Mysterious Fire Destroys ELC Timber Admidst Investigation

School of Vice: One or two isolated incidents like these may count as "mysterious", but scores of them happening within a short period of time is definitely fishy! 

It's not only the rogue tycoons and foreign companies who run these ELCs that are culpable of the destructive responsibility, but equally the local and central authorities also share the same amount of guilt in failing to protect the nation's precious and rapidly dwindling natural resources through ignorance and wastage.

A fire at a Uni-Green Company ELC in Mondulkiri destroyed 70 percent of their timber. Supplied

Mysterious Fire Destroys ELC Timber Admidst Investigation

Khmer Times / May Titthara Friday, 04 March 2016 

Hundreds of cubic meters of timber on a Mondulkiri economic land concession leased to the Uni-Green Company burned to the ground yesterday after an alleged fire from a nearby forest jumped to the property, according to provincial governor Svay Sam Eng, who added that despite efforts to extinguish the blaze by officials who were at the plantation inspecting the legality of the timber – and even with the assistance of firefighters – it has yet to be contained.

“According to the first report, the fire was caused by a big burning forest nearby. As for officials who were inspecting the timber, they could not stop the fire, because it was huge,” Mr. Sam Eng said.

There are reports that 70 percent of Uni-Green’s timber has been destroyed so far, according to the provincial governor. He plans on traveling to the ELC this morning in order to determine the cause of the fire.

Eng Hy, spokesman for the National Gendarmerie and National Anti-Deforestation Committee, claimed officials were unable to contain the blaze because the fire jumped from a nearby forest that was full of thatches.

“Our officials have been trying to stop the fire, but there are too many thatches. They have spread sand over the fire, and they also hit the fire with tree branches in order to extinguish it. But it did not work out. We don’t know yet how bad the damage is. We are doing the calculations,” Mr. Hy added.

During the NADC’s months-long crackdown on deforestation crimes, similar fires have destroyed timber belonging to the Bin Phea Company, the Khmer Angkor Agriculture Company and Dai Nam.

Yesterday’s blaze took place on the 8,000 hectare ELC in Kor Nhek district leased to the China-based Uni-Green Company in 2009 for the purpose of developing a rubber plantation. The company is owned by Chua Kwaseng.

Ouch Leng, president of the Human Rights Task force (CHRTF), questioned the true cause of the fire. The timber, he said, did not burn by itself. He raised questions about why the timber was the only thing to burn on the plantation, and where the officials who were supposed to be inspecting the timber were when the blaze broke out.

“It was reported under the pretext that the company’s timber was burned by a fire from the forest nearby, but I think it was set in order to destroy evidence that the committee could have used to find out who the real owner of the timber was and whether it was legal or not,” Mr. Leng said.

The National Anti-Deforestation Committee was created by Prime Minister Hun Sen on January 15. It is comprised of 10 members, all from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment and the governors of the provinces along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border.