Petition for Investigation Into Sugar Trade Gains Support
More than 55,000 people have joined an online petition set up by a pair of French nongovernment groups urging the European Union (E.U.) to immediately launch an investigation into local sugar plantations accused of illegally evicting hundreds of Cambodian families. At the center of the dispute are a pair of Koh Kong province plantations jointly owned by Thai and Taiwanese firms accused of stealing land from local farmers, sometimes violently. U.K. firm Tate & Lyle has been importing the sugar duty free under the E.U.’s Everything But Arms (EBA) trade scheme, and the Koh Kong families want the benefits from the trade deal to end. Local NGO Equitable Cambodia reached out to ActionAid and Peuples Solidaires to launch a petition on the families’ behalf on September 18, addressed to E.U. Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht. “In Cambodia, sugar companies are evicting rural populations from their land in a climate of violence and serious human rights violations. These violations are encouraged by the commercial advantages that come from the European initiative Everything But Arms,” the petition reads. … The Commission currently requires that human rights violations be “serious and systematic” before it launches an investigation that could strip a country of such trade benefits. In a report on Cambodia’s land concessions last year, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights to the country, Surya Subedi, said that rights violations tied to Cambodia’s agri-business land concessions were “serious and widespread.” Equitable Cambodia executive director Eang Vuthy said that under E.U. guidelines Mr. Subedi’s reports, as a U.N.-mandated human rights monitor, ought to be enough to trigger the investigation they have been asking for. …
Zsombor Peter and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/petition-for-investigation-into-sugar-trade-gains-support-45704/
