Complaint to Be Filed in US Over Koh Kong Sugar Plantations

Families in Koh Kong province will today file a complaint with the U.S. government against American Sugar Refining (ASR) over farmland they claim they were violently evicted from to make way for two sugar plantations that supply the New York-based company. … The 207 Koh Kong families will file their complaint with the U.S. National Contact Point, a government office in Washington that handles disputes with multinational firms within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to a statement released yesterday by the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) and EarthRights International, which are representing the families. The families have lodged their complaint against ASR because in 2009 the firm bought the British refineries that continue to import the plantations’ sugar. … The complaint in the U.S. is largely symbolic, admitted Man Vuthy, a case coordinator for CLEC, as the National Contact Point can push ASR into mediation with the families but cannot order it to compensate them. …

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/complaint-to-be-filed-in-us-over-koh-kong-sugar-plantations-4956/