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| Cecilia Wikström, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, speaks on Friday during a press conference in Phnom Penh. Wikström called on the government to take responsibility for land-rights abuses. (Photo by: Tthomas Mmiller) |
Monday, 23 May 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post
“Do we have a mandate to report everything to everyone?” - Phay Siphom
Visiting European parliamentarian Cecilia Wikström hit out at the Cambodian government last week, stating that it was “totally” to blame for alleged land rights abuses surrounding the sugar industry.
Cecilia Wikström, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, met last week with senior officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and local villagers affected by forced evictions in three provinces out of concern that European Union trade preferences under the “Everything but Arms” initiative were fuelling human rights abuses.
“The sugar issue in this country is a ‘blood sugar’ story,” Wikström said.
She argued that it was “easy to conclude” from her visit that human rights provisions of the EBA initiative have been misused in Cambodia, after she met with villagers from Kampong Speu and Koh Kong provinces who said they had been forced off their land to make way for huge sugar plantations connected to ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat.
While she said the sugar industry should take partial blame for the allegations, she said: “I blame totally and even more [than the industry] the authorities that are allowing this to happen. It is the authorities in this country ... that give concessions to the sugar companies, concessions for 99 years. This is incredible and has to be addressed.
“So what we need to see is a thorough investigation on the compliance with human rights provisions set up in the EBA programme,” she added.
She cautioned, however, that she was on an unofficial visit, and any proposal to suspend trade preferences under EBA would “be a long process”.
“But one thing is for sure: The European Union has committed to specific moral standards and provisions concerning human rights, and when they are severely violated – as I have experienced in this country – we need to address it accordingly,” Wikström said, adding that she would be willing to return as part of an official delegation. She also noted that the government had failed to follow-up on a promise to the EU delegation in Phnom Penh to investigate the allegations.
Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, defended the government’s land concessions. “Do we have a mandate to report everything to everyone?” he said.
“The majority of people living down there, they accept the solution [to disputes] from the private company,” Phay Siphan said, adding that others should take their claims to the courts.
“We [survived the] genocidal [Khmer Rouge] regime together… If you compare this time to the old time I think we do better,” he said.
Cambodia began benefiting from the EBA in 2001, but full liberalisation of trade preferences for sugar imports from low-income countries did not come into effect until October 2009, when a guaranteed minimum price for the commodity was also introduced – boosting the industry in Cambodia.
38 comments:
"'We [survived the] genocidal [Khmer Rouge] regime together… If you compare this time to the old time I think we do better,' he said."
I am really sick of this comparison!
PM, Top Rank Somdac, PhD, Dr. Hun Sen will kill this lady ( Mrs. Cecilia Wikstrom ) for sure for saying that.
He and his bodygurds will rape her 150 times and behead her alive slowly that is PM, Top Rank Somac, PhD, Dr. Hun Sen does to people like Mrs. Cecilia Wikstrom in Cambodia.
Phay Siphom remind me of Khmer Rouge cadre who did things/ in this case say things without his own critical thinking. Therefore, so difficult to hear or read his statement because so flaw, nonsense, no Vicharanaknhean. This guy sold out his soul. Well, he has no soul in the first place. Just the guy who want to keep on barking...
The European debt crisis is escalating into a potential financial cataclysm. In fact, the EU continent is on a glide path to the financial armageddon, and this blond should galvanize her clans to combat the current crisis instead of venture to other country giving lecture.
Pi Anh
Who knows, maybe she was sent there to raise someone's blood sugar to make him topple over by the hand of a 'sweetish'(as in Swedish) woman.
Give her more rounds see how she will fair over her opponent.
Pi Anh 6:53 PM,
Not all countries in Europe have debt crisis. She considers that what happens to innocent people in Cambodia is more important than debt crisis in Europe. That's why she come to visit them. CORRUPTED PEOPLE LIKE YOU CARE ONLY ABOUT MONEY.
6:53 PM Welcome back!
Pi Anh aka PPU are long gone, now he's back to compare with Mike.
Mike aka various:
Ta Bun (Phnom Penh Post)
Angkor Leur (Topix)
Khmer Serey (YouTube)
KhmerSanJose (YouTube)
Proud Siam (KI)
originated: San Jose (Silicon Valley)
residence: Alcatraz Island
occupation: Business man
car: Mercedes CLK (conv)
status: N/A
Pi Anh is one dumb Khmer Idiot too!
Fellows these two are very intellegent Pi Anh nor Mike and both are Khmer Rich too.
ah Phay Siphom,
Please get it through your Thick skull; WE DO NOT LIVE IN THE PAST ANYMORE.
Have any constructive REMARKS ALL THESE YEARS IN OFFICE? HAVE YOU STOPPED DEFENDING THE HUMAN RIGHT ABUSE.
You know it that Ms. Wikstrom is hitting the nail on the HEAD. Don't deviated and manipulated and arrogantly answer with the question.
In Khmer Rouge Era, We the people were cattle DRIVEN to slauther house; today Hun Sen Era we the people were beatened and driven out of our houses/properties withous due process or compensation.
