"We are in the process of selecting a new and independent environmental monitor which has transparency in monitoring the forests, rather than Global Witness," Ty Sokun, director of Cambodia's Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DFW), told AFP.

According to the group, minister for agriculture, forestry and fisheries Chan Sarun wrote to Global Witness on January 22 informing the group that it would be terminated as monitor in three months.

Country director Eva Galabru told AFP the office has received no other correspondence from the government since then.

"Now the three-month term has expired and we have not received more news from them," Galabru said.

Global Witness was the independent monitor within Cambodia's Forest Crimes Monitoring Unit from 1999.

The unit was set up to develop the government's capacity to detect and suppress illegal logging and specifically monitors the activities of offices overseeing forest crimes in the DFW and the Ministry of Environment.

But the group fell out with Prime Minister Hun Sen after it charged that Cambodian police armed with electric shock batons used excessive force to break up a December protest in the capital by 150 representatives of forest-dependent communities.

At least one villager involved died from a heart attack, the group said.

The government denied the allegations, ordered the group to cease operations and threatened to sue one GW representative for "disinformation," although the order was withdrawn after pressure from international donor countries.

Global Witness said that without a monitoring mechanism in place the government was in breach of World Bank conditions for disbursements from the bank's 30-million-dollar Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) for Cambodia.

"The decision to dispense with independent monitoring leaves the government, the international donor community and, most importantly, the public without any credible source of information regarding illegal logging in Cambodia," said the group's Jon Buckrell.

Any organisation which comes in as the next monitor could face similar problems, he said.

"The price for doing this job effectively is at best non-co-operation and at worst outright intimidation."

Cambodia's economy, among the poorest in Asia, is heavily dependent on foreign aid. Donors have specifically complained about a lack of forestry reform.

SPACE.WIRE