Cambodian Activists Call for International Sugar Boycott

Mai was forcibly evicted from Bos village, Oddar Meanchey province, in October 2009. Photo: Community Peace-building Network

September 11th, 2012
By Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog

Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia.

According to the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) more than 700,000 people who rely on subsistence farming, have been evicted from their lands to make way for sugar plantations. Some 51,000 people have been dispossessed in the past year alone. The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association estimates that 95 people were arrested and 48 people were imprisoned for protesting land grabs during 2011.

“For the past two years, we have called upon the companies that are producing and selling this sugar to provide restitution to those who have lost their land, homes and livelihoods to make way for their plantations,” the Clean Sugar Campaign – a coalition of local Cambodian groups - announced in July. “These companies have all failed to respond and take action to repair the harm that their business has caused to so many Cambodian families. So, today we are calling upon consumers around the world to stop buying their products.”

Ve Wong trick in Koh Kong stolen land?

New twist in Cambodian sugar firm saga

Thursday, 16 August 2012
Rachel Will
The Phnom Penh Post

Taiwanese food supplier Ve Wong, one of two sugar company owners locked in a long-running battle with villagers in Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel district, has made an eyebrow-raising offer – to give the disputed land back.

The company’s offer, posted to the non-profit Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s website, comes with one major caveat: proof that the disputed hectares – part of a large economic land concession area granted to the firm in 2006 – were acquired illegally.

“If there is any evidence proving [VE Wong subsidiaries] illegally acquired the land from residents, the companies are willing to return [the land] and compensate all relocation costs of all affected families,” the statement reads.

However, supporters of the villagers in their more than six-year battle with the sugar conglomerate were not convinced.

“Unfortunately, we have heard similar promises from KSL Group before, to no effect,” retorted the Clean Sugar Campaign Tuesday on the “Boycott Blood Sugar” website.

Koh Kong king bowed out of ‘blood sugar’ firm

Ly Yong Phat (L)

Friday, 03 August 2012
Gregory Pellechi
The Phnom Penh Post

A sugar company originally part-owned by ruling party Senator Ly Yong Phat that has long fought villagers over a land dispute in Koh Kong province is now under the complete control of two foreign-owned companies, statements released by the firms last week reveal.

The Mitr Pohl Group, from Thailand, has acknowledged its 70 per cent ownership in the Koh Kong Plantation Co Ltd of which the final 30 per cent is owned by Taiwanese firm Ve Wong Corp.

The conglomerate operates a sugar plantation on a 9,700 hectare economic land concession granted to Ly Yong Phat in 2006 and another adjacent 9,400 ELC that was not registered to the senator, which rights groups allege are effectively a single lease.

A statement from Ve Wong Corp, released to the London-based Business & Human Rights Centre on July 24, said Ly Yong Phat sold his shares in Koh Kong Plantation Co Ltd in 2010, though no mention was made about ownership of the 9,700 hectare ELC.

International Sugar Companies Implicated in Cambodian Land-Grabbing

http://www.boycottbloodsugar.net/

SIGN PETITION AND SPREAD AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

THAI HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION RECOGNIZES HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY SUGAR COMPANY- A MAJOR STEP FOR JUSTICE FOR KOH KONG FARMERS.

E.B.A. MUST BE SUSPENDED FOR SUGAR MADE IN CAMBODIA.

THE CAMPAIGN IS WORKING BUT IT NEEDS FURTHER PUSH FROM YOU. JOIN NOW!