Correction:
Have you stopped defending the Government of it chronic destructive policy?
put this asshole Phay Siphom as case #04 in courts. remember if CCP fall this Phay Siphom arrest this ass kisser.
NO one I said,,,no at the Khmer government have to balls to touch Mrs. Cecilia Wikstrom white lady! Khmer only good at killing Khmer. where is that police that push and shove...come push around the white lady and see what happen.
When Khmer Rouge Pol Pot; they killed you.
Now I don't kill you; what else do you want?
pi anh, Hun Sen
Pi Anh is formerly known as PPU, MOI and now Pi Anh
Pi Anh has legitament reason about EU financial crises. If they sink under there would not be a market for goods from Cambodia going over there. Maybe this is why they have get the cheapest import from the poorest nations for their sustenance.
pi anh, Hun Sen 8:16 PM,
Forget the Khmer rouge. It's not an excuse to oppress innocent people. We want better society.
I do not take a crap what pianh intelligent or rich one you are serving TMIL EVIL you out like TA DUCH Toul Sleng Butcher so pianh worth of shit I won't raise and give any credit that kind of jerk.
Demonizing our very own leader and the government, yet embracing and applauding foreign leader is egregiously deplorable.
Pi Anh
"Forget the Khmer rouge. It's not an excuse to oppress innocent people. We want better society."
8:56 PM
We would not have this discussion, had the UN carried its obligation that would prevent the the genocidal reign of terror. Where was the UN when the former high
school turned morphed into the abattoir?
Pi Anh
Pi Anh 9:11 PM,
Do you know why people applaude foreign leader? Because they take care of innocent people and YOU OPPRESS THEM.
8:16 PM,
You are also the killer! Everyone in the world knows that.
Hun Sen has been blind and stupid because he has no power, but communist Vietcong/Yuon bastards in Hanoi have powers over dumb Hun Sen and his CPP supporters.
There were opposition party supporters were shot with shell or artillery by Yuon armies who dressed like Khmer soldiers uniforms in the blind of Khmer people and people of International Communities. It was in 1997 and Ranarith Party supporters and Funcipec soldiers have been shot to death by secret Yuon armies... Think about, idiot.
"Where was the UN when the former high school turned morphed into the abattoir?"
They were debating among themselves how much money they would could gain from the genocide of the Khmer people during Going to Pot Era. They probably knew it all along that this would take place.
"Demonizing our very own leader and the government, yet embracing and applauding foreign leader is egregiously deplorable."
I think Pi Anh knows what he is talking about. As evil as Hun Sen leadership maybe. To heap upon him cursing and swearing is to cheapen your very own leader. You can dislike your leader but need not to degrade his human value to that of a dog. Because God, who sits in heaven is testing out your very nature by allowing such a leader to be put in place.
I don't have the answer. But perhaps when the people who knew not God would seek him with a humble heart he will help them. God is waiting for the Khmer people to call upon him whom we have to do.
In God's Law it says, "Thou shalt not curse thy leader."
Phay Siphom, and any other human being!
You have the responsibility to the right thing and follow the rule of laws.
Phay siphom, Are you a dog, or beast?
To be ashamed to compare Cat and Fish, you have a spoke person like Phay Siphan, Kiss butt Hun Sen for fame and position or a group fight back to please their Angkar like Pot Pot time that is no better.
You think Israel or Palestine they are struggling nowsadys to built their new life to compare to the past of 40 years or Holocust time, yes they are struglling for better life for their people and countries.
So if HUN SEN wants the past 35 years why not ride cow or buffalo go to work or live in the jungle, not in the big mansion in Toul Kra Saing or a big Villa near Vimean Ek Kareach. As Sen always claims Cambodia development, please be more common sense, logical explanations so that the world could listening to your good senses.
"Where was the UN when the former high school turned morphed into the abattoir?" Ask your stupid Khmer King? he still alive and living well. where was he when the killing happen? or it he a part of the killing and new about it! Khmer is a corrupted country no matter who;s ran it.
Khmer in that sugar land need to hail Mu Sochua as a national Hero for what she work for! she have more balls then most Khmer men out there.
good that they brought it to the attention gov't! i don't think gov't will ignore this kind of injustice, if found to be true, etc, you know! a strong leadership will take care of it to rectify the problem, i think! that's what cambodia needs, a strong leadership, ok!
It is relatively peculiar to witness a Cambodian-native lawmaker to foster a rather strange relation between the foreigner, which is ineluctably create a precarious symbiosis between a foreigner and our people in an effort discredit the government.
