December 31, 2002
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday his government was investigating and preparing to sue international forestry watchdog Global Witness for alleged defamation of his government.
"Although the case needs an approach to an international court, we should do it to seek justice," Hun Sen told a class of graduating law students in Phnom Penh.
He said a lawyer for the government was filing the case while the Ministry of Agriculture or Cambodian police could also share the filings.
Global Witness said Dec 5 the government mobilized armed military police, police and elite force Flying Tigers to crack down on about 100 provincial community representatives who had peacefully gathered in front of the Forestry and Wildlife Department to press for a workshop on forestry management plans and environmental and social impact assessments.
It said the "state thugs" beat people with batons and electric cattle prods, injuring around a dozen people, including one person whose foot was broken.
Hun Sen accused the Global Witness of unjustly defaming his government when it released an "exaggerated" report alleging the use of excessive force by police in dispersing a group of anti-logging protesters.
But on Friday, a group of 18 Cambodian nongovernmental organizations said the Global Witness report was correct and urged the government to reverse its plan to close down the watchdog's office.
The premier's announcement was made hours after the World Bank, a major donor to Cambodia, issued a statement saying it would review its aid to the country's forestry sector following the government's decision to close down the office of the Global Witness.
The World Bank has so far disbursed half of its planned $30 million aid to the government as part of structural adjustment credit for forestry reforms. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had tied their assistance to the signing of a deal between the government and Global Witness that made the latter an independent forestry watchdog.
Global Witness has been operating in Cambodia since December 1999 as the "independent monitor on the Forest Crime Monitoring and Reporting Project," envisaged at a February 1999 donor meeting in Tokyo to ensure government compliance with promised forestry reforms.
Cambodia's forest cover has been reduced from an estimated 70% in the early 1970s to only some 35% now amid decades of civil strife among various Cambodian factions, partly funded by the selling off of forest resources.
The government has permitted 14 logging concessionaires to operate throughout the country, some of which Global Witness says have broken their contracts or violate laws by cutting logs outside their areas, using intimidation, or causing violence.
Hun Sen, however, said he would not halt the forestry reforms as conditioned by foreign donors, but said he would seek a new organization to monitor the forestry sector.
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