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

Land Grabs in Cambodia

Chut Wutty: gunned down (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Heng Chantha: killed by government soldiers (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

13 Boeung Kak Lake residents unfairly arrested and jailed

July 18, 2012
By MU SOCHUA and CECILIA WIKSTRÖM
Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times

PHNOM PENH — An anti-logging activist is murdered, a teenage girl is shot and killed by police during a forcible eviction, 13 women are sentenced to up to two-and-a-half years in prison simply for holding a protest on land from which they’ve been expropriated. These are recent examples of the all-too-familiar human rights abuses that result from the Cambodian government’s disastrous land policy.

Investment in Cambodia’s agriculture sector is long overdue. But instead of passing reforms that would help the country’s many farmers and villagers better use their land — 80 percent of the total population is rural — the government has signed off almost 11,600 square miles of Cambodia’s arable land to investors, including major Chinese and Vietnamese companies and local firms with ties to the governing Cambodian People’s Party (C.P.P.).

That’s more than two-thirds of all arable land in Cambodia, according to a senior adviser at the human rights group Licadho. What’s more, according to Amnesty International, in 2008 some 150,000 Cambodians were at risk of being evicted, meaning that some 420,000 Cambodians have been affected by evictions since 2003.

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

No place like home [-Hun Xen's trail of destruction]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHLiWcTZFJE

Can progress and justice co-exist in Cambodia, a country where development leaves a trail of destruction?

29 Jun 2012

101 East

Al Jazeera

For years, Cambodia's Boeung Kak Lake has been the centre of a David-and-Goliath battle between its residents and the government. Thousands of residents have been forcibly evicted; their homes destroyed for nominal compensation in the name of developing prime real estate in the capital, Phnom Penh.

Locals have cried foul since authorities awarded a 99-year lease to Shukaku Inc - owned by Senator Lao Meng Khin - in 2007 to develop the area, which is home to some 4,000 families. Over the years, villagers who resisted eviction were harassed by security forces and even thugs, often resulting in violent clashes. Those who accepted relocation found themselves in remote areas lacking basic amenities.

The remaining residents witnessed bulldozers turn their neighbourhood into a construction site, as the once scenic lake was filled to make space for a high-end residential and commercial area.

From Homes to Prison Cells: A Story of Land Grabbing in Cambodia

June 21, 2012 - Focusing on the Boeung Kak lake and the Borei Keila cases, this video explores the impact of land grabbing on poor Cambodians and exposes the risks facing housing rights activists. It was shown at the UN Sustainable Development Conference in Rio in June 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PikgYI52YXA

Villagers turn to leaflets in hope of intervention

(Photo by Chundy Huon)

Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

More than 200 villagers locked in a years-long land dispute with a sugar company owned by senator tycoon Ly Yong Phat lined national road 48 yesterday, distributing leaflets to motorists and threatening to block the road next month if their situation is not resolved.

The villagers, who hailed from Chikor Leu commune in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district, have been protesting against Ly Yong Phat’s Koh Kong Sugar Company since their violent eviction in 2006, when their land was bulldozed, and two villagers were reportedly wounded by gunfire from security forces.

The villagers’ representative, An Hai Ya, said yesterday that the 220 families wrote the leaflet about their tribulations to alert the public to their situation.

“That is the way to share their problem with everyone after they tried to protest many times to ask for resolution from the government, the company and the authorities,” he said, noting that villagers distributed more than 500 petitions.

Roadblock ends as protesters succumb to drivers' demands

Monday, 14 May 2012
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

It took angry motorists rather than government officials or police officers to persuade more than 200 protesting villagers to clear road 48 in Koh Kong province yesterday morning after they blocked it for almost 24 hours, a human rights group representative said.

The villagers, involved in a long-running dispute over land granted to a company allegedly owned by tycoon senator Ly Yong Phat, cut down trees early on Saturday morning and slept in between the wood when night fell in Sre Ambel district’s Chi Khor Leu commune, according to In Kongchit, a coordinator with human rights group Licadho.

“They decided to open the road at 4am because many drivers and passengers were angry and threatened to complain because fruit vehicles could not cross the road,” he said.

Villagers Pray for Their Lands and Forests to be Safe from the Pheapimex Company

On 11 April 2012 at around 10:30 a.m, about 30-40 villagers from Kbal Trach commune,Krakor district, Pursat hold a Buddhist ceremony for a pray for their lands and forests to be safe from Pheapimex Company. (Photo by Chundy)

The offerings for the spirit (Arak/Neak Ta = The conservators of the territory and forestry) to go into the human body (Roub Snong; the woman in the middle). Starting from around 01:00 p.m of 11 April 2012 until around ) 2: 50 p.m, but it doesn't work. By the belief, it should be held on Tuesday or Saturday, or it won't work like this one. The villagers of around 50 including 30 women do it for their talk to the Arak/Neak Ta to help protect their lands and forests from Pheapimex Company. (Photo by Chundy)

Clash with sugar firm puts villagers in court

Thursday, 05 April 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Speu provincial court issued summonses yesterday to five villagers from Thpong district’s Omlaing commune, who are involved in a long-standing land dispute with Cambodia People’s Party senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar company.

Village representative from Omlaing commune, Phal Vannak, said the five villagers have been ordered to appear before the court on Monday.

“It [the summonses] is a trick the company plays with the court in an attempt to take our land,” he said, adding that with the Khmer New Year quickly approaching, it is burdensome for the villagers to find time to go to the court.

“Even though it is very difficult, they have to go to court, otherwise they [court] will take the opportunity to arrest us,” he said.

Phnom Penh Sugar received an economic land concession in February, granting the company 9,000 hectares to develop sugar cane.