the CPP. However, as the rumor that his son would be the next Defense Minister was shaking up the CPP, Hun Sen diverted attention from this problem by launching an attack against the opposition party instead. He did not talk about internal developments in the CPP for fear that people would know that there is trouble inside his party.

On 14 November, yesterday, Hun Sen claimed at the ceremony distributing diplomas to graduate students that his son is not going to be Defense Minister now but he does not know about the future. Hun Sen admitted that his son does work in the Defense Ministry but for the time being he is not Defense Minister.

Political analysts said that to hear Hun Sen speak like that one gets the impression he has already made all necessary arrangements for his son. It is just that this is not yet the right time; it is going to be later or when the opportunity comes. For this reason, Hun Sen dares to claim that for now his son is not yet Defense Minister but that no one can predicts the future.

Also yesterday Hun Sen attacked a political party he did not mention by name. He only said that this party has a president whose wife is an MP. He said that because of that this party is very nepotistic while he himself is not nepotistic at all. Although Hun Sen did not call this party by name most people understood that he meant the Sam Rainsy Party [SRP].

According to a political analyst, Hun Sen cannot criticize other parties of being nepotistic because his CPP is the most nepotistic of all parties.

Some officials in the CPP also agreed that Hun Sen is the most nepotistic leader because almost all power in the government is wielded by his men. For example, Cabinet Minister Sok An is not only his big guru but also his in-law. Cambodia's top police chief Hok Langdi is also a Hun Sen in-law, and so are a few other government officials.

The CPP officials said that in the past Sok An and Cham Prasith were not on very good terms with each other, but now Cham Prasith has become Sok An's in-law; therefore, Cham Prasith has also become a Hun Sen man. So, when one talks about power in the government, one knows that almost all the civilian, police, and military officials have become Hun Sen's men. And we have not yet talked about Hun Neng, Hun Sen's big brother who has been a veteran governor of Kampong Cham province. Hun Neng was briefly transferred from Kampong Cham according to Chea Sim's conditions or demand but he has since returned to Kampong Cham province.

According to a political analyst, if Hun Sen criticizes the SRP of being nepotistic because the wife of its president is an MP, then he is wrong because the same thing happens in the CPP and the FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Peaceful Cambodia] Party as well. In the FUNCINPEC Party a husband is the party's president while his wife is the party's prime ministerial candidate. The CPP even sent a message to congratulate the wife of the FUNCINPEC Party's president for her nomination. The same takes place in the CPP. Hun Sen is Prime Minister and his wife is the chair of the Red Cross. Moreover, the wives of many other CPP leaders and CPP officials also have played important roles.

Therefore, if we talk about power networking in the government, Hun Sen is the most nepotistic. Even some CPP officials have concurred with this assessment. For this reason, Global Witness recently published a report exposing the logging activities in Cambodia that were made possible through large-scale nepotism.

Support for Hun Sen in his warning of ministers' wives

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Prime minister Hun Sen warned a number of unnamed ministers on Tuesday that he will remove them from their positions, if they let their wives continue to interfere in the government work. Muth Chantha, NRP spokesman, declined to comment on Hun Sen’s speech in which the latter was alluding to Uk Phalla, the latest wife of Prince Norodom Ranaridh, but he agreed that a number of ministries are currently under the administration of family members of officials in these ministries. Muth Chantha told The Cambodia Daily that some ministries are governed by nepotism, while others are clannish, and that almost all ministries are currently administered by family members (of the ministers). SRP MP Yim Sovann, said that he agreed with Hun Sen’s speech, and that corruptions are usually initiated by the ministers’ wives. Yim Sovann said that the ministers’ wives are large company shareholders, and they use their husbands’ power to obtain agreements. Yim Sovann said that he strongly supports Hun Sen’s speech but he wants to see these words becoming reality, and that they will be forever executed.

Cambodia: Can't See the Forest for the Thieves

The author, with Global Witness in November 2005, investigating a truck transporting
logs to Phnom Penh. The driver of this truck claimed he was carrying "mango trees"
(Global Witness photo).

06 Jun 2007
Liam Cochrane
World Politics Review Exclusive

"... the profits from transporting illegally cut logs fund a small army, which in turn props up Cambodia's authoritarian rulers"

The latest report by illegal logging watchdog Global Witness has received the highest accolade an investigative NGO's work can receive from the Cambodian Government: It has been banned.

The reason?

It exposes the country's largest illegal logging syndicate and its links to senior government officials, including the prime minister. Plus, it details the way the army has been used as a log courier service for the secret trade with Vietnam and China.

