The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Numbers don’t add up” plus 9 more

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has released a nine-month status report on 2013's illegal timber seizures, saying it had confiscated, among other things, more than 2,000 kilograms of rosewood – a figure that represents only a tiny fraction of seizures reported by the Post this year.

The report, dated November 7 and signed by Agriculture Minister Ouk Rabun, says that in the first nine months of 2013, the MAFF dealt with 1,047 cases of forestry-related crimes, seizing more than 3,400 cubic metres of assorted illegal timber, and a further 106 cubic metres and 2,400 kilograms of rosewood specifically.

"The revenue from the forest is a total of [about $10.9 million], of which the income from selling and renting properties [concessions] and services is [about $8.9 million], and income from fines for forest crimes is [about $2 million]," the report adds.

Despite the seemingly impressive figures, however, previously reported busts dwarf those included in the MAFF's update. One Forestry Administration raid in September, for example, netted some 21 tonnes – itself nearly 10 times the amount recorded in the MAFF's report.

When asked about the discrepancy, Rabun declined to comment. Tim Siphan, a director of the MAFF's Legislation and Law Enforcement Department, also declined to comment, saying he was "busy".

Thorn Sarath, an official with the MAFF's Administration Department, declined to comment on the discrepancy in figures. But he maintained that while his ministry had no compunction about arresting those who committed forest crimes, it had no jurisdiction over concessionaires with legal rights to cull trees from property already considered degraded.

"We crack down regardless of whether it is small- or large-scale, but the companies have legal documents," he said.

Ouch Leng, head of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force, said that the more than 1,000 cases and thousands of cubic metres of luxury timber referenced by the MAFF should have resulted in much more government revenue than the $2 million noted in the report, suggesting that some proceeds from logs had been siphoned off into officials' pockets.

What's more, he added, leaving out concessionaires meant ignoring the lion's share of the problem.

"Deforestation is not carried out by normal business people, but by the economic land concessionaires, so the government should take legal measures against all those companies and not just crack down on the normal business people," he said.

A report from the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force released on Tuesday accuses tycoon Try Pheap of not only holding nearly seven times the legal amount of economic land concessions but also of using his massive holdings to facilitate an enormous cross-border timber smuggling operation.

The MAFF's report comes just under nine months after Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a circular calling on officials to step up their efforts to combat the rosewood trade. Observers at the time said the measure was too little, too late.

Of at least 14 timber busts reported by the Post since the circular, only two have yielded actual arrests. The MAFF report, while noting that arrests had been made, offered no specific figures on how many.

Chhim Savuth, a senior investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said yesterday that authorities remained reluctant to come down on major smugglers of rosewood – focusing instead on small-timers – and were happy to let others go in exchange for a cut.

"The fact is, that when they crack down, it's because [smugglers] do not agree to pay the authorities, and it is a cover-up of what is happening," he said.

The Asian Development Bank has pledged $3 million from its Asia Pacific Disaster Response Facility to aid the Kingdom's flood-relief efforts, the regional creditor said yesterday.

The grant will largely go toward rice seeds, "temporary repair of irrigation canals and related facilities" and funding cash-for-work programs to repair damaged rural roads, ADB Cambodia country director Eric Sidgwick said in a statement.

"ADB's support is a direct response to the need for action on quick road repairs to ensure the smooth delivery of relief supplies and the provision of rice seeds to enable replanting before waters recede," Sidgwick said.

Estimates released by the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) put the total cost of property damage from this year's flooding at $1 billion. More than 240,000 hectares of rice and seedlings have been devastated by flood waters in 20 provinces.

Nhim Vanda, first vice president of the NCDM, said that while waters had receded in all provinces, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Siem Reap had been hit the hardest.

"During the flood, the government distributed one million tonnes of rice to flood victims and 200 tonnes of rice seed," Vanda said yesterday, noting he had yet to receive reports from provincial authorities on how much of the allotted rice and seedlings had made it to the hands of those affected.

I Long, deputy provincial governor of Banteay Meanchey, one of the provinces identified by Vanda as worst hit by the flooding, told the Post yesterday that while local authorities have indeed begun distributing food staples and begun repairing damaged roads, people's need remains great.

"Even though the floodwater has receded, residents still suffer because so much has been lost and damaged, like farms, houses, streets and there is not enough food."

Three Cambodians suspected of illegal logging in Thailand were reportedly shot dead by Thai forestry officials in Sisaket province on Tuesday morning.

