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"If (they) come to Cambodia, I will hit
them until their heads are broken," says a government official from
the South-east Asian country in a local newspaper report on
Tuesday.
The speaker happens to be Hun Neng,
brother of Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and, currently, governor
of Kompong Cham province. The targets he has in mind for such
violence are the researchers of Global Witness, a London-based
environmental lobby.
A few days before, Phnom Penh turned its
ire on Global Witness by banning the object of such anger -- a
95-page report by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) released
Jun.1 about illegal logging in the country. The title,
‘Cambodia's Family Tree,' offers a tongue-in-cheek image of
a study that exposes the lengths to which members of the most
politically influential families have gone to strip the country's
natural assets with "complete impunity."
The dominant illegal logging syndicate,
which goes under the name of the Seng Keang Company, is "controlled
by individuals related to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Minister for
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chan Sarun and Director General
of the Forest Administration Ty Sokhun," states Global Witness.
The annual timber haul from illegal
logging is estimated to be over 13 million US dollars, reveals the
report. "Illegal logging in Cambodia not only fills the pockets of
the political elite; it also funds the activities of a 6,000-strong
private army controlled by Hun Sen. The Brigade 70 unite runs a
nationwide timber trafficking and smuggling service, catering to
prominent tycoons, that generates profits of two million dollars to
2.75 million dollars per year."
The cost of such plunder on this country,
where close to 40 percent of the population live in poverty and
where nearly 30 percent of forest cover has been wiped off over a
five year period, cannot be ignored, says Global Witness director
Simon Taylor. "The political culture of corruption and impunity
means that Cambodians are still among the world's poorest
people."
"I don't view the government of Cambodia
as the government of Cambodia. It has been captured by a
kleptocratic elite," he said in an IPS interview. "Lawlessness is
an issue that starts at the top."
But this showdown has broader
implications. It comes days ahead of a major meeting of
international donors in Phnom Penh, where rampant corruption, human
rights violations and the culture of impunity due to flaws in the
criminal justice system are expected to come under some
scrutiny.
The meeting of the Cambodia Development
Cooperation Forum, which runs from Jun. 19-20, will include
representatives from the World Bank and officials from developed
nations. Pledges made at this meeting, which previously met as the
Consultative Group (CG) to aid Cambodia, often account for close to
half of the country's national budget.
In March 2006, the CG pledged to give 600
million U.S. dollars in aid to Cambodia. Yet at the same time, it
turned the heat on the Hun Sen administration, urging the
government to crackdown on corruption through a comprehensive
anti-corruption law, to implement broad judicial reform and to
demonstrate genuine efforts to stem the destruction of the
country's natural resources.
This push for cleaner government came in
the wake of a law approved in early March last year by the
123-member National Assembly. It gave the power for a political
party to form a government if it had secured a simple majority,
rather than a two-thirds majority, as was the case before. The
immediate winner was Hun Sen's Cambodia People's Party (CPP),
which had 73 seats in the legislature.
That Phnom Penh has dragged its feet on
the goals set out by the CG -- despite the CPP enjoying the right
to govern alone for the first time and pass new laws -- is not only
the view of Global Witness.
Even local, independent think tanks based
in the country's capital are hardly impressed. "There is hardly
any sign of major change. There has been slow progress on legal
reform and corruption is still a big concern," Im Sophea, a ranking
member of the Centre for Social Development, told IPS by phone from
Phnom Penh.
And rather than threaten critics, the
government should "conduct a proper investigation to find out if
the revelations in recent reports are true," he says. "The
international donors must take note of this."
"The donors have to hold the government
accountable to deal with the lawlessness," adds Taylor. "What is
happening is that Hun Sen says no and they (the donors) stick their
heads in the sand like an ostrich."
In fact, Hun Sen has also been as caustic
as his brother -- although less threatening in his words. His
target is also another international voice that has levelled
criticism at the country's human rights record. On Monday, the
premier used a speech broadcast on national radio to attack Yash
Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer who is currently serving as the U.N. human
rights envoy to Cambodia.
"Even if you live for another 1,000 years
and I am still alive, I will not meet you," Hun Sen was quoted as
having said over the radio, according to the AFP news agency.
Cambodian government officials have
continued to snub the U.N. envoy since he arrived in the country on
May 29. This visit came after his recent report provided a critical
account of the widespread impunity enjoyed by human rights
violators, consequently undermining the rule of law.
"It is imperative that the Cambodian
government embrace the rule of law to honour its international
human rights obligations," the Hong Kong-based Asia Legal Resource
Centre said in a statement soon after Ghai arrived in the country.
"The core element of the rule of law is an independent judiciary.
In Cambodia, the judiciary is under the executive control as judges
are mostly affiliated to the ruling CPP party."
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