Cambodian NGOs Threaten to Expose More Illegal Logging
A group of Cambodian NGOs threatened on Monday to expose more cases of forestry crime involving businessmen and the police, saying they were unshaken by a defamation suit filed by top tycoon accused of illegal logging and land-grabbing. Representatives of the five organizations told reporters Monday they have information about “at least 100 individuals” complicit in illegal logging, including high-ranking police officers who they said could be held liable for criminal charges of corruption and forest destruction. The warning follows a report last week by an NGO, which was not among the five, claiming timber magnate Try Pheap, who has close connections with Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling party, had used land concessions granted by the government to facilitate massive illegal logging operations. Two villagers quoted in the report—one of them a commune representative for the opposition party—have been summoned to appear in court on Friday in a lawsuit over the report. Representatives from the five NGOs—Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), and three smaller local rights groups—charged at a press conference Monday that business groups such as those linked to Try Pheap have used land concessions to destroy forests. Illegal logging in at least 11 provinces, including in national parks and protected forests, is threatening to wipe out the country’s forests, they said, urging the government to take swift action to curb the problem. … Last week’s report by the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force (CHRTF) said Try Pheap had accumulated land concessions amounting to more than seven times the area allowed by law and had blatantly flouted the conditions under which they were given. Two days after the report, Sen San and Ouk Sambo, both residents of Kandal Stung district near where Try Pheap has a residence in Kandal province, received summonses to appear in the provincial court for the defamation lawsuit, the two told RFA’s Khmer Service. … A representative of Try Pheap’s company in Preah Vihear province denied allegations of illegal activity, according to the Phnom Penh Post. “Our company does not log illegally,” said the representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that Try Pheap’s companies had rights to buy timber in eight provinces. He called allegations about the companies’ practices false, and said that villagers were given adequate compensation when they were relocated. …
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/logging-11252013185559.html
