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by Puy Kea, Kyodo News Service

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, 19 December 1998 (Kyodo) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened Saturday to suspend any government officials, including ministers, found to be involved in importing toxic waste from Taiwan.

''Government officials who are involved in the matter will have to face the law. From this afternoon, they will be suspended from work,'' he told reporters, adding that those officials included customs and port officers.

About 3,000 tons of materials described in customs documents as ''construction waste'' arrived by ship Nov. 30 and was dumped four days later on the outskirts of Sihanoukville, some 230 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, according to customs officials.

The waste was shipped in polyester bags labeled as originating from a plastics company in Taiwan. Top Cambodian environmental officials said they suspect the materials include compressed ash from an industrial waste incinerator and chemicals hazardous to health.

Local villagers who had scavenged the area reportedly suffered skin rashes and other symptoms, according to a pollution control officer, but those reports could not be independently verified.

Environment Minister Mok Mareth told Kyodo News on Saturday that the Cambodian government has appealed to international organizations involved with environmental issues to help examine the waste.

He said he heard two villagers have died and five others are sick, but it is unclear whether those were affected by the waste.

The government has appealed to locals not to go near the site, Mok Mareth said.

''At least 100 people are involved in the case because it is not normal to import 3,000 tons to one country,'' he said.

A local company president who imported the waste has been detained, according to the environment minister.

Hun Sen described the case as serious, saying ''I think it is heavier than the bombardment that the United States fired into Iraq in the last few days.''

Hun Sen appealed to the United Nations, World Health Organization and environment-related international organizations to provide Cambodia facilities to protect against the waste.

He also said the Chinese ambassador to Cambodia has agreed to seek the return of the waste to Taiwan.

Heng Nareth, deputy director of Cambodia's pollution control department, said the waste was not nuclear.

''I believe it comes from an industrial waste incinerator plant'' and contains some heavy metals such as mercury, zinc, chrome or lead that could affect human health, he said.

The waste fills an area roughly 30 meters by 40 meters, and consists mostly of white and gray stones and fine dirt. No warning signs were displayed at the site.

The Environment Ministry has neither the equipment nor expertise to analyze the waste, Heng Nareth said.

Hun Sen said Cambodia has banned importation of waste into the country since 1990.