By Julia Wallace
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Family members of Cambodia’s long-serving prime minister have rejected a new report’s findings that they amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth, arguing that the claims are part of a concerted campaign to tarnish their reputation.
In statements posted on their official Facebook pages, several children of Hun Sen denied the report, which was compiled and released by the London-based advocacy group Global Witness.
They accused the organization of trying to tarnish Hun Sen’s reputation in advance of local and national elections scheduled for 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The statements also accused Global Witness of colluding with local newspapers The Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post, which both published articles on the report, as did dozens of other local and international media organizations.
Both newspapers denied the allegations Friday, defending their coverage of the report Thursday in accordance with the advocacy group’s embargo.
“Anyhow, we thank you for your destructive efforts, which as a consequence will help my father in the coming election as they are all lies and deceitful to confuse the public about what my Father has accomplished,” the premier’s daughter Hun Mana said in a post on her page alongside a picture of her smiling and giving a thumbs up.
According to Global Witness, Hun Mana is the most prolific businessperson in the Hun family, with stakes in at least 22 different companies worth more than $66 million, including a newspaper, radio station, television station, one of Cambodia’s largest billboard owners, the for-profit Angkor National Museum, three aviation companies, Cambodia’s largest mobile phone provider, and the prominent Royal Group that has vast holdings across several sectors.
The statement did not point out any factual errors in the report’s claims of the family’s vast wealth.
One of Hun Sen’s sons, Hun Manith, however, noted that Global Witness had mistakenly referred to him as a lieutenant general in the Cambodian army although he is only a major general.
“I look really funny in this photo,” he added of a graphic used in the report.
He did not address claims made by Global Witness that, as a military official, he was breaking the law by serving as director and shareholder of a prominent local electricity company.
“From my recent memory, whenever it is close to an election time, an organization called Global Witness has come up with very colorful accusations aimed at attacking the government and, in particular, making personal attack on my father,” Hun Sen’s eldest son, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, wrote on his own Facebook page.
“Through its coordination with Cambodia Daily and Phnom Penh Post, it has expanded the scope for their accusation targeting not only against my father, but against every single member of my entire family. So what is next?”
The prime minister himself did not comment directly on the report, but posted a series of photographs on his Facebook page Thursday featuring himself and his children grinning and drinking shots of alcohol behind his desk at his government office.
The Global Witness report used data from Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce and other sources to conclude that family members of Hun Sen had amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth through ownership in 114 companies.
Among them are firms that import international brands such as Apple and Nokia as well as numerous food and alcohol products, including those from Nestle and Johnnie Walker.
The report said there was evidence that the family members had leaned heavily on their political connections to amass their vast wealth.
Colin Meyn, editor-in-chief of The Cambodia Daily, told Anadolu Agency that there was no “collusion” involved in the newspaper’s reporting and that Global Witness had disseminated the report under embargo.
“The Cambodia Daily was made aware of the Global Witness report about a week before its release, under the condition that we respect an embargo not to write about the report until it was publicly released on July 7,” he said in an email.
“As with any report that we write about, our journalists vetted the information to make sure that the research and findings were credible,” he insisted.
“Almost all of the information in the report was based on data from the Ministry of Commerce, and it remains unclear to me if the prime minister's children take issue with the findings of the report, or simply that the information was gathered by Global Witness and reported on by the media.”
Chad Williams, editor-in-chief of the Phnom Penh Post, also denied the claims made by Hun Sen’s children.
“We have no contact with the Cambodia Daily on any stories whatsoever as they are direct competitors in the marketplace,” he told Anadolu Agency.
“The fact is, the Global Witness report was handed out ahead of time to what I assume is scores of media outlets, all of whom were bound by embargo to not publish its findings until Thursday morning,” he said.
“It's a bit odd to be singled out when the New York Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Al Jazeera, Time magazine and numerous other publications did stories on the exact same report on the exact same day.”
