Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday rebuked those who accuse his government of devastating the country’s rapidly falling forests and said he had personally authorized national military police to shoot illegal loggers—not only with bullets but with rockets as well.
Satellite data analyzed by the University of Maryland shows that Cambodia has one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation since the turn of the century, and a faster acceleration of forest loss over the same period than any other country.
But at the inauguration of the Environment Ministry’s new Phnom Penh headquarters on Thursday, the prime minister said he was personally hurt by those who blamed the deforestation on his government and insisted that the destruction was not nearly as severe as critics claim.
“I suffer too much when they shout about the matter of deforestation,” Mr. Hun Sen told the audience. “If we do not chop down the small plants, how can rubber trees be planted? But when we chop, that’s when they attack us.”
In mid-January, the prime minister announced the creation of a new task force—headed by National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha—to go after illicit timber stocks across the eastern provinces, where illegal logging is rampant. The task force has inspected stockpiles at dozens of sites and recently began sending cases to court.
On Thursday, Mr. Hun Sen said he had given General Sokha specific—and potentially deadly—instructions for getting the job done.
“I gave two helicopters, [but] Sao Sokha has apparently not fired even a single rocket,” he said. “I have authorized the firing of rockets without mercy if they resist.”
Mr. Hun Sen went on to say that it ought to be easy to stamp out illegal logging since the contraband in question was hard to hide.
“With drug smuggling, it’s hard for me to crack down,” he said. “But the logs are so big and transported with trucks, so where are the eyes of the military soldiers, police, military police, Forestry Administration and Ministry of Environment? Or are you just the same [as the loggers]?”
Soldiers and military police are often caught smuggling valuable timber across the country, and NGOs that have investigated the trade say responsibility extends to the top levels of government. Given the state’s involvement, those NGOs are skeptical that the new task force will be any more effective in curbing illegal logging than past efforts, which they say have achieved little to nothing.
Mr. Hun Sen’s own cabinet has arranged a special deal with timber magnate Try Pheap—whom rights groups have accused of laundering more illegally logged wood than anyone in the country—allowing him to buy up all illicit timber seized by the state. The deal contravenes the Forestry Law, which requires all seized timber to be sold off at public auctions.
