More rallies against rubber

Police threaten villagers from Kampong Speu province during a protest outside the provincial court in March of 2010. Over 2,000 families were affected by a land concession granted to CPP senator Ly Yong Phat in Omlaing commune, in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district. (Photo by: Will Baxter)

Monday, 29 August 2011
Khouth Sophakchakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

More than 300 villagers from Kampong Cham province’s Chamkar Leu, Memot, and Stung Trang districts gathered in Phnom Penh on Friday to protest against a plan to relocate them from their land in order to make way for rubber plantations.

The villagers contend they have lived on the land in question since 1979.

They urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene on their behalf against three companies allegedly behind the plan.

One of the companies has been identified as tycoon An Marady’s Chamkar Leu Rubber Plantation. The other two are said to be tycoon Long Sreng’s Memot and Stung Trang rubber plantations.

Global Witness urges Cambodia’s donors to condemn sponsorship of military units by private businesses

Press Release – 05/03/2010
Source: Global Witness

"Since the end of Cambodia's civil war, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces has operated as a vast organised crime network" - Gavin Hayman, Campaigns Director at Global Witness

Aid donors to Cambodia, including the US, EU, Japan, China and the World Bank, should send a strong message to the government that they will not countenance the bankrolling of Cambodia's military by private businesses.

The call follows the announcement last week by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of the formation of 42 official partnerships between private businesses and Cambodian military units. The partnerships will "solve the dire situation of the armed forces, police, military police, and their families through a culture of sharing" according to a government memo.

Global Witness is concerned that this policy officially sanctions an arrangement where businesses get military protection in return for financial backing. A number of the companies named as military sponsors already have track records of using the military to protect their business interests. For example, Global Witness's 2009 report, Country for Sale, described how the Try Pheap Company used armed forces to guard a mine in Stung Treng Province.

Other high-profile Cambodian companies allegedly providing sponsorship include the Mong Reththy Group, the Ly Yong Phat Company, and the Chub Rubber Plantation Company.

"Since the end of Cambodia's civil war, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces has operated as a vast organised crime network," said Gavin Hayman, Campaigns Director at Global Witness. "It is unacceptable for private companies to be financing a military renowned for its corruption and involvement in illegal activities and human rights abuses."

The arrangement also threatens to undermine the legitimacy of international aid, especially in the case of donors such as the US who are directly funding the military. In 2009 the US spent more than $1 million on military financing, education and training in Cambodia.

"Yet again, Cambodia's donors are being mocked by the government's blatant violation of basic governance and transparency standards. The existence of a strong patronage system between the military and private business is not new. But what is different and shocking is that it has become official government policy," said Hayman. "Donors should send a firm and decisive message that Cambodia's military exists to protect the people, not the financial assets of a privileged few."

"This fire-sale of military units represents an appalling breach of governance standards and threatens to undermine the country's future stability," said Hayman. "The donor community has collectively poured billions into the restoration of peace and democracy in Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Surely they are not going to stand by and allow this to be undercut by a policy of selling off the armed forces to private business interests? This is tantamount to sanctioning a mercenary force."

/Ends

Contacts: Eleanor Nichol, +44 (0)7872 600 870

Notes for Editors

1.Global Witness has worked in Cambodia for over 15 years and published 18 reports on corruption within the management of the country's natural resources. For examples, see www.globalwitness.org

2.The policy of military-business partnerships was first reported in the Cambodia Daily on Friday 26 February in an article titled Businesses Tie Official Knot With Military. For a full list of companies and military units allegedly involved, contact Global Witness.

3. In the 2009 financial year, the US spent an estimated $1,106,000 on Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training in Cambodia, according to the US Department of State's Executive Budget Summary: Function 150 & Other International Programs Fiscal Year 2011, accessed at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/135888.pdf

Cambodian military, business cosy up as premier calls for support

The tycoons in the entourage of Cambodia's Strongman

Thu, 25 Feb 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has asked business leaders to help fund the country's military, saying all citizens of the South-East Asian nation have a duty "to defend the nation," national media reported Thursday. "This is not a legal duty that you have to do - the support is voluntary according to your ability," the Cambodia Daily newspaper quoted him as saying.

Hun Sen's speech was followed by a get-together late Wednesday hosted by the prime minister where senior military officials were scheduled to meet 250 leading business people.

Government spokesman Prak Sokhon told the newspaper that the aim was to establish a strong relationship between business and the military.

"To sponsor a battalion - well, 'sponsor' is a big word, but the private companies will help as far as they can," Prak Sokhon said. "In the past they sent food and so on to the border - it will be this kind of relationship."

Earlier this month Hun Sen addressed troops near the Thai-Cambodian border and heaped praise on a number of businessmen for providing support to the army.