The forestry officers were patrolling the wildlife sanctuary near the border with Cambodia in Katharalak district when they came upon the three Cambodians, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday.

A gunfight broke out lasting more than 10 minutes, according to the report. After the clash, the three men's bodies were discovered close to 18 rosewood logs.

If exported, it is estimated that the rosewood could have fetched up to 10 million baht ($315,000). Along with the logs, Thai officials found logging paraphernalia including eight saws, four axes and five head torches.

Touch Ra, border patrol chief at the Choam Sangam border in Oddar Meanchey, said he had contacted the Thai military, but had not confirmed the deaths.

"I'm not sure if it happened.… I will not be sure unless I get a report and the bodies from Thailand," he said.

At a meeting on the border held in May, both countries agreed to create 15 border patrol teams as part of a working group to share information in the hope of containing the increasing number of deaths along the two countries' long border.

But Touch Va said the fruits of this meeting had yet to filter down to the Choam Sangam border, saying he meets with Thai military officials once or twice a month, but had no knowledge of the working group.

"We have informed people not to enter Thai territory, because we are afraid they will be shot. Although they know about it, they say they are poor and they cannot harvest their crops and that's why they have to go," he said.

"It is very difficult [for us], because they go secretly at night and we do not know – but we do when they are shot dead. The Thai side says they shoot for self-defence but we have never seen Cambodian bodies or Cambodians arrested who had guns with them," he added.

District and provincial police in Ratanakkiri are searching for a band of muggers who allegedly robbed a pair of jewellers at gunpoint of more than $46,000 worth of gold and platinum.

After packing their gold and platinum into a jewellery box, the married couple, Sart Vanda, 35, and Keo Sinat, 28, were heading on their motorbike from Bakeo district market, where they sell jewellery for a living, to their home in Laminh commune's Village 1 at 4:15pm on Tuesday when a man stepped onto the road. He pointed a gun at them and ordered them off the bike, Min Ren, Bakeo district police chief, said.

When they got off the bike, on which they carried a box containing about 30 grams of gold and a kilogram of platinum, another man jumped on it and drove away, Ren said. The armed man then jumped onto a second motorbike that pulled up and sped off.

Many people witnessed the robbery, which occurred about 10 metres from Vanda and Sinat's jewellery shop, Ren said. Police found the empty jewellery box in a cashew plantation close to the scene of robbery.

More than 100 workers from the Alim garment factory in Phnom Penh marched on City Hall yesterday, demanding the dismissal of four managers.

Yam Thaisan, a legal officer from a union representing the workers at the Por Sen Chey district factory, said strikers had called on Municipal Governor Pa Socheatvong to intervene to resolve the dispute.

"[The governor's] representative accepted our petition, but did not promise to resolve this for us," he said. "We will continue our protest again tomorrow, and we will travel to Hun Sen's house soon if we have to."

More than 400 workers have been on strike for nearly two weeks, demanding the sacking of the four managers, a 2,000-riel lunch allowance and wage uniformity.

Uth Phanha, a manager at the factory, said yesterday that bosses had tried their best to end the strike, but workers did not respect Arbitration Council or municipal court rulings for them to return to work.

"At no point have we prevented them from coming back to work," Phanha said. "I'm not sure what my directors will do if they still won't go back to work as the court has ordered."

A 23-year-old Stung Treng man was hauled in for questioning by police yesterday after he criticised a senior military police official on Facebook

Colonel Ieng Vandy, the Stung Treng military police chief, said he ordered his officers to arrest Cheth Sovichea yesterday morning after spotting what he considered to be defamatory posts about him on Facebook.

"I cracked down on him, because he wrote that I had come to amass money, used vulgar words and despite my high status, I sound like a backwards man from the country," Vandy said.

"He admitted [to doing it]. He posted about me not only once but two or three times already. But when he realised what he had done wrong, I educated him and then released him. I asked him to make a correction, but if he still continues I will complain to the court."

Sovichea could not be reached for comment yesterday.

If management at SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. does not sign on to an agreement, which would end a three-month strike at the factory, the next stop is court.

Ministry of Labour officials are scheduled to sit down with SL management this morning, during which the ministry will try to talk SL into signing on to an agreement with the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said Sat Sakmoth, secretary of state at the labor ministry.

"If they still refuse to accept the agreement, I will send their case to the court," Sakmoth said.

