Sugar Firm Offers Defense After Call for Probe of EU Trade Links
The director of a CPP senator’s sugar plantation accused of stealing land from hundreds of families said Wednesday that most locals were happy with the new jobs the plantation has generated, a week after a visiting European Union parliamentarian renewed calls for an investigation of rights abuses by companies exporting to Europe. Seng Nhak, the managing director of Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar plantation in Kompong Speu province, defended the company’s work after a visit to the area by E.U. Parliament member Patrice Tirolien. Before leaving Cambodia on Friday, Mr. Tirolien said he would press the European Commission to investigate the E.U.’s free-trade scheme for developing countries over long-running allegations that Cambodian sugar plantations are taking advantage of the deal are violating the rights of hundreds of local families. … Phnom Penh Sugar, and another plantation adjacent to it registered to Mr. Yong Phat’s wife, Kim Heang, are accused of encroaching on the farms, grazing land and community forests of more than 1,500 families across 15 villages since 2010. While some of them have received $25 to $500 in compensation, rights groups say 200 families had yet to receive anything as of last month. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-firm-offers-defense-after-call-for-probe-of-eu-trade-links-51545/
