Source: 2001
Released by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Cambodia registered gains in improving law enforcement and limiting corruption in 2001, although ingrained corruption and endemic poverty hindered the government's ability to mount a sustained effort against narcotics trafficking. The government's principal counternarcotics body, the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), cooperates closely with DEA, regional counterparts, and the UNODCCP (UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Programs). In October, the Prime Minister dismissed the head of the NACD in connection with the earlier arrest of another senior counternarcotics official on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine. He replaced him with a generally well regarded senior police official. In November, the White House announced Cambodia's removal from the list of major illicit drug producing and drug-transit countries, a development that was welcomed by the Prime Minister and other government officials. The Cambodian government recognizes that its counternarcotics efforts are spotty and often ineffective, and there is widespread recognition that Cambodian authorities need to be more aggressive in trying to stem the flow of illegal narcotics. Because of the unfortunate state of human and institutional capacity in Cambodia, however, Cambodia needs substantial material support in virtually every key area. Cambodia is a party to the 1993 Regional Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Drug Control, and is also a party to the six MOU countries' Sub-regional Action Plan for Drug Control. Cambodia is not a party to the 1961 Single Convention and its 1972 Protocol, nor the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The government, however, is on record as favoring becoming a party to the 1988 Drug Convention.
Cambodia is not a major producer of opiates or coca-based drugs. Until recently, the scope of Cambodia's domestic drug abuse problem was deemed to be less severe than other neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. However, in the past couple of years Cambodia has experienced a disturbingly rapid and significant increase in amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) abuse, particularly among youths who frequent the nightclub scene in Phnom Penh, commercial sex workers, and Cambodian migrant laborers. The incidence of glue sniffing and other inhalant abuse by vagrants, street children, and disadvantaged youths is also growing. In June, Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng termed the crisis of growing illegal substance abuse as Cambodia's second most serious social problem, trailing only the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Marijuana is cultivated primarily for export, with some residual domestic consumption. There are no reliable figures available from either the Cambodian government or the UNDCP on the current extent of cultivation or yield, although some estimates place total production at 700-1,000 tons annually. Marijuana production tends to be concentrated in the provinces of Koh Kong, Battambang, Kampot, Kandal, Kampong Cham, Kratie, Stung Treng, Preah Vihear, and Banteay Meanchey. Planting is done by hand using traditional farming methods, with the normal harvest period occurring between late December and early January. Much of the production is reputed to be "contract cultivation" with Cambodians operating under the control or influence of foreign criminal syndicates. Analysis of seizures in recent years indicates that Europe is the major destination for Cambodian cannabis, with other destinations including the United States, Australia and Africa. Quantities coming to the United States are not sufficient to have a significant impact on the United States.
In addition to marijuana, Cambodia's involvement in the international narcotics trade is as a transit route for Southeast Asian heroin to overseas markets, including China, Australia, Europe, and the United States. There is little hard information available on the scale of heroin trafficked through Cambodia, but the amount of heroin seized in the United States in recent years that is traceable to or through Cambodia is small.
Cambodian authorities are becoming increasingly concerned with the significant increase in the amount of chemically based synthetic drugs coming into the country from Thailand and elsewhere in the region. Cambodian authorities believe that foreign crime syndicates, working in concert with Cambodian nationals, have set up highly mobile clandestine laboratories in Koh Kong, Banteay Meanchey, and Battambang provinces (all along the Thai-Cambodia border) that are producing ATS for local distribution and export. There are some indications that some stationary ATS production centers are being set up in Phnom Penh and elsewhere.
There is some concern that precursor chemicals imported for industrial use in Cambodia, including methanol, sulfuric acid, toluene, and ephedrine, are possibly being diverted for illicit drug production, although the magnitude of this diversion, if it exists, is difficult to ascertain.
Policy Initiatives. Cambodian law enforcement agencies have very limited resources and lack even the most basic training in law enforcement techniques and drug enforcement measures. Three decades of warfare and factional fighting have severely hampered the government's ability to carry out a sustained effort against illegal drugs. In late 1998, the cessation of factional fighting and final demise of the Khmer Rouge, together with the formation of a new coalition government, provided a measure of stability that allowed the government to begin to devote more attention to combating crime and illegal narcotics. But better coordination is needed among various government agencies and ministries--ideally, with a beefed-up NACD playing a central role--to provide more effective measures against drug production, abuse, and trafficking.