Among other stipulations, the agreement would require SL to rehire 19 fired union leaders and activists and drop a lawsuit SL filed against them, which alleges that these former employees are responsible for profits lost. The Ministry of Labour last Friday ordered SL to rehire the workers.

Joseph Kee Leung Lee, director of SL International Holdings, yesterday said he could not comment on the 19 workers, because of SL's pending lawsuit.

A couple was questioned in Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday over the alleged sale of more than 30 Cambodian women for marriage in China and South Korea, police and court officials said.

Top Chhunlong, an assistant prosecutor at the court, said Bo Sina, 37, also known as "Yann", and her husband, Chan Seiha, 37, were questioned at length over the alleged marriage brokering, but had not yet been charged.

An intelligence police officer from the Ministry of Interior, who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, told the Post that an investigation had linked Sina to the trafficking of 30 Cambodian women to South Korea since 2010 and seven to China this year.

"[Sina] trafficked many Cambodian girls to bosses at Chinese and Korean companies to be married off to foreign husbands in South Korea and China," he said.

The couple had been arrested in response to complaints made by two of the young women sent to China, he added.

After being sold to massage parlours in China, the two women telephoned their parents in Kampong Cham province, who notified police.

The suspects were arrested in Phnom Penh on Saturday at their home in Por Sen Chey district's Kakab commune, the officer added.

Sina has been accused of violating Article 15 on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation law, while Seiha has been accused of being an accomplice to human trafficking.

If the duo is charged and found guilty, they face up to 15 years in prison, the officer said.

The two suspects and their defence lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Two people were seriously injured and five others slightly injured when unexploded ordnance (UXO) detonated in a rice field in Oddar Meanchey province yesterday, police said.

Sou Nov, deputy police in Anlong Veng district, said the group of seven had been enjoying lunch together in Trapaing Prey commune when the UXO exploded.

"A man stepped on it," Nov said, adding that the man and a 16-year-old girl were seriously injured. "It exploded near their eating place in the rice fields, so the others were injured by shrapnel."

The victims were among 10 people working in the fields. The victims, who ranged in age from 16 to 35, were taken to hospital.

According to eight-month figures released by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre in September, UXO deaths have dropped almost 30 per cent this year, down from 26 deaths in the first eight months of last year to 19 deaths over the same period this year. In that time, 64 were injured, down 37 from the same period last year.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance has sought to ease concerns surrounding a huge portion of the 2014 budget that remains unallocated, saying the leftover $1.5 billion would be spent on about a dozen "targets".

Until that time, Prime Minister Hun Sen is the only person who is authorised to control the huge sum, which is equal to about 44 per cent of the total national budget for next year, a senior Cambodian People's Party lawmaker told the Post.

In a statement released yesterday, following concerns raised by transparency groups that the unallocated funds would encourage nepotism and embezzlement, the ministry said almost all of the money would be allocated.

"Actually, a majority of the unallocated portion of the national budget was already in the target," the statement said.

Cheam Yeap, a member of the government's banking and finance committee, said that Hun Sen was in control of the money and its allocation, adding that he would report how it was spent to the National Assembly.

"Only the Prime Minister has the power to control the spending [of the unallocated funds]," he said.

Yesterday's statement outlined several areas where the money would be spent, according to the ministry.

More than $104 million would be spent on infrastructure, for example, including roads, schools and hospitals, with $24.7 million reserved for emergency responses to natural disasters and national security events.

With the deductions taken into account, the actual total of the unallocated funds, the statement continued, amounts to $127.3 million, or about 3.8 per cent of the budget.

Does the government statement make a difference? "Not a single bit," Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said. "The point is there needs to be transparency. This is people's money and it belongs to the nation, to the people.

"There's supposed to be public consultations. Regardless of how much they want to clarify, it doesn't end the lingering questions [over the budget]."

The Draft Budget Law was approved by the National Assembly on November 12 in a unanimous vote of 66 ruling Cambodian People's Party MPs. It is due to be signed into law by King Norodom Sihamoni in December.

"What concerns me most is that the CPP was incredibly strategic leading up to and after the July elections," political analyst Peter Tan Keo said in an email. "Concrete plans were in place, from holding the first National Assembly meeting, swearing in all 68 members of the ruling party, to forming the new CPP-filled government, and now to passing the 2014 national budget, all without the opposition.

"The CPP lacked specificity when it came to funds accounting for nearly half the national budget. That's a bit suspect and definitely raises red flags, especially for a country with a not-so-stellar reputation of corruption," he added.