Phnom Penh Tuesday, 31 May 2011
“The company clears the forest before the rubber plantation so that’s why the company has a lot of income before they help people.”
The Sam Rainsy Party has sent a request to Prime Minister Hun Sen requesting that he cancel economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest, in the east of the country, where thousands are villagers say their livelihoods are under threat.
Nine SRP parliamentarians singled out more than 6,000 hectares in a concession to a Vietnamese company, CRCK, among others, and suggested the forest be listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.
Hun Sen approved a 70-year lease to CRCK in September 2009, clearing the way for a contract between the company and Ministry of Agriculture for the clearance of forest for a rubber plantation.
In their letter, SRP lawmakers said more than 29,000 people from four different provinces had signed a petition for intervention in the concessions.
Kampong Thom Governor Chhun Chhorn defended the CRCK rubber plantation, saying it would bring more than 2,000 jobs to the area. He accused the Sam Rainsy Party was using the concession as a “political issue.”
However, Men Sothavrin, an SRP lawmaker for the province, said the company was not complying with government development plans and was not likely to bring as much economic development as hoped.
Chhit Vuthy, director of the Natural Resources Protection Group, said Prey Lang forest in Preah Vihear province had been cleared of 30 percent of its tree cover.
“The company clears the forest before the rubber plantation so that’s why the company has a lot of income before they help people,” he said.
4 comments:
I don't know what to say! It is really stupid beyond belief, but again they are up to something big!
Before 1970 Cambodia used to grow rubber trees in the eastern provinces and there was no need to clear any great forest such as Prey Lang for land to grow the rubber trees.
Perhaps they want the cut the good trees and share all the profits among themselves. If they really wants to grow rubber trees, the Vietnamese can still grow them in their own country and there is no need to come to Cambodia to do so.
This is like demolishing the big concrete building to build a small hut!
Are they that stupid? I don't think so. Growing the rubber trees is the pretext to cut down the expensive and very good trees in the Prey Lang forest.
Cambodian leaders after the great period of Angkor are born to be stupid from one to the other!
No wonder and sooner the Khmer will be the minority in their own country. They have been already the minorities in Thailand and Vietnam!
Nothing will change unless the people inside Cambodia wake up and protest, but it seems that even destroying Prey Lang forest is not big enough to awake the conscience fo the majority of the Khmers!
Anet Khmer
Correction: "...but it seems that even destroying Prey Lang forest is not big enough to awake the conscience for the majority of the Khmers inside the country!"
Anet Khmer
Anet Khmer
8:58 AM
A lot of us who is lucky to have access the Internet and post in KI are the lucky ones. Well feed and have some education to communicate in English and Khmer.
We have all the basic needs, therefore we have time, can reason and have rational thoughts.
Majority of people in Cambodia, they just make enough to feed themselves day to day. They have little time and little energy/ resources to think and fight the evils over there, which could also cost their life.
illegal immigrants flood srok khmer, prey lang to youn, dam for electricity to sell youn ..more in a long list. what elese?
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