International Sugar Companies Implicated in Cambodian Land-Grabbing

July 26, 2012
Originally posted at: http://www.boycottbloodsugar.net/

On Eve Of Key Trial In Cambodian Court, Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission Finds Evidence Of Human Rights Violations While Industry Sugar Association Hears Complaint Against U.K.’s Tate & Lyle Sugars Against Backdrop of Global Sugar Boycott.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia — More than five years after three villages and hundreds of farmers in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia had their lands illegally confiscated to make way for a major international sugar plantation connected to leading Thai, U.K, U.S., and Taiwanese corporations, the Koh Kong Provincial Court of First Instance will finally hear arguments on July 26, 2012. The long-running dispute pits residents of Chikor Leu commune’s villages of Trapeang Kandol, Chhouk and Chikor of Koh Kong’s Srae Ambel District against the companies, Koh Kong Sugar Industry Co., Ltd. (KKS) and Koh Kong Sugar Plantation Co., Ltd. (KKP) over an Economic Land Concession (ELC), that resulted in wide-spread displacement, severe livelihood impacts, and violent human rights violations; two-hundred and twenty villages from the affected communities are plaintiffs in the case, all of whom are appearing before the court on the hearing date.

Civil society organizations in Cambodia released a statement on the legal case this week affirming their support for the impacted communities.

The two implicated companies, KKP and KKS are 70% owned by leading Thai corporation Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Public Company Limited (KSL) which exercises effective control over operations in Cambodia and receives 100% of the processed sugar from the two Cambodian land concessions. Taiwanese Ve Wong Corporation holds 30% of both subsidiary companies, while powerful Cambodian Senator Ly Yong Phat formerly held shares in both subsidiary companies before allegedly relinquishing these stake-holdings in 2010. The sugar produced in Cambodia is then sold to U.K.’s Tate & Lyle Sugars, a subsidiary of Tate & Lyle that was recently acquired by U.S. American Sugar Refinery Company.

Court date set for Koh Kong farmers

CPP Land-thief Ly Yong Phat (L)

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

More than six years after a sugar company bulldozed their farms in Koh Kong province, some 200 families who have held out ever since, arguing the action was illegal, will finally get their day in court on Thursday.

Seng Kao, one of 24 villager representatives from Chikhor Leu village in Sre Ambel district, said 100 villagers will join them at the provincial court as they make their case.

“We are ready and have witnesses and evidence, such as family books, identity cards, election cards, local administration lists and letters recognized by commune authorities that we have occupied the land since 1979,” He said.

In August 2006, a joint venture now majority owned by Thai firm Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Public Co Ltd and then part-owned by Senator Ly Yong Phat was awarded a roughly 20,000-hectare economic land concession in Chikhor Leu commune.

Findings of the Subcommitt​ee on Civil and Political Rights of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand on the Koh Kong Sugar Cane Plantation case in Cambodia

Preliminary Findings

Evidence gathered from the SCPR’s investigation so far allows for a reasonable belief that human rights principles and instruments were breached in this case, and that the Thai parent company is involved in the operations of its subsidiaries in Koh Kong, where these breaches took place. We identify breaches of the right to life and self-determination, in particular. The SCPR also identifies a failure to uphold the people’s right to development, which includes their right to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, and through which most other human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. The SCPR has completed the investigation and is in the process of drafting the final report which will be endorsed by the NHRC in due course accordingly.

The Commission is a constitutional organization pursuant to the Constitution of Thailand B.E.2550 (2007) committed, under the democratic regime, to ensure that communities and their natural resources remain protected, and that various human rights principles are applied in meeting the economic, social and environmental pillars for fairness and sustainable development.

https://www.box.com/s/28d864a5109a8e66e81d

Findings of the Subcommittee on Civil and Political Rights of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand on the Koh Kong Sugar Cane Plantation case in Cambodia

Dear All,

The NHRC has just endorsed the statement on Koh Kong today. It will expected to upload in the NHRC website and other local independent media by today. Sorry for the delay but still on time due to the several amendments of the statement. Hopefully this would benefit for your work, the court hearing tomorrow in particular.

