EU to probe sugar disputes

Cambodia has taken a “crucial step towards justice” by launching a reparations program for thousands of villagers who were forcibly evicted to make way for industrial sugar plantations, according to campaigners.

Resettlement experts hired by the European Commission will draft a scheme to assess the claims of thousands of villagers who were evicted with little or no compensation to make way for sugar plantations in Kampong Speu, Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey provinces.

“The EU will fund technical expertise to develop a mechanism to audit claims in relation to sugarcane plantations in Cambodia, and ensure the implementation of any remedial measures that are found necessary,” the EU said in a statement yesterday.

The move towards reparations, which followed a February meeting where senior government officials, sugar companies and the EU agreed to work towards a resolution, was welcomed by villagers and campaigners.

Chan Sokhoeun, a representative of the Thpong community in Kampong Speu province’s Omlaing commune, said the villagers’ living standards had dropped significantly since their land was taken by ruling Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar company.

“We now work on [what was] our own farmland as slave workers for the sugar company,” he said.

Read more at: http://phnompenhpost.com/national/eu-probe-sugar-disputes