Now, as Cambodia's annual pledge-a-thon approaches, international donors are scrambling to react to accusations they haven't done enough to protect Cambodia's forests.

Global Witness, the U.K.-based logging and blood diamond watchdog, cheekily titled its 95-page report "Cambodia's Family Trees" and printed a cover with framed pictures of Prime Minister Hun Sen -- and the logging kingpins related to him by marriage or political ties -- hanging from a barren tree.

The study took Global Witness three years of surveillance and interviews to complete and is perhaps the most extensive exposé of institutionalized corruption and natural resources pillaging to date. Among the main targets are Hun Sen's first cousin, Hun Chouch, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chan Sarun, and Forestry Administration boss Ty Sokhun.

So it was little surprise the report ruffled some feathers.

"If they [Global Witness] come to Cambodia, I will hit them until their heads are broken," was how the prime minister's brother and provincial governor, Hun Neng, responded to accusations that he and his wife were involved in the illicit trade.

Cambodia's Ministry of Information released a statement describing the report as "a personal accusation . . . to cause political conflicts in the country" and ordered the confiscation of any copies already in the Southeast Asian nation.

But the fallout adheres to a long-running pattern of government behavior that is accurately predicted within the report.

"Hun Sen responds to even muted criticism by declaring that attempts to remove him will cause the country to fall back into conflict and instability," Global Witness wrote about the leader of a country still traumatized by the killing frenzy of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and the bitter civil war that followed.

It's not the first time Global Witness has raised the ire of Cambodia's government.

Global Witness was appointed by the government as the official monitor of illegal logging, but was fired from the job after its reports uncovered the involvement of military and political figures. In 2004, copies of the group's report "Taking a Cut" were confiscated at the airport and several international staff were refused entry.

Global Witness says the issues of illegal logging and political power are intertwined, with logging bankrolling Hun Sen's private armies, which in turn assure political supremacy for the one-eyed former Khmer Rouge leader, nicknamed the "Strongman."

Log Laundering

Cambodia's ruling powers have long used timber to fund their wars and, in more recent times, their political dominance. In the late 1990s, there was pressure from international donors to crack down on the plunder; the transport of logs was banned and illegal cutting slowed.

But lucrative profits and lax laws meant that the chainsaws never really stopped.

Over the years there have many creative schemes invented to bypass logging regulations. The funniest involved logging permits given ostensibly for the purpose of building a platform so the country's parachute regiment could practice jumping off. The most shameless would have to be the tricking of monks into signing documents requesting valuable koki logs for building dragon boats to represent their temples in the annual boat racing festival.

The latest Global Witness report focuses on the use of economic land concessions -- usually plantations -- as a cover for illegal logging. In 2001, Hun Sen inaugurated the Tumring Rubber Plantation and the country's biggest logging cartel went to work.

The Seng Keang Import Export company was owned by Hun Sen's Rolex-wearing cousin Hun Chouch, his ex-wife Seng Keang and Khun Thong, brother-in-law of the minister of forestry, the official ultimately responsible for protecting Cambodia's trees.

Their "plantation" area was located inside the Prey Long forest -- the largest lowland evergreen forest still standing in Southeast Asia. It is home to elephants, tigers and the Asiatic black bear, as well as burial grounds and resin trees tapped by locals for a modest income.

But Prey Long's natural blessings are also its curse: The rich flora includes large amounts of commercial-grade and luxury timber.

"It is unlikely they could have selected a more suitable location for their activities and Tumring duly became the center of the largest illegal logging operation in Cambodia," said Global Witness.

The strategy was simple: harvest the most valuable trees within reach, move the timber inside the plantation's borders and claim it was felled in clearing. This neatly avoided various laws and a ban on the transport of freshly cut logs.

The operation was big. In 2005, community forestry activists counted 131 chainsaws and 12 mobile sawmills in the district. Timber was processed at an illegal sawmill at the appropriately named village of Khaos, or trucked out at night to another factory in the capital of Phnom Penh, most of it eventually heading for China.

Between 2003 and 2005, China says it bought $16.2 million worth of plywood from Cambodia, with Seng Keang being the principle manufacturer of ply. Strangely, Cambodia's registered exports, and thus taxes, for that period were zero.

In November 2005, I accompanied Global Witness to Tumring and saw work gangs with chainsaws kilometers outside the plantation boundaries. They told us their boss, a notorious local thug known by his radio call sign "Mr. 95", paid $100 a month to the Forestry Administration in Khaos for each chainsaw in use; just the tip of the corruption iceberg.

