UN Official Calls On Cambodia To Cancel Concession On Indigenous Land
 
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 12:00:23 -0400

 
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UN OFFICIAL CALLS ON CAMBODIA TO CANCEL CONCESSION ON INDIGENOUS 
LAND
New York, Jul  6 2005 12:00PM
A United Nations human rights official has called on the Government 
of Cambodia to cancel a land concession to a Chinese-backed company, 
saying it disregards the interests of indigenous people living 
there and violates both the law and human rights. 

“The Government and the company have disregarded the well-being, 
culture and livelihoods of the Phnong indigenous people who make 
up more than half the population of the province, and many breaches 
of the law and of human rights have been committed,” Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for Human Rights in 
Cambodia, Peter Leuprecht, said in a statement yesterday.

He asked Government to cancel the agreement of last August to provide 
an initial 10,000 hectares of state land to Wuzhishan L.S. Group 
for a pine tree plantation in Mondulkiri province, with a promise 
of a further 189,999 hectares. 

“As with other economic land concessions, no environmental or social 
impact assessments were carried out, and local populations and 
authorities were neither informed nor consulted,” he said.

The concession encompasses hilly grasslands and dense forest in the 
valleys and along the waterways of southern Mondulkiri. In September, 
the company started spraying the hills with large amounts 
of the herbicide glyphosate, later burning sprayed areas. The hills 
are used by the Phnong to graze their cattle.

Ancestral burial areas and spirit forests have also been desecrated 
and the company has taken farm lands and rice fields, Mr. Leuprecht 
said. The concession should not have been approved as the Land 
Law establishes the right of indigenous people to collective 
title, he added.
 2005-07-06 00:00:00.000 


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