The NACD, which was reorganized in 1999, has the potential to become an effective policy and coordination unit for the government. With the enthusiastic backing of the Cambodian government, the UNDCP launched in April 2001 a two-phase, four-year U.S. $2.3 million "NACD Support Project" designed to strengthen the NACD Secretariat. This project seeks, inter alia, to establish the NACD as an independent functional government body able to undertake drug control planning, coordination, and operations. The project seeks to establish procedures for planning, operations, and administration and to provide staff training, technical advice, basic transportation, communications, and office equipment. There is some question, however, as to whether there will be sufficient funding for the project beyond mid-2002.
Accomplishments. A Cambodian delegation traveled to Rangoon in May to participate in a Ministerial-level meeting of the six greater Mekong sub-region countries and the UNDCP. In conjunction with the UNDCP, the six countries that are signatories to the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Regional Drug Control--Cambodia, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and China--hold annual meetings at the Senior Officials level and every other year at the Ministerial level to discuss drug control developments in the region, assess the measures being taken to deal with illicit drug problems, and adopt recommendations on joint remedial actions.
The UNODCCP, with U.S. funding, established a resident liaison office in Phnom Penh in April 2001. The office provides technical assistance to the NACD and is the focal point for donor group activity related to counternarcotics activity in Cambodia. Key donors include Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the European Commission in addition to the United States. In September, Sandro Calvani, Head of the UNODCCP Regional Center for East Asia and the Pacific, visited Phnom Penh for meetings with senior government officials, including Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng. The Prime Minister pledged to cooperate with the UN on combating drugs and appealed to the international community for assistance to build up domestic institutional and human capacity.
Under the leadership of Australia and Japan, a Phnom Penh Mini-Dublin Group was formed in 1999, a development that was warmly welcomed by the Cambodian authorities. This group, in which the United States participates actively, provides a forum for multilateral discussion of narcotics issues and aims to improve coordination of donor efforts to Cambodia's drug control and counternarcotics trafficking efforts. The Mini-Dublin Group met twice in 2001.
Law Enforcement Efforts. According to preliminary figures from the Anti-Drug Department of the National Police, 109 people were arrested for various drug-related offenses in 2001, compared with 124 arrests in 2000. Of the 109 persons arrested in 2001, 80 were Cambodians, 21 were Vietnamese, and eight were other nationals. In 2001, one particularly significant drug arrest took place in December, when police arrested four people suspected of producing methamphetamine. The police confiscated some precursor chemicals and various other drug paraphernalia. The significance of this case stems from its being one of the few instances in recent memory where police arrested suspected producers, rather than buyers and sellers.
Corruption. Corruption remains widespread and pervasive in Cambodia. This makes Cambodia highly vulnerable to penetration by drug traffickers and foreign crime syndicates, and makes effective law enforcement a daunting challenge. Senior Cambodian government officials proclaim their intention to fight illegal narcotics trafficking and production, and officials at all levels regularly call for U.S. assistance in training counternarcotics police. Several factors constrain sustained advances in effective law enforcement of illegal drugs by the government, however, not the least of which is an acute shortage of trained personnel and high levels of official corruption, aggravated by abysmally low salaries for Cambodian civil servants. There is no formal police training academy, and the management structure in the law enforcement agencies would not be able to benefit from and implement outside training or the establishment of investigative and administrative procedures. The judicial system is weak, and there have been numerous cases of defendants in important narcotics and other criminal cases having charges against them dropped inexplicably after paying relatively small fines.
In early October, a special police task force arrested a senior counternarcotics official and four accomplices on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine. It was later revealed that the senior official arrested was a close associate of Lt. Gen. Em Sam An, the head of the NACD. This revelation led to an outpouring of press criticism leveled at the government and prompted an official letter of concern from the UNDCP liaison office. By late October, Prime Minister Hun Sen dismissed Em Sam An from his NACD position, although Em Sam An retained his high ranking position of Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and was not charged with any offense. The Prime Minister's action was well received domestically and internationally. The new head of the NACD appointed by the Prime Minister is Lt. Gen. Teng Savong, a generally well respected senior officer who was deputy chief of the National Police prior to this appointment.
Agreements and Treaties. Cambodia has signed, but not ratified the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1972 Protocol amending the Single Convention. Cambodia is not a party to the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances or the 1988 UN Drug Convention. However, the comprehensive counternarcotics legislation passed by the National Assembly in December 1996 would enable Cambodia to become a party to the above conventions and to implement measures consistent with these conventions. Although Cambodia is not yet a party to the UN drug conventions, the government voluntarily submits the UNDCP annual report questionnaire required of parties to the conventions.
