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Senior officials in Cambodia are involved in a highly organized "ransacking" of the country's forests while donors stand idly by, an environmental watchdog accused in a report released Friday.
Global Witness claims that legitimate land concessions are being used as a cover for stripping the country of its forests by families close to the government, including that of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The forests of Cambodia have been ransacked over the past decade by this mafia with little or no benefit flowing down to the ordinary people," said Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness. A top Cambodian government official denied the allegations, saying that London-based Global Witness published the false report as retribution for being kicked out of the country. "They are just seeking revenge on the government after we sacked them," Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Chan Sarun, who was prominently named in the report, said by telephone. "There is absolutely no truth to the claims. Illegal logging was stopped in 2003." Global Witness was fired by Cambodia as an independent forestry watchdog in 2003 and thrown out of the country altogether in 2005. "I did not have much time to think yet, but I am certainly considering legal action," said the forestry minister. Entitled Cambodia's Family Trees, the 95-page report was launched ahead of an international donor meeting on future aid to Cambodia scheduled for June 19-20. The aim is to make donors start using their influence more effectively, said the environmental group. "Despite the huge amount of aid flowing into the country, the political culture of corruption and impunity means that Cambodians are still among the world's poorest people," said Taylor. "When are the donors going to start addressing the asset-stripping, mafioso behavior of the current regime?" The report claims one of the country's most powerful illegal logging syndicates is rubber company Seng Keang which is controlled by relatives of Hun Sen, Chan Sarun and Director General of the Forest Administration Ty Sokhun. "Under the guise of a government-mandated rubber plantation, it has illegally logged vast tracts of forest, yielding a timber haul worth more than US$13 million annually. Its targeting of resin trees has damaged the livelihoods of hundreds, if not thousands of families living in the area," the press release claimed. The report goes on to accuse those involved in Seng Keang of a host of serious crimes to protect their alleged illegal logging assets, and says the company's activities cost the impoverished country dearly in unpaid taxes each year. The last global forest cover survey by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations found that Cambodia had lost 29 percent of its forest cover over a five-year period. Cambodia, still recovering from 30 years of civil war, is heavily dependent on donor aid which funds more than half of the country's budget. Taylor said donors need a sharp dig in the ribs to wake them up because their habitual practice was to say "Naughty, naughty, have some more money." See the Global Witness Report: Cambodia's Family Trees
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