Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Mu Sochua calls out Aussie mining firms

Tuesday, 17 April 2012
David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

Opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua has taken aim at Australian mining companies eyeing the Kingdom’s resources, travelling to their home soil to lobby the halls of power.

Opposition party lawmaker Mu Sochua speaks during a press conference in Phnom Penh in January. Photo by Heng Chivoan

Mu Sochua cited fears that Australian companies awarded exploration concessions in Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces will treat ethnic minorities there with the same disregard they had shown to their own country’s indigenous groups.

I cannot be in Australia and not speak about mining companies that are part of the devastation of Mondulkiri,” she said in an email yesterday.


Australian mining firms Liberty Mining International and Indochine Mining Limited hold hundreds of thousands of hectares of exploration concessions in Ratanakkiri.

Another Australian firm, Southern Gold, has been granted similarly large concessions in Moldulkiri, Kratie and Ratanakkiri.

Richard Stanger, managing director of Liberty Mining International and president of the Cambodian Association for Mining and Exploration Companies, said Australian mining should be the last industry that Mu Sochua should be accusing of malfeasance.

“I can categorically say that no one has been displaced for exploration in Cambodia …particularly Australian companies. We are doing things to world class standards as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

“I’m far more concerned in the high incidents of illegal logging that has decimated the forests in Modulkiri and Ratanakkiri, so perhaps she should focus on that.”

He also emphasised that no Australian mining company had actually begun “exploiting anything” and said if they did, only a tiny fraction of the total exploration concession would be utilised.

Mu Sochua is set to meet Australian Greens Senator and Vice President Sarah Hanson-Young on Wednesday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please!...Please!... I don't want to see your face. What do you have to help Cambodia. You have left the country to abroad and came back to work in Cambodia and you are on the other party which is Som Rainsy party. And you think you are tough because you have education and have aquired degree from the US. Com'on Mou I don't want to see your face.

fomer Khmer Rouge soldier.

Anonymous said...

MP. MU SUCHUA,
Make your day until you get a Nobel Peace Laureate and save Cambodia from land concession sucked Khmer blood.
Regime change to save Cambodia Vietnamization and the clan KR, Vietminh, Sihanouk killing innocent Khmers.
GO GO MU Suchua we need a woman to run a country like Aung San Suyi in Burmanese.
Down with Cambodia Vietnamization.
Down with Land Concession to the Richer.

Anonymous said...

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