Cambodia has no extradition or mutual legal assistance treaty with the United States, but the Cambodian government has cooperated with U.S. law enforcement agencies regularly in the past by rendering or deporting persons wanted in the United States for crimes, including narcotics, upon request and presentation of an appropriate warrant. The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh has been assured that such cooperation will continue. The Cambodian government concluded an extradition treaty with Thailand in 1998 and is in the process of negotiating an agreement with Laos. The Cambodian government views bilateral and regional cooperation with neighboring states and with UNDCP to be essential in its efforts to combat narcotics trafficking.
On November 11, 2001, Cambodia signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants.
Cultivation/Production. Accurate estimates of the level of drug cultivation and production are difficult to come by. As in recent years, Cambodian authorities had some success in combating illicit cultivation during 2001. Some cannabis plantations and fields of varying sizes were destroyed.
Drug Flow/Transit. Cambodia shares porous borders with Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam and lies near the major trafficking routes for Southeast Asian heroin. Some heroin and marijuana are believed to enter and exit Cambodia via the deep water port of Sihanoukville (also known as Kampong Saom), locations along the coastline of Koh Kong (near the Thai border) and Kampot (near the Vietnamese border) provinces, and the river port of Phnom Penh. The country's main international airport, Pochentong International Airport in Phnom Penh, suffers from lax customs and immigration controls, and some illegal narcotics are believed to transit there en route to foreign destinations. Under the Cambodian government's "Open Skies" policy, direct flights from major Asian gateways, including Bangkok and Singapore, began serving the regional airport in Siem Reap (location of Angkor Wat) in 2000. Customs and immigration controls in Siem Reap are rudimentary. There was some concern in late 2001 that developments in Afghanistan could trigger an increase in opium transiting Southeast Asia, including through Cambodia.
Domestic Programs (Demand Reduction). With the assistance of the UNDCP, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and some NGOs, the NACD is attempting to boost awareness about drug abuse among the populace, especially Cambodian youth, through the use of pamphlets, posters, and public service announcements. Cambodia does not have separate rehabilitation centers for recovering drug addicts, but the government has sought outside assistance for programs on drug treatment, rehabilitation centers for drug addicts, and vocational training centers for severe addicts. Several national and international NGOs operate in Cambodia with mandates that directly or indirectly relate to drug control issues, including demand reduction. In August 2001, over 30 international organizations, NGOs and UN Agencies joined together to form the Drug Abuse Forum (DAF). DAF members, which include UNICEF (UN Children's Fund) and IOM (International Office of Migration), have agreed on a work-plan that will include a series of "train the trainer" workshops with staff drawn from the DAF and other government agencies that will transfer fundamental skills and basic knowledge about drugs to the at-risk population. The DAF and UNODCCP will also produce and distribute a range of drug education and awareness materials, including training booklets for field workers, leaflets for mass distribution to school children and youth, and posters and other materials.
In November 2001, the President removed Cambodia from the list of major illicit drug producing and major drug-trafficking countries/economies. Cambodia was first placed on the Majors List in 1996 due to information indicating that heroin trafficking was a serious concern, especially in light of the high volume of drug trafficking in the region, the weakness of Cambodian law enforcement institutions, and the lack of an effective criminal justice system and counternarcotics laws. Cambodia was removed from the Majors List because a closer monitoring of the situation indicated that there is no significant amount of heroin or other drugs transiting Cambodia en route to the United States. Cambodia is a marijuana producing country, but production does not appear to be near the level at which a marijuana growing country is considered a major producer under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended. There is also no evidence any significant amount of Cambodian marijuana reaches the United States.
Cambodia is a fragile, flawed democracy. For the first time in over three decades, there has been relative political stability following the formation of a democratically-elected coalition government and National Assembly in 1998, but Cambodia is plagued by many of the institutional weaknesses that are common to the world's most vulnerable developing countries. The challenge for the United States includes: nurturing the growth of democratic institutions and the protection of human rights; providing humanitarian assistance and promoting sound economic growth policies to alleviate the debilitating poverty that engenders corruption; and building human and institutional capacity in law enforcement sectors to enable the government to deal more effectively with narcotics traffickers.
