The government’s legal chief says he will soon file a slander lawsuit against Global Witness country director Eva Galabru for accusing police of using violence against anti-logging activists.
Kao Bun Hong, attorney general at the Council of Ministers, said Galabru’s statements incited violence and that her organization refuses to cooperate with government forestry officials.
“We are happy to work with NGOs who are working professionally, but Global Witness often splashes the water on the government,” he said Tuesday.
“If [Global Witness] wanted to cooperate with the government, it should have sent a notice to the government when it had something to report. This organization provoked violence. It defamed a country which respects the law and it publishes false information.”
Galabru, who said Tuesday that she has not received official notice of a lawsuit, said Global Witness stands by their reports.
“We’re not the ones wielding the chainsaws or the electric batons,” she said.
Kao Bun Hong said the matter will go to Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
“[She] wants to make hostilities with us but we had no bad intentions. We only want to find justice for the government,” he said.
Galabru and Global Witness have often clashed with government officials, but talk of a lawsuit flared after a Dec 5 confrontation between police and villagers who wanted to talk to Department of Forestry officials about logging plans for their homelands.
Seven people required hospitalization after police forcibly dispersed the protest at the department’s offices along Norodom Boulevard. A 29-year-old man who was among the protesters died shortly after the confrontation of what doctors said was a heart attack. His death was never definitively linked to the protest.
