Cambodian villagers evicted for sugar plantations

Cambodia's sugar industry is undergoing a revival but there is a bitter undercurrent to what would otherwise be a great success story.

Hundreds of farmers have been forced off their land to make way for sugarcane plantations, which are controlled by foreign firms and take advantage of Cambodia's tax exemptions in Europe.

An investigation by Radio Australia has found the EU trade initiatives designed to help least-developed-countries are instead fuelling evictions at gunpoint in rural Cambodia. Rights groups worry the abuses will only continue as the sugar industry- and foreign incentives - grow.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Dr Peter Baron, Executive Director of the International Sugar Organisation; Khan Samban is the head of the Directorate of Agri-Business at Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture; Chuon Chhuon, farmer in Amleang commune, Kampong Speu province; David Pred, country director of Bridges Across Borders; Rafael Dochao Moreno, Charge d'Affairs of the EU Delegation to Cambodia

COCHRANE: Cambodia's sugar industry came to an abrupt halt in 1970 when first General Lon Nol and then the Khmer Rouge took over the country.

Now, with the help of foreign money and EU trade incentives, the sugar industry is making a comeback.

In January, Prime Minister Hun Sen proudly opened a new refinery in the country's south-west and in June, the first shipment of Cambodian sugar in four decades was exported to Britain.

But there's a dark side to this economic success story.

[SFX - BURNING / SHOUTING]

That's the sound of farmers wailing as their homes are burned down by police and soldiers to make way for a sugar plantation in the country's north west.

This kind of State-backed dispossession has accompanied the resurgence of Cambodia's sugar industry - a sector driven largely by two foreign factors, says Dr Peter Baron, Executive Director of the International Sugar Organisation.

BARON: Laos and Cambodia, both least developed countries, which have seen a recent revamp of their sugar industry driven exclusively by foreign direct investment aiming at new export opportunities to Asia and the European Union under the so-called Everything But Arms initiative.

COCHRANE: Everything But Arms is an EU scheme which allows Least Developed Countries to send goods to Europe tax free - to encourage trade with poor nations, such as Cambodia.

Khan Samban is the head of the Directorate of Agri-Business at Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture. He says the EU trade incentives are important for Cambodia's emerging sugar industry.

SANBAN: [translated] I think the EU policy is very beneficial for Cambodia. If the EU doesn't charge any taxes for imports, it opens up new opportunities for foreign investors.

COCHRANE: The Cambodian government has added a further sweetener to the deal, allocating tens of thousands of hectares as economic land concessions for sugarcane plantations.

The details of how these land deals are done remain murky, but laws covering economic land concessions clearly state the need for social impact assessments, public consultations and for any resettlement issues to be resolved.

In reality, that doesn't happen, says farmer Chuon Chhuon.

CHUON: [translated] I am begging to keep only 200 square meters of land next to the highway. But the company doesn't listen and keeps clearing the land I asked for. Sometimes, in the morning, the company brings in bulldozers with military police carrying stun batons.

COCHRANE:Chuon Chhuon says he's lived on his land in Kampong Speu province for 10 years, and has developed orchards of mango and banana trees.

That should be enough to secure his property. That's because Cambodia's land title system was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, and new laws give ownership to anyone who lives on the land for more than five years.

But laws mean little when powerful interests are involved.

And when it comes to Cambodia's sugar industry, the key powerful player is Ly Yong Phat, a senator and businessman who owns one sugar plantation outright, is involved in several others and is a 20 per cent stakeholder in Cambodia's new sugar refinery.

Ly Yong Phat's main business partners are Thai sugar giants Khon Kaen Sugar and Mitr Phol Sugar, as well as Taiwanese investor Vewong Corporation.

The sugar company they own together was named earlier this year as an official sponsor of army Battalion 313 - members of which have turned up, with their weapons, to the scene of forced evictions.

The organisation Bridges Across Borders has been investigating the impacts of Cambodia's sugar industry, and its country director is David Pred.

PRED: A number of these concessions have been accompanied by militarisation and serious human rights abuses. I'm refering here to forced evictions that leave families landless and homeless, destruction of property, violence including several shootings in the last year, and arbitrary arrest and detention of affected farmers.

COCHRANE: The sugarcane that supplied Cambodia's first shipment in four decades came from land in Koh Kong province, in Cambodia's south-west, where police and military police stood alongside the company bulldozers.

When farmers resisted in 2006, they were threatened and then police opened fire. One woman was shot in the foot, a man was shot in the arm and five others were injured.

Later, a deal was reached with some communities, others are still waiting for a resolution.

The next evictions were in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Oddar Meanchey, in the north-west, where more than 100 homes were torched.

The latest battleground for land is in Kampong Speu province, about three hours drive from the capital.

SFX - Amleang

There, residents are resisting resettlement because the small plots of land offered by the company would leave them nowehere to grow rice or cash crops, according to Ouch Leng, from the land program at rights group ADHOC.

LENG: The company and the government did not care about the living conditions for the people, about the living standard... they care only about the investment, they get the money with their private company.

COCHRANE: David Pred from Bridges Across Borders says, as well as the companies and government, the EU should take at least some responsibility for the human rights abuses.

PRED: We are extremely concerned that instiling this tariff-free status on Cambodia without recquiring any environmental and social safeguards is encouraging the expansion of a model of industrial agriculture that is in fact very harmful to Cambodian farmers and rural communitites, and has been directly tied to violence and the abuse of human rights.

COCHRANE: The Charge d'Affairs of the EU Delegation to Cambodia, Rafael Dochao Moreno, says it's unfair to blame rights abuses on the EU.

MORENO: It's like accusing for instance, where there's a drunk driver killing a pedestrian, you accuse the manufacturers of cars of this killing. There is a relation because the car has killed a person but it is not a direct responsibility of someone that is manufacturing cars.

COCHRANE: Mr Moreno went on to say the EU is concerned about forced evictions and human rights abuses in Cambodia, and will be raising these issues with the Government in talks in October.

The company that purchased the first shipment of sugar, British food giant Tate & Lyle declined to be interviewed, but sent this written statement:

TATE & LYLE: All our sugar suppliers are audited by an independent and internationally recognised auditing body to evaluate their social, ethical and environmental performance. This is the first year our EU sugar refining business will have received sugar from Cambodia and therefore an independent audit will be undertaken within the next few months.

COCHRANE: Ly Yong Phat and his Thai business partners did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Ly Yong Phat's company bulldozers continue to clear land in Kampong Speu province, preparing for another sugar plantation.

source: radioaustralia