Government & Military Flattening Cambodian Forest Reserve - AP

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"Government and military officials are pillaging timber from a protected forest in southwestern Cambodia and extorting money from other illegal loggers there, an international conservation group said Friday.

A report by the London-based group Global Witness names forestry authorities, other government officials and military officers, claiming they've been illegally cutting trees and taking payoffs from other loggers to let them operate in the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary. "Name any law enforcement agency or department of government, from the Forest Administration to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, from the Police to Military Intelligence; even Unit B-70, the Prime Minister's bodyguards, are involved," Jon Buckrell of Global Witness said in a statement.

Logging is prohibited in Aural, which was given protected status by the government in 1993, said the Global Witness report. "Aural has become a honey pot" for soldiers and other state officials, it said. At the same time, "the costs of weak forest sector governance, in terms of lost revenues, destruction of rural livelihoods and environmental damage continue to mount."

Cambodia's forests were depleted during decades of war and civil conflict in the 1970s and 1980s , when rival factions sold timber to finance their activities. In the 1990s, officially awarded but loosely regulated concessions stripped out more trees. Government and military officials have allegedly become increasingly involved."

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