Best,

Cook
-----
รายงานผลการพิจารณาของคณะอนุกรรมการดเ้านสิทธิพลเมืองและสิทธิทางการเมือง ในคณะกรรมการสิทธิมนุษยชนแห่งชาติ กรณีการมีส่วนร่วมของบริษัท น้ำตาลขอนแก่น จำกัด (มหาชน) ในการปลูกไร่อ้อยที่จังหวัดเกาะกง ราชอาณาจักรกัมพูชา
__________
Jirawat Suriyashotichyangkul
Thai Legal Associate
EarthRights International

Joint Statement on Sre Ambel case

https://www.box.com/s/7d22af41c11132d59c37



https://www.box.com/s/f24fe2df935eb4b338d1

CAMBODIA: The Emperor wears no clothes

The Samdach wears no clothes

Long Panha (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

July 16, 2012
Contributors: Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Asian Human Rights Commission

It was not in my schedule to write an article for publication today. But I sensed anticipation by some readers – and perhaps by the Phnom Penh regime itself. To Cambodians cowed by authorities, this article stands to remind that rights and justice are worth fighting for, and dictators must know it is human nature to yearn for civil rights and freedom.

Following publication of my article, "Respect Ideals and Concepts, not Arbitrary Leaders," in this space on July 1, an open letter – marked For Publication – from the Kingdom of Cambodia's Ambassador for the United Kingdom Hor Nambora arrived in my e-mail box. AHRC published the letter along with editorial comment supportive of democratic ideals. Personally, I thought it a bit odd that the Ambassador for the United Kingdom sent me the open letter, rather than Hem Heng, Ambassador to the United States, where I reside.

But the young Hor, son of Hun Sen's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, is Hun Sen's elite diplomat: A holder of a doctorate degree from Budapest; advisor to the Cambodian government with rank of Minister; and Hun Sen's special envoy to promote Cambodia's candidacy to the United Nations Security Council for 2013-2014.

Claiming "it difficult to take seriously someone" like me who "snaps rudely from the sidelines," he wrote painstakingly, "One can only hope that you stop writing such virulent criticisms of the democratically-elected government of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and those organisations such as the Asian Human Rights Commission will stop pandering to you."

The open letter is an indication that my decades-long advocacy for open, fair and free elections in Cambodia, described in my essays published here and elsewhere, has irritated some officials of the Cambodian dictatorship. The bombastic rhetoric of Ambassador Hor is consistent with the present elite's authoritarian strand, the a'tma anh (the I-ism) that demands complete obedience, as did Pol Pot's Angkar-on-High. Yet, Cambodia endorsed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and integrated its principles into her Constitution.

Cambodians impoverished because of EU scheme

Landless Cambodians See Nothing Sweet in EU... by tvnportal
http://dai.ly/MwZIfL

10 Jul 2012
AAP

An EU scheme to boost trade with developing nations is fuelling land grabs in Cambodia, activists say, with thousands evicted from their properties to make way for a booming sugar industry.

Campaigners are taking their fight to European supermarkets, encouraging a boycott of Cambodian sugar, which they claim is often grown on land snatched illegally from rural farmers.

Yi Chhav said she had no choice but to return to her family plantation to work for the sugarcane grower that took her land, toiling for about $US1.50 ($A1.46) a day in the sea of swaying emerald green plants that swallowed her rice paddies.

"If we say there's no way we'll go to work in the sugarcane plantation then what will we have to eat? There's no work," said the 68-year-old widow in south-western Koh Kong province.

"How can we survive?" she said, adding that the irregular work makes her feel like a "slave" and her low income has forced her to pull her teenage daughter out of school.

Cambodians call for ‘blood sugar’ boycott

Shooting on land protesters in Sre Ambil (Photo: Licadho)

July 4 2012
DPA

Campaigners on Wednesday called for a boycott of Cambodian “blood sugar” over claims that increasing production had resulted in human rights abuses.

Representatives from the Cambodia Clean Sugar Campaign said crops had been razed, homes burned and animals shot after thousands of hectares of land concessions were set aside for industrial sugar cane production.

Cambodian sugar exports to Europe benefit from the Everything But Arms trade initiative, which allows low-income countries to export certain goods to the economic bloc with zero tariffs.

“Because of this policy, sugar plantations have been growing quickly,” said Eang Vuthy of rights group Equitable Cambodia. “We see people are losing their land instead of benefiting.”

Community representatives said villagers had lost farm- and pasture land.

“If you are buying this sugar, you are buying our blood,” said Phol Vannak from a community in Kampong Speu province in south-western Cambodia where about 2 000 families have been affected by the land concessions.

