Cambodian land grabs are 'crime against humanity', lawyers tell ICC
….It should take the ICC three to six months to decide whether to begin a preliminary examination…Cambodian government spokesman…said the complaint was a partisan ploy by a local opposition party. "The motivation is to polarize,"…Lawyers were hired by supporters of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party, he said. "They are just trying to make our government look bad. They invented fake numbers of people being affected by land grabbing and eviction."…At least four million hectares of land, 22 percent of Cambodia's land area, have been confiscated, with indigenous peoples particularly targeted, [said] the International Federation for Human Rights…The Cambodian government's actions "amount to crimes against humanity" when taken cumulatively…Many of the evicted residents were removed to make way for sugar or rubber plantations, or logging operations, Rogers [the lawyer filing the complaint] said. Some of the projects involved joint ventures between Cambodia's ruling elite, and international investors, mostly from Thailand, China and Vietnam, Rogers said…