Press release 6 June

Cambodian officials respond to Global Witness report with ban andthreat of violence

UK-based NGO Global Witness today condemned the Cambodian government’s decision to ban its latest report, as well as the violent threatagainst Global Witness staff made by the prime minister’s brother.

Released on June 1st, ‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’ revealshow the illegal destruction of Cambodia’s forests is carried out with impunity by family members and business associates of Prime Minister Hun Sen, his wife, and other senior officials.

On Sunday Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith issued a statement saying that the government was banning the report and would confiscate any copies it found in Cambodia. On Tuesday Hun Neng, the governor of Kompong Cham province and brother of Hun Sen, was quoted in a Cambodian newspaper as saying that "If (Global Witness staff) come to Cambodia, I will hit them until their heads are broken."

“This is senseless censorship,”said Global Witness Director, Simon Taylor. “Attempts to suppress this report will not make the facts that it presents disappear. We would very much like to know the legal basis for this decision.”

“The threat against our staffis entirely unacceptable,” added Taylor. “Such crude intimidation by a senior public official says little for the government’s commitment to upholdinghuman rights and freedom of expression.”

Cambodians’ right to freedom of expression is guaranteed by Article 41 of the country’s constitution, and by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cambodiaratified in 1992.

Global Witness is calling on the government to ensure full and credible investigationsand prosecutions of all those responsible for the cases of illegal logging, corruption, smuggling, attempted murder and kidnapping detailed in the‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’ report.

The report’s findings include the following:

-Cambodia’s most powerful illegal logging syndicate – known as the Seng Keang Company –is controlled by individuals related to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chan Sarun and Director General of the Forest Administration Ty Sokhun.

-The Seng Keang Company has illegally logged vast tracts of PreyLongForest, 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.

-Leading members of the syndicate are heavily implicated not only in illegal logging, but also tax evasion, kidnapping, bribery and attempted murder.

-There is substantial evidence that the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Chan Sarun, and Director General of the Forest Administration, Ty Sokhun, have illegally sold at least 500 jobs in the Forest Administration.

-The elite Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Brigade 70 unit makes between US$2 million and US$2.5 million per year throughtransporting illegally-logged timber and smuggled goods. A large slice of the profits generated through these activities goes to Lieutenant General Hing Bun Heang, Commander of the Prime Minister’s Bodyguard Unit.

“The reaction to this report raises a serious question for Cambodia’s international donors,” said Taylor. “Is the government sincere in its pledges to strengthen governance and the rule of law, or is it simply paying lip service to these ideals to secure aid and international respectability?”

‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’ can be downloaded from

For more information and interviews, please contact Global Witness on + 44 (0)207 561 6396.

Notes to Editors:

(1) Global Witness exposes the corrupt exploitation of natural resources and international trade systems, to drive campaigns that end impunity, resource-linked conflict, and human rights and environmental abuses. Global Witness was co-nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for its leading work on ‘conflict diamonds' and awarded the Gleitsman Foundation prize for international activism in 2005. For more information on Cambodia, see other Global Witness reports and briefing documents, available at

(2) References to the threat made against Global Witness staff by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s brother are drawn from an article by Douglas Gillison and Yun Samean, published in the Cambodia Daily on June 5 2007. In it, the Prime Minister’s brother and Kompong Cham provincial governor Hun Neng is quoted as saying: "If they (Global Witness staff) come to Cambodia, I will hit them until their heads are broken."

(3) Article 19 of the ICCPR states that:”1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. 3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of othersl (b) For the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals.”

(4) Article 41 of the Constitution states that “Khmer citizens shall have freedom of expression, press, publication and assembly. No one shall exercise this right to infringe upon the rights of others, to affect the good traditions of the society, to violate public law and order and national security. The regime of the media shall be determined by law.”

(5) International Donors to the Cambodian government currently supply the equivalent of over half of Cambodia’s annual budget in loans and grants. In 2006, the donor community pledged to give US$601 million.

(6) The Seng Keang logging syndicate is led by Dy Chouch, also known as Hun Chouch, his ex-wife Seng Keang and Khun Thong, their business partner. This group operates under the name Seng Keang Company. Dy Chouch is the first cousin of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Seng Keang is a friend of Bun Rany, the wife of Hun Sen. Khun Thong is the brother-in-law of Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chan Sarun and father-in-law of Director General of the Forest Administration Ty Sokhun. Seng Keang’s brother, Seng Kok Heang, who supervises operations for Seng Keang Company, is an officer in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Brigade 70 unit.

(7) The Brigade 70 is an elite unit within the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. It acts as a reserve force for Hun Sen’s 4,000 strong Bodyguard Unit. The two units comprise what is essentially a private army controlled by the prime minister.

(8) The Prey Long forest landscape in northern Cambodia is the largest contiguous area of dry evergreen and semi-evergreen forest left standing in mainland Southeast Asia. Situated to the west of the MekongRiver, it covers an area of approximately 5250 km2. Prey Long’s importance is highlighted in a number of studies of forest management in Cambodia, not least the 2006 World Bank Inspection Panel report ( and the 2004 Cambodia Independent Forest Sector Review ( It has been included in a tentative list of sites proposed for UNESCO World Heritage status. The Cambodian government is currently developing plans to clear tens of thousands of hectares of Prey Long to make way for plantations.