Tales of ‘blood-stained’ sugar

Ly Yong Phat (L) sitting next to Kith Meng (C) and Hun To (R)

Wednesday, 04 July 2012
Chhay Channyda and David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

The European Union should immediately remove trade preferences it gives to Cambodian sugar companies accused of human-rights violations including land grabs, representatives of the affected communities told a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday.

Community representatives from Koh Kong, Kampong Speu and Oddar Meanchey provinces said exemptions from EU import duties or quotas granted under the Everything But Arms principle were rewarding politicians and foreign businessmen exploiting the poor.

Their calls come after the Post reported on June 19 fresh exploitation allegations against ruling CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar Company by workers that fled one of the firm’s complexes in Kampong Speu province.

Boycott Cambodian Blood Sugar!

Click the link below to reach this campaign website:

http://www.boycottbloodsugar.net/

.

Taste and Smile? [-Boycott blood surgar produced on force-evicted land]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F21ntbE868

Landless Cambodians see nothing sweet in EU sugar deal

Land thief Ly Yong Phat (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Wednesday, Jul 04, 2012
AFP

"It is scandalous that the European Union permits this tainted sugar to be sold within its territory, but until the EU implements a ban on the import of goods produced on stolen land it is up to European consumers to say no to these products"

KOH KONG, Cambodia - An EU scheme to boost trade with developing nations is fuelling land grabs in Cambodia, activists say, with thousands evicted from their property to make way for a booming sugar industry.

Campaigners are taking their fight to European supermarkets, encouraging a boycott of Cambodian sugar, which they claim is often grown on land snatched illegally from rural farmers.

Yi Chhav said she had no choice but to return to her family plantation to work for the sugarcane grower that took her land, toiling for about US$1.50 (S$1.90) a day in the sea of swaying emerald green plants that swallowed her rice paddies.

"If we say there's no way we'll go to work in the sugarcane plantation then what will we have to eat? There's no work," the 68-year-old widow told AFP at her modest home in southwestern Koh Kong province.

"How can we survive?" she said, adding that the irregular work makes her feel like a "slave" and her low income has forced her to pull her teenage daughter out of school.

Wasted journey to court for villagers

Thursday, 22 September 2011
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday delayed the questioning of eight villager representatives embroiled in a land dispute with ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s Koh Kong Sugar Company because the tycoon’s lawyer felt “dizzy” and did not want to come to the court.

The villagers from Sre Ambel district only found out about the delay after 163 representatives of the 220 affected families in Chi Khor Leu commune travelled 130 kilometres to the court, paying for five buses and a night’s accommodation out of their own pocket.

Koh Kong provincial judge Heng Kesro said the sugar company’s legal representative, Nach Tri, had asked for a suspension of the hearing ten days prior to the scheduled hearing, adding he decided not to question their representatives at the lawyer’s request.

Bittersweet harvest [-Ly Yong Phat's BLOOD Sugar]

Sacks of freshly produced raw sugar are lined up at the Cambodian plant in which SET-listed Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Plc (KSL) is a joint venture partner. The plant last year became the first new sugar mill to begin operating in the country in more than 40 years.

CPP Land-thief Ly Yong Phat (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Major Thai producer among businesses facing land-grab allegations in Cambodia's lucrative sugar industry.

5/09/2011

James O'Toole

Bangkok Post

PHNOM PENH : Cambodia's burgeoning sugar industry has appeared a sweet deal to both local and international investors of late. Allegations of land-grabbing and human rights abuses now dogging producers, however, have left many people souring on the sector.

With neighbouring Thailand, the world's second-biggest sugar exporter, aiming to export 7 million tonnes this year, sugar would appear a natural choice for Cambodia as it attempts to diversify its agro-industrial production. Adding further attraction has been the duty-free access to European markets which, along with guaranteed minimum prices, came into effect in 2009 for Cambodian sugar as part of the European Union's Everything But Arms (EBA) trade initiative.

