Source: 2002
Released by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Cambodia's progress in improving law enforcement and limiting corruption in 2002 was limited; 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 UNODC. The Cambodian government recognizes that its counternarcotics efforts are spotty and often ineffective, and there is widespread recognition that the authorities need to be more aggressive in trying to stem the flow of illegal narcotics. The government is particularly concerned at the increasing use among youth of amphetamine-like stimulants. Cambodia is not a party to the 1961 Single Convention and its 1972 Protocol, or the 1988 UN Drug Convention.
Cambodia is not a major producer of opiates or coca-based drugs and, until recently, the scope of Cambodia's domestic drug abuse problem was less serious than in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. However, the rapid increase in recent years in the use of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) in Southeast Asia has affected Cambodia, as well. This rapid increase in ATS abuse has been most noticeable 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 2002, the government counseled 522 children caught sniffing glue, compared to 377 in 201.
Marijuana is cultivated primarily for export, with some domestic consumption. There are no reliable figures available from either the Cambodian government or the UNODC on the 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. Marijuana is grown using traditional farming methods, with the harvest normally occurring between late December and early January. Much of the production is reputed to be "contract cultivation" by 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. However, the amount entering the United States is not large enough to constitute a significant problem for the U.S.
Aside from marijuana, Cambodia's role 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, both for local distribution and export. There are 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. Since the end of factional fighting in late 1998, the final demise of the Khmer Rouge and the formation of a new coalition government, Cambodia has had sufficient stability to permit the government to begin to combat crime and illegal narcotics. However, coordination remains poor among various government agencies and ministries. Ideally, the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) will be strengthened sufficiently to play the central coordinating role in order to initiate 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 backing of the Cambodian government, UNODC launched in April 2001 a two-phase, four-year $2.3 million "NACD Support Project" that is 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, as well to establish procedures for planning, operations and administration and to provide staff training, technical advice, basic transportation, communications and office equipment. In 2002, the NACD received two trucks, computers, drug testing equipment, motorbikes and office equipment from the UN and other donors. However, the UN suspended assistance in late 2002 amid allegations of diversion of assistance intended for the NACD. The allegations are currently under investigation.
Accomplishments. On January 9, 2002, the RCG held a ministerial level meeting of the NACD, which agreed on a four-point strategy for dealing with Cambodia's drug problem: 1) demand reduction; 2) production and distribution reduction; 3) law enforcement; and 4) international cooperation. It also recommended amendment of the Drug Control Law to correct shortcomings.
Cambodia discontinued the use of an Internet-based ship registry system, which was allowing potential drug smugglers and other international criminal elements to quickly obtain Cambodian registry for their vessels.
Law Enforcement Efforts. In the first 11 months of 2002, 240 persons were arrested for drug-related offenses, compared to 109 persons in 2001. This total included 16 Vietnamese and one Thai, in addition to a Taiwanese woman who was apprehended at the airport with 1.9 kilograms of heroin wrapped around her body. Six persons (two cases) were arrested for production of ATS.
Seizures of ATS have almost doubled every year since 1997. In 2002, police seized 130,000 tablets, versus 75,576 in 2001. Police seized only 1.9 kilograms of heroin in 2002, but destroyed 195,656 marijuana plants. Most of the plantations were along the Mekong River and adjacent to the Thai and Vietnamese borders.
Enforcement efforts have not targeted major traffickers and their organizations. The lack of police training and resources, coupled with widespread corruption, doom such efforts to failure in the current environment. Although counternarcotics is a priority for the government, the government's lack of resources cripple serious efforts to combat trafficking.
Corruption. Corruption (and a concomitant absence of rule of law) continues to be one of the most serious obstacles to meaningful suppression of crime, including drug trafficking. As a result, Cambodia remains highly vulnerable to drug traffickers and foreign crime syndicates. Senior Cambodian government officials say that they want to combat trafficking and production; however, several factors constrain sustained advances in effective law enforcement: 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 there is no effective management structure in any of the law enforcement agencies that could benefit from and implement outside training and the establishment of investigative and administrative standard operating 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.
Agreements and Treaties. Cambodia is not a party to the 1961 Convention on Narcotic Drugs and its 1972 Protocol, the 1971 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 the provisions of the Conventions. Currently, the Cambodian government is in active discussions with UNODC regarding technical assistance that would facilitate Cambodia's signing the three UN Drug Control Conventions, hopefully in the near future.
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 crimes, 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. The Cambodian government views bilateral and regional cooperation with neighboring states and with UNODC to be essential in its efforts to combat narcotics trafficking.
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, totaling about 83,000 square meters, 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. The NACD has reported that drugs entered Cambodia in 2002 from the northern provinces of Stung Treng and Preah Vihear. Some heroin and marijuana are believed to enter and exit Cambodia via the deep water port of Sihanoukville (also known as Kampong Saom), the coastline of Koh Kong (near the Thai border) and Kampot (near the Vietnamese border) provinces, and the river port of Phnom Penh. In November, Hong Kong Customs Officers seized 360 kilograms of marijuana in a container shipped from Cambodia. 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.
Domestic Programs (Demand Reduction). With the assistance of UNODC, 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. The government has sought outside assistance for programs on drug treatment and 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). The DAF and UNODC produces 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, plus posters and other materials.
Policy Initiatives. 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. U.S.-Cambodia bilateral counternarcotics cooperation is hampered by restrictions on official U.S. assistance to the central government that have remained in place since the political disturbances of 1997. 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.
The Road Ahead. Mid-level Cambodian law enforcement officers have been attending training courses at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok (ILEA) since mid-2000, which 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. However, after their training they return to an environment of scarce resources and pervasive corruption. This situation will require a long period of sustained investment to change the culture.
Funding assistance is needed to allow working level Cambodian officials to participate in regional counter drug 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 UNODC.
In sum, Cambodia is making incremental progress toward more effective institutional law enforcement against illegal narcotics trafficking. However, Cambodia's institutional capacity to implement an effective, systematic approach to counternarcotics operations is low.