“Cambodia urged to rethink Chinese ties, land policies to recover from pandemic”, 29 June 2020

According to global network People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), international research-based organization GRAIN, and Cambodian NGO Ponlok Khmer (PKH),Cambodia’s “growing” relationship with China will only worsen landlessness and abuses to Cambodian rural peoples…

The groups cited the case of Chinese company Hengfu Group Sugar Industry, which was reported to be leasing land in its concession area to communities in Preah Vihear province while its subsidiaries have indefinitely halted their operations. Both activities are violations of its contract with the Cambodian government…

“Hengfu displaced communities, destroyed livelihoods, degraded the environment, trampled on the indigenous culture, and violated human rights,” the groups said.

The Khmer and Indigenous Kuy communities in Preah Vihear have resisted Hengfu’s operations for almost a decade now…

PKH shared that Hengfu recently revived a pending case it filed in 2014. At the time, villagers had to confiscate the bulldozers sent out by the company to stop the arbitrary clearing of their lands. The Preah Vihear Provincial Court acquitted eight community members and two of their staff of “illegal confinement and detention” last February…

The groups are also concerned that the company can always file another charge or revive any of its previous charges in an attempt to pacify the communities’ opposition…

… They urged reforms that would prioritize and empower the country’s farmers and Indigenous Peoples in developing their lands instead of awarding them to foreign companies.

“Taking these actions is recognizing the inalienable right of the rural peoples to food and to produce food, which is ever more important amid the many economic uncertainties brought to us by the coronavirus pandemic,” PCFS said…

… the groups urged the government of Cambodia to return the disputed land in Preah Vihear to the Khmer and Indigenous Kuy communities…