In one of the industry's most prominent projects thus far, Thailand's SET-listed Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Plc (KSL) partnered in 2006 with the Taiwanese company Vewong and Cambodian businessman and senator Ly Yong Phat in a joint venture to harvest sugarcane on roughly 20,000 hectares in southwestern Cambodia. In June of last year, the group made its first shipment to Europe, exporting 10,000 tonnes of sugar to the United Kingdom under the EBA agreement.

But as the project has been developed, thousands of Cambodian villagers claim they have been pushed off their farmland, in some cases left homeless and denied their livelihoods, according to local rights groups. Community leaders have been intimidated with lawsuits and attacked by police seeking to clear their land on behalf of the project.

Ly Yong Phat has developed sugar plantations in three provinces, in all of which he has been accused of illegal land-grabbing by NGOs and villagers. The senator brushed off the allegations in an interview with the Phnom Penh Post earlier this year, saying that his concessions had been granted lawfully and that the frequent protests against his operations had been orchestrated by "political parties".

EU needs to take a firm stand on sugar

Monday, 23 May 2011
Steve Finch
The Phnom Penh Post

We will likely never know the extent to which Ly Yong Phat may have profited from this arrangement given the highly opaque nature of his businesses, but from farmers reported testimonies they were offered well below market value or in some cases nothing at all for land, we can assume the CPP senator has made money.

If the EBA is to be a success, and Cambodia’s government is to learn it has to address grave injustices associated with doing business here, then the EU must take a firm stand.

JUNE 4, 2010 was supposed to represent a milestone for Cambodian exports. Taking advantage of zero tariffs in Europe under the Everything But Arms scheme, Thai company Khon Kaen Sugar (KSL) and its Cambodian partner Koh Kong Sugar Industry shipped 10,000 tonnes of sugar to the United Kingdom, the first in 40 years.

But a system the European Union has designed to help least-developed countries enhance “their export earnings, promote their industrialisation and encourage the diversification of their economies” has instead had a negative overall impact in Cambodia’s case. Not only has the development of Cambodia’s sugar export industry led to serious human rights abuses, all evidence suggests it has proven hugely unprofitable for almost everyone involved – except for one man, CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat.

Investigations by the likes of Bridges without Borders and EU officials themselves, among others, have led to identical conclusions – that people have lost their homes and their livelihoods following forced evictions by businesses owned by Ly Yong Phat, including Koh Kong Sugar Industry and Kampong Speu Sugar Company.

SRP MP Mu Sochua and EU MP Cecilia Wikstrom visit Koh Kong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NncEZQu_FGo&feature=player_embedded

Human rights violation by Ly Yong Phat’s sugar Company will be examined by the EU Parliament

Villagers in Kampong Speu protesting against land-grabbing by Ly Yong Phat's sugar company

EU MP Cecilia Vikstrom

CPP land-thief Ly Yong Phat

18 May 2011
By Rithipol
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Soch
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

Accompanied by SRP MPs, Mrs. Cecilia Vikstrom traveled to Om Laing commune, Thpong district, Kampong Speu province, the location where a bitter land dispute is taking place, pitting about 3,000 families against the sugar company owned by Ly Yong Phat, a CPP senator. On the spot, Mrs. Vikstrom witnessed human rights violations against the villagers and she indicated that this case will be raised at the EU Parliament so that sanctions may be taken against companies whose products depend on the EU market.

Mrs. Cecilia Vikstrom, a member of the EU Parliament from Sweden, accompanied by SRP MP Mu Sochua, a member the largest opposition party in Cambodia, questioned villagers who are currently suffering from the use of armed force to grab their land by the Phnom Penh Sugar Company owned Ly Yong Phat and his wife. Ly Yong Phat is a senator of the ruling CPP party.

Mrs. Cecilia Vikstrom considered the eviction of the villagers as a true human rights violation. She also agreed with the findings made by human rights organizations indicating that Ly Yong Phat benefits from duty-free export of sugar to the EU and the minimum price guarantee set by the EU’s “Everything but Arms” program whereas [his company is involved in] human rights violations.