"[They] donated 7,000 wooden beds at a total cost of 210,000 dollars," Hun Sen said, before outlining further requirements. "I need 30,000 beds for the [army], military police and the police who are standing by at the Cambodian-Thai border."

Hun Sen also announced Wednesday that he would visit troops on the Cambodian-Thai border this weekend in the north-western province of Battambang.

However, he refuted any link with the imminent verdict in the case against Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand's Supreme Court is set to rule Friday on whether to seize 2.3 billion dollars of Thaksin's assets.

Thaksin was appointed as an adviser to the Cambodian government last year, a move that ramped up tensions between the two nations.

Cambodia's military has long been accused by human rights groups of involvement in illegal activities, including logging, mining, land grabs and human rights abuses.

Pro-CPP 'Vietnamese Tycoon' Said Ordering Over 100 Houses in Kandal Bulldozed

24 May 08
By Vichheka
Samleng Yuveakchon Khmer
Translated from Khmer by Anonymous

The people whose houses were destroyed by a Vietnamese Oknha [tycoon] known by the Khmer name of Thong Sarath or and the Vietnamese name of Tung are living in fear as they do not know when Oknha Tung would resort to using violence against them again. The victims said that the money of this young Vietnamese tycoon Tung spoke very loud and could stop the authorities from intervening in their favor. Tung, the Vietnamese tycoon, can do whatever he likes, they said, such as bulldozing their houses in the night of 16 May. Since then, not a single member of the local authorities has visited the victims to expressed sympathy with them.

News sources reported that under the influence of the money of this Vietnamese tycoon named Tung three villagers have been jailed to these days because of the dispute over a piece of land claimed by the Vietnamese tycoon. The authorities from district to provincial levels have been afraid to protect the people as required by the law. This is because Vietnamese oknha Tung known under the Khmer name of Thong Sarath has bribed the Khmer officials at all levels. For this reason, no matter how bad the people have suffered, nothing can be done, for the authorities are under the monetary influence of this young Vietnamese tycoon named Tung.

According to some gossips floating among the people, Oknha Tung planned to sell that piece of land to the wife of Kun Kim, who is the head of Hun Sen's board of advisers. This land transaction is said to be prompted by Kun Kim's wife's desire to develop this property. Because there is a buyer, the Vietnamese tycoon has not hesitated to resort to the use of a strong-arm method in violation of the Cambodian law by forcibly evicting the people from their houses. On the contrary, if this were in Vietnam, such an act of forcible eviction would never happen so easily. But because of the money of this Vietnamese oknha the people have been repressed, and now they continue to live in fear.

The victimized people appear to be completely terrified. They are afraid even to meet and seek a way to retain that piece of land. They said that this land was given through the good offices of the government by Vietnamese Oknha Thong Sarath to the poor who were evacuated from various areas in Phnom Penh. The people who have lived on this land are in possession of proper documents showing that the land was given to them. This proves that the people have all the right to the land and are its true owners.

However, last May Vietnamese Oknha Tung, whose Khmer name is Thong Sarath and whose father is a Vietnamese known by the name of Thong Chamraeun, used a violent method to get the land by surreptitiously bulldozing the houses of the people in the middle of the night. During this incident none of the commune, district, or provincial authorities turned up to intervene and stop the act of breaking the Cambodian law committed by Oknha Tung. It is this official apathy that has frightened the people the most, for in some other places when the local people are in trouble the authorities unfailingly show up to help them. However, the authorities in S'ang district did not dare to oppose or protest against the act of breaking the Cambodian law committed by Vietnamese tycoon Tung. A villager scoffed with relatively harsh words that the Khmer big shots have all been sold out to the Vietnamese businessmen.

In the night of 16 May Vietnamese tycoon Thong Sarath ordered more than 100 houses of the residents of Svay Rolum commune, S'ang district, Kandal province to be leveled. The victims of this order did seek an intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen, but to no avail. For this reason, the people planned to rise up in another protest against Oknha Thong Sarath. If the Prime Minister does not help us, they said, we will go to the National Assembly and if the National Assembly cannot help, then we will seek the help of the civil society.

Some 100 families flocked to the lane leading to Prime Minister Hun Sen's mansion, voicing charges against the company of Vietnamese Oknha Thong Sarath and claiming that his company bulldozed their houses in the middle of the night without giving them any prior notice and without informing the local authorities or local police. They claimed that this company used its own security forces to conduct the raid.

Observers of various non-governmental organizations are waiting to see what the government is going to do before the elections when it wants the people to give it their ballots. It is believed that the Cambodian People's Party [CPP] would either grab the situation or ask its friend, the Vietnamese tycoon, to temporarily desist. And after the elections, this Vietnamese oknha will be free to seriously act again by shooting and killing the people and grab their land for sale. Right now, the Vietnamese tycoon has not yet used a really strong-arm method because he is afraid that the CPP would blame him for causing it to lose votes.