After dark we followed convoys of trucks heading to Phnom Penh. We reached some that had stopped by the side of the road and we got out to inspect. The owner of the truck told Global Witness the trucks contained "mango trees." I peeked inside and saw neatly cut logs a foot in diameter.

As we talked with the nervous driver, a pickup truck full of armed soldiers escorting the convoy tried to photograph us as they sped past, a dangerous prospect considering the death threats and beatings given out to Global Witness staff in the past.

As Global Witness explains in their report, the complicity of corrupt police makes this racket possible, but for the military it's much more -- the profits from transporting illegally cut logs fund a small army, which in turn props up Cambodia's authoritarian rulers.

How to Fund a Private Army

Since an attempted coup against Hun Sen in 1994, Southeast Asia's longest serving premier has maintained an elite Bodyguard Unit of 4,000 well-equipped troops loyal solely to him.

In addition, Hun Sen has a backup force of 2,000 soldiers, known as Brigade 70. Global Witness says that under the leadership of business-turned-soldier Brigadier General Hak Mao, Brigade 70 has developed a lucrative business transporting logs and other contraband across the country.

Hak Mao personally owns 16 trucks and has two depots in the capital -- one for commercial grade timber, one for luxury wood, according to Global Witness.

"According to one timber dealer in Phnom Penh, Hak Mao is able to deliver logs of all types according to order," says the report.

The U.K. watchdog estimates that fees from transporting logs and other smuggled goods such as liquor, cigarettes and even ice cream -- amounts to somewhere between $2 million and $2.75 million a year.

A cut of this money -- at least $30,000 a month, says Global Witness -- is used to fund Brigade 70 and the Bodyguard Unit.

"The Brigade 70 case highlights the direct linkage between Hun Sen's build up of loyalist military units and large-scale organized crime," says the Global Witness report, which was released from the safety of Bangkok on June 1.

Where's the Outrage?

The reaction from the international community has been muted.

The U.S. and British embassies have said they share some of the concerns Global Witness has raised, but have not been drawn into the detail of the report.

Some of Global Witness' strongest criticisms are directed towards the international donors who last year spent $601 million underwriting half the Cambodian budget, yet apply little real pressure for change.

"The donors have failed. They are basically spineless," Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, told the Associated Press. "The message that Hun Sen gets from the donors is that they don't really give a damn."

Hun Sen, however, does give a damn.

Despite receiving "no-strings-attached" aid money from the Chinese equal to all other donor contributions combined, Cambodia continues to seek the legitimacy that can only come from the support of developed nations.

And despite well-documented corruption and an increasingly one-party state, the international community -- much to the frustration of many NGOs on the ground -- continues to give the Cambodian Government that support.

Cambodia's army -- the same force that transports illegal logs -- is receiving military assistance from Australia, China, Vietnam, and the United States.

The U.S. suspended military assistance after the 1997 coup, in which Hun Sen violently unseated his co-Prime Minister Prince Ranariddh. But after Cambodia recently signed the "Article 19" agreement, which promises not to send any U.S. citizens to the International Criminal Court, and began helping out with the "War on Terror" by some dubious arrests of Muslims, the United States is once again providing aid for Cambodia's soldiers.

Ironically, the U.S. embassy says a third of the $1 million military assistance that was earmarked for 2006 went towards trucks, spare parts and training.

What makes Global Witness' report on forestry all the more compelling is Cambodia's burgeoning oil industry. Several companies -- including Chevron -- are currently exploring oil fields of considerable size just off the southern coastline.

But many see the sad fate of the forestry industry as a likely precedent for what will happen to the oil bonanza: The ruling elite and their cronies will get richer, the environment will be devastated and the people of Cambodia will receive next to nothing.

It's the so called "oil curse" that has afflicted Angola, Chad and Nigeria, among others.

To sound a warning to Cambodia's "kleptocracy," Global Witness has recommended international donors link non-humanitarian aid money to reforms and "test cases" to make an example of the powerful.

"There can be little doubt that a handful of competently investigated and prosecuted cases against senior officials, their relatives and associates would have a far greater impact on abuse of power and corruption than new legislation, as important as it is," said the report.

The donor community will have to think fast. The annual meeting at which bilateral donors and the World Bank will pledge next year's aid and discuss the development of the nation is scheduled for June 19-20.

No doubt, the issues of illegal logging, corruption and misuse of the military will be somewhere on the agenda. The question is where do they go from there?

Liam Cochrane is a freelance journalist based in Katmandu, Nepal. He was formerly the managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post newspaper in Cambodia.