Pi Anh
Pi Anh - 2:20 AM
You mean "From Me" that is equal to "Pi Anh" and you can be stupid/dumb Hun Sen, Mike, Khmer in Sydney CBD, etc. You are using someone to scare Khmer people at home and abroad, showing Khmer to fight their own Khmer people just like Communist Yuon/Vietgook borrowing Khmer hands to kill their Khmer people in the Killing Fields. Now, you (Yuon/Vietgook) are reaching all the way deep down to the Cambodian Communities in the U.S. and abroad, for examples, Long Beach, Paris and your name it. I said, "Whoa, what the heck!" How dare these CPP Yuon folks and official thieves come to spy just like back in 1970 to 1975 (Lon Nol's ERA). You know what, I will encourage Khmer/Cambodian people in the U.S. to report or write the letters to the U.S. government, congress (my congress), senate or president Obama about secret Yuon CPP official like Sok An (pretend to be Khmer citizen who could speak well) who has been illegally by Communist Vietnamese/Yuon communist in Hanoi and/or followed by Ho Chi Minh. Sok An and other Yuon spies and CPP official thieves come to the U.S. to do dirty business in order to swallow Cambodia step by step just like Champa and Cham people were disappeared in Central Vietnam. In the 21st century, Communist Vietgook/Vietnamese idiots in Hanoi and CPP Yuon official thieves/crooks who fooled blind/stupid Hun Sen and brainwashed Khmer/Cambodian leaders to accept Yuon/Vietnamese bribery or dirty money and corrupted power (as Yuon/Vietgook Communist bastards control them (Hun Sen, Heng Samrin, etc).
All Khmer people to do is, ask the International Communities, the U.N., NATO, the U.S., Canada, Aussie, Brazil, etc., to warn Communist Vietnamese bastards and bitches who are Communist leaders/thieves of Cambodia (including Cambodia region in South Vietnam) to tell them (Yuon/Vietnamese) to stop their evil and secret plans on the planet or NATO, UN, USA, UK should send the nuclear/atomic bombs over Communist Hanoi to destroy those Vietnamese/Yuon bastards and bitches there and weaken those Yuon/Vietnamese evils in order to stop the interference in Cambodia and Camvodian/Khmer people. From day one until present, Vietnamese/Vietgook communist leaders (i.e. Nguyen to Champa, Ho Chi Minh Khmer Krom/Southern Cambodia in South Vietnam, etc) dare and are clever like smart asses or assholes to do bad things in the blind eyes of Khmer people, International Communities, UN, USA, UK, etc.
10:11 PM,
Oh come on, give me a break!
It is people like you who preach such a bullshit that makes me even run further from your useless and powerless god!
There are probably more Khmers in Cambodia, in term of percentage, who are Christians and have definitely called upon your Jesus than the Thais who are Bhuddhists and the Chinese in China and yet it appears that the Thais and the Chinese are much better off than the Khmers.
So calling upon your god is a waste of time. A lot of people who don't believe in Jesus have done very well. Look at the Thai King who is a Bhuddist. Don't you think he does much better and is richer than you?
Keep your god to yourself and don't try to preach to people to depend upon the unknown.
Cambodians need to depend upon themselves by working hard and stop begging for mercy from heaven!
Unbeliever
8:16 PM,
I want to break your skull with a hammer!
Pi Ahn!
8:16 PM,
I want to break your skull with a hammer!
Pi Anh!
why people like to discredit the gov't instead of working together toward eliminating poverty, etc, a common goal, really! people can be so blinded, sometimes. don't forget there are more to cambodia than you and i, ok!
6:26 AM,
Why don't you try talking to the CPP officials to see if you can get some land back from Ly Yong Phat for the farmers in Kampong Speu and Koh Kong?
Come to Phnom Penh and see if you can convince them.
You need to know that nobody wants to fight a government that can shoot and kill, but we have no other choice.
Come down here and help us work with the government. Don't just stay in the US and talk!
ការជួយគ្នាមានដោយកម្លាំងកាយ ចិត្ត វាចា គំនិត
បញ្ញា ការចេះដឹង យោបល់ និង សោហុយ។
បុគ្គលម្នាក់ត្រូវមាន:
* ការទទួលខុសត្រូវ
** ការទាក់ទង និង
***ភារកិច្ច
ខ្ញុំយល់ដឹងនិងធ្វើតាមទាំងបីខនេះ។នេះជាសិទ្ធិ
របស់ខ្ញុំ។
ការស្គាល់ប្រយោជន៍ខ្លួន ស្គាល់ប្រយោជន៍អ្នក
ដទៃ។ កុំប៉ះពាល់បៀតបៀនផលប្រយោជន៍ជាតិ
និង ប្រយោជន៍រាស្ត្រ។
លី យ៉ុង ផាត ជាតំណាងរាស្ត្រត្រូវទទួលជួយ
រាស្ត្រ ទាក់ទងរាស្ត្រស្គាល់ប្រយោជន៍រាស្ត្រ
និងបំពេញភារកិច្ចខ្លួន បំរើរាស្ត្រ មិនមែន មកប្លន់
រាស្ត្រ ឬ មករឹបអូសយកដីរាស្ត្រ។
The troublemaker (not lawmaker),
Cecilia Wikstrom, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, would be much uglier if she's on our side (CPP), so the opposition leaders' clans are worshiping her beauty (although there's nothing to look at). In fact, Chea Leang, co-Prosecutor, is much prettier. And yes I'd much prefer my own specie.
Sadly and disappointingly, yet unsurprisingly overwhelming of the opposition leaders' supporters don't know the "bad," the "good," the "ugly," and the "UNKNOWN" of the European, that's why they blindingly and ignorantly rushed to welcome this individual openly.
Pi Anh
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