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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Little won in logging crackdown

Fri, 13 September 2013 Stuart White and Phak Seangly From The Phnom Penh Post

Anti-economic crime police seize 10 cubic metres of rosewood at the home of a district policeman in Ratanakkiri province’s Andong Meas district in August. The policeman’s wife admitted to owning the wood but no arrests were made. PHOTO SUPPLIED
Early on Monday morning, at about 1am, two trucks carrying roughly 10 cubic metres of illegally felled timber were bouncing down the road between Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap.
Police stopped the trucks – one of which bore military plates – and seized the haul, but the drivers, a Siem Reap police official said, “escaped into the dark”.
A little over six months after Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a circular ordering authorities to step up their efforts to stamp out illegal logging, luxury timber seizures are a regular fixture of media reports, but incidents such as the one above have come to typify the crackdown on illegal logging.
There have been at least a dozen timber seizures covered by the Post since the premier’s announcement on February 21. In one, a suspect died in a car chase with Forestry Administration (FA) officers. In another, police promised to summons a suspect for questioning, though no arrests were made.
But out of those dozen seizures, only one resulted in actual arrests – a situation that observers and rights groups say typifies the enforcement of the Kingdom’s anti-logging laws and betrays a lack of will, or possibly scruples, on the part of enforcers.
Chhay Thy, a coordinator for the rights group Adhoc who has dealt extensively with illegal logging in Ratanakkiri province, said the line between officers and offenders in the illegal timber trade was blurry at best.
“They are the same group, so police alert the offenders before raiding. Some arrests are just an excuse to make a report,” he said, noting that officers rarely perform due diligence when it comes to tracking suspects.

NGOs defend right to aid rally

Fri, 13 September 2013 Kevin Ponniah and Chhay Channyda From The Phnom Penh Post

















CNRP supporters attend a rally in Phnom Penh last Saturday. Yesterday civil society groups reacted to the Ministry of Interior’s statement on rules of political neutrality. PHA LINA
Civil society groups yesterday hit back at the government after a Ministry of Interior statement released on Wednesday warned NGOs that they would be breaking ministry protocols on political neutrality by “directly or indirectly” supporting an unnamed political party or its protests.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party has planned three days of ongoing demonstrations starting from Sunday and has invited NGOs to address the crowd if they wish.
A statement released yesterday by the “Situation Room” – a coalition of election monitors that will send a representative to speak about the election at the demonstrations – did not address the government warning directly, but outlined its rights in relation to the protest.
“[We] monitor and intervene for human rights violations and give first aid to people who are victims during any protest in Cambodia.… Strengthening democracy and basic rights is a core mission of civil society,” the statement reads.
It adds that 800 first-aid officers and an additional 800 monitors will be deployed for the upcoming demonstrations.
The government has long accused some NGOs of being politically one-sided due to overlap between civil society and opposition party criticisms of the ruling party.