Bilateral Cooperation. Consistent with statutory restrictions on the provision of assistance to the central government of Cambodia, the Department of State's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs as a matter of policy has not provided counternarcotics/anticrime assistance to Cambodia. The U.S. provides some counternarcotics assistance indirectly to Cambodia via multilateral contributions, primarily through the UNDCP.
Despite the suspension of direct U.S. government non-humanitarian assistance to the Cambodian government, including counternarcotics assistance, which continued in 2001, the Cambodian government openly welcomed bilateral cooperation with DEA and with other U.S. law enforcement agencies. Cambodia regularly hosts visits from DEA personnel based in Bangkok, and Cambodian authorities cooperate actively with DEA.
U.S. officials raise narcotics-related issues regularly with Cambodian counterparts at all levels, up to and including the Prime Minister. Senior Cambodian officials freely admit the country's many shortcomings in the area of law enforcement due to corruption and insufficient resources, and regularly appeal for U.S. government assistance, especially in technical training.
The Road Ahead. Funding is needed to encourage greater bilateral and multilateral counternarcotics cooperation involving Cambodia. At every meeting and at every level, Cambodian law enforcement authorities appeal for technical assistance and training. Mid-level Cambodian law enforcement officers have been allowed to attend training courses at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok (ILEA) since mid-2000. This training has partially addressed Cambodia's dire training needs. The ILEA training has produced a small but growing cadre of Cambodian officials who are becoming familiar with modern police techniques including drug identification, investigations, coordination of operations and intelligence gathering.
Funding assistance is needed to allow working level Cambodian officials to participate in regional counternarcotics conferences, such as the annual meetings of the six greater Mekong sub-region countries that are signatories to the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Drug Control with the UNDCP.
In mid-1999, the DEA Country Attaché from Bangkok and the U.S. Ambassador presented the NACD with an INL-funded drug-testing laboratory, but there has been no follow-up U.S. assistance to the laboratory since that time. A DEA chemist visited the laboratory in September-October 2000 and prepared a comprehensive report documenting safety concerns and equipment needs and suggesting sources of funding and training for laboratory personnel. Since that time, however, there has been relatively little substantive follow up by the U.S. side, despite the best efforts of the DEA Bangkok Country Office, which included funding the travel of two Cambodian technicians to Bangkok for training by Thai authorities in use of the drug laboratory. The NACD laboratory continues to operate at minimal capacity, and there is insufficient money available from the Cambodian government to continue laboratory operations. The UNDCP has held discussions with various potential donors regarding funding of safety equipment that needs to be installed at the laboratory to bring it up to acceptable standards for operational use. Assistance is needed to make this U.S.-funded drug laboratory operational, but such bilateral assistance is precluded by current legislative restrictions.
In sum, Cambodia is making progress toward more effective institutional law enforcement against illegal narcotics trafficking, and its leadership is intent on doing more. However, Cambodia's institutional capacity to implement an effective, systematic approach to counternarcotics operations is low.
Cambodia is vulnerable to money laundering because it is a transit country for heroin trafficking from the Golden Triangle. Crime, corruption, and money laundering reportedly are on the increase in Cambodia.
Cambodia in 1996 criminalized money laundering related to narcotics-trafficking through the Law on Drug Control. The law includes provisions for customer identification, suspicious transaction reporting, and the creation of the Anti-Money Laundering Commission (AMLC) under the Prime Minister's Office. The composition and functions of the AMLC were to be promulgated through a separate decree. The provisions of this law have yet to be fully implemented and enforced. The Government is in the process of drafting additional amendments to their anti-money laundering legislation, which will expand predicate offenses beyond drug money laundering.
In December 1999, Cambodia passed legislation, "The Law on Banking and Financial Institutions," that imposes capital and prudential requirements on financial institutions. Capital requirements for commercial banks increased from U.S. $5 million to U.S. $13.5 million. Commercial banks also must maintain 20 percent of their capital on deposit with the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) as reserves. The law requires the NBC to review all banking licenses within one year.
Money laundering offenses are investigated by the same entities that have jurisdiction over the underlying predicate crimes. However, these entities are not trained to detect, investigate, and prosecute money laundering cases.
Cambodia has not yet established a financial intelligence unit but is developing a system for reporting suspicious transactions.
Cambodia has assisted neighboring countries with money laundering investigations. Cambodia is not a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention. On November 11, 2001 Cambodia signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
The Government of Cambodia should fully implement and enforce its anti-money laundering legislation. Moreover, the Government should institute training so to educate officials and financial institutions about anti-money laundering methods.