Hun Sen Creates Committee to Tackle Illegal Timber Trade in Cambodia
RFA | 19 January 2016
Authorities examine timber found in a complex of a concession
zone operated by a Chinese company in Roluos commune, Sambo district, in
northeastern Cambodia's Kratie province, Jan. 18, 2016.
RFA
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has set up a committee to stop the
smuggling of timber across the border to Vietnam and warned that he
will remove the governor of the southeastern province that serves as the
main gateway for the logs if he and a local district official fail to
curb the illegal activities.
Hun Sen on Friday appointed National Military Police Commander Sao
Sokha to head up the 10-member committee called the Coalition Committee
for Forest Crime Prevention to crack down on illegal timber smuggling
into neighboring Vietnam.
Hun Sen also ordered the closure of Cambodia-Vietnam border
checkpoints to prevent timber transports, according to information on
the Facebook page of Information Minister Khieu Kanharith.
Police also found three illegal logging sites in Mondulkiri
province’s Keo Seima district, where thousands of cubic meters of timber
were piled high, as well as sites in Kratie province’s Sambor district,
The Phnom Penh Post reported Tuesday.
Military police officials have been deployed to major border
crossings and checkpoints in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, Kratie and Prey
Veng provinces, to stop the movement of both legal and illegal timber,
the report said.
The prime minister also said he would dismiss Prach Chan, governor of
Tbong Khmum province in southeastern Cambodia, if he and Memot district
governor Cheng Bunara did not take action to prevent the illegal
transport of Cambodian timber to Vietnam.
Hun Sen specifically singled out two wealthy businessmen — Soeng Sam
Ol and Lim Bunna — as the reported leaders of timber smuggling rings in
Tbong Khmum’s Memot district, The Phnom Penh Post reported,
citing government spokesman Phay Siphan. The two have smuggled wood to
Vietnam without government permission, he said.
Prach Chan, a member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP),
said Friday that Hun Sen’s order to close the border crossings through
which logs are illegally transported to Vietnam was the correct action
to take and that provincial authorities would step up their enforcement
of measures to prevent of forest crimes.
“Now, it is his order,” Prach Chan said. “He will set up a committee
to take strict measures [against forest crimes], and I am prepared to
implement them effectively.”
Prach Chan used to receive praise from Hun Sen for his work and
leadership when he was governor of northwestern Cambodia’s Battambang
province.
The government had appointed him first governor of newly formed Tbong
Khmum province in January 2014, although he did not take up his
position until later that year.
Destruction continues
Ouch Leng, director of Cambodia’s Human Rights Task Force, however,
expressed pessimism about the measures, pointing out that although Hun
Sen had issued similar threats and warnings before, the destruction of
Cambodia’s forests has continued.
“It is a kind of show, so that he can collect the votes,” Ouch Leng
said. “[It gives the perception that] he is making efforts to protect
the forest, when in fact the results that we have received have not
reflected what he has said.”
Chhun Vutha, chief of Memot commune, expressed support for the
government’s measures, but said he had little faith in Hun Sen, who used
to promise to cut off his own head if he could not bring forest crimes
under control.
Residents of Memot district and civil society activists say although
the crackdown on those who operate warehouses and illegally transport
timber in Tbong Khmum province is a positive measure, they are concerned
about a lack of transparency.
Some people in the district’s Dar commune have requested that
authorities, including those on the newly created committee, share
details about their operations with the public to prevent collusion
between authorities and smugglers.
One resident, Thoeun Vutha, told RFA’s Khmer Service that the
government’s measures would only be effective in the short term and that
timber trafficking would continue after the crackdown grows quiet.
The committee conducting the inspection operations can cover them for
only a short period of time because the transparency [of their actions]
will not outpace the conspiracy practices of authorities at any level,”
he said.
RFA contacted Prach Chan for comment on Tuesday, but he said he was busy in a meeting.
Neang Suvath, provincial coordinator for the domestic rights group
Adhoc, said people cannot trust the government officials involved in
implementing the crackdown unless they are completely honest about their
operations.
Authorities should publicly reveal the identities of timber traders
and smugglers and show reports indicating the locations of warehouses
they raid, he said.
Cambodia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world,
largely due to illegal logging. A report issued last year by the U.K.
environmental rights group Global Witness found that government and
military officials collude with businessmen to illegally cut and
transport Cambodian timber mainly to China.
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