Africa, Indonesia, Cambodia -- land rent is fought over

Competing needs -- some need Earth for food, others for money -- plays out constantly around the world. That is, until we recognize the worth of Earth is for us all to share. Such sharing we can implement via geonomics, a sane shift of taxes toward natural resources and subsidies to everybody. We trim, blend, and append three 2009 articles from: (1) the Jakarta Post, Aug 9, on Sulawesi by A. Hajramurni; (2) BBC, Aug 12, on Cambodia by R. Walker; and (3) BBC, Aug 5, on Africa by K. Hunt.

Villagers clash with police in South Sulawesi

Villagers clashed Sunday with local police at a sugarcane plantation field in Takalar regency, South Sulawesi, which belongs to the State Plantation Company (PTPN) XIV, wounding 10 people.

Six of the injured people were civilians and the rest were police officers.

The brawl began when villagers banned PTPN XIV workers from the plantation field in Timbuseng village, North Polongbangkeng district. Villagers claimed they owned the land. Police came to break up the two parties.

Then someone threw a stone to the villagers, who responded by throwing more stones to the police. Police then hunted the villagers who ran to residential areas.

The villagers re-grouped, returned to the plantation field, and fought against the police.

The land rent agreement ended two years ago. PTPN XIV spokesman Bahrun said his firm had a land usage permit, due on 2024 from the Takalar regency administration. “So if anyone claims that they own the land, they should take legal action.”

JJS: Their legal action should downplay ownership and emphasize sharing the rent. When rent is shared broadly, one has less motive to try to monopolize the land.

Cambodia: A land up for sale?

In north eastern Cambodia for the past five years, the Jarai people of Kong Yu village have been fighting for, and losing, their land.

Local officials said they wanted to give part of the land to disabled soldiers. They said if you don't give us the land, we'll take it. So farmers agreed to give them 50 hectares.

The villagers were invited to a party and when many of them were drunk they were asked to put their thumbprints on documents. "Most of us don't know how to read or write, and the chiefs did not explain what the thumbprints were for," said Mr Fil. The villagers later found they had signed away more than 400 hectares -- and the land was not for disabled soldiers, but a private company who began making way for a rubber plantation.

Businesswoman Keat Kolney insists she bought the land legally. She is married to a senior official in the ministry of land management. It is not the only case where those closely connected to senior government figures have taken land from poor Cambodians.

Chamran, a farmer in the area, said “we organized a demonstration. The military police pointed a gun in my stomach and said if you hold another demonstration we will kill you."

Beginning in the 1990s, large swathes of the country's rich forests were bought up by logging companies. Now mining and gas concessions are being granted to insiders. Global Witness says members of the government, right up to the highest levels, are using Cambodia and its assets as their own personal slush fund.

Cambodia's recent stability, following decades of violence, has attracted a rapid boom in tourism and a race for prime real estate on which to build new resorts. Many of the country's beaches have already been bought up.

Rights groups estimate that 30,000 people have been forcibly evicted from their homes in the capital Phnom Penh over the past five years to make way for new developments. The UN estimates hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are now affected by land disputes.

JJS: If landowner, government, and military act in concert, aren’t they really one body, as they’ve always been, since hunting and gathering ended?

Africa investment sparks land grab fear

African land has rarely been associated with financial reward. But population increase, changes in eating habits, and demand for bio-fuels are putting sub-Saharan farmland at a premium worldwide while its prices are the lowest in the world.

Countries short of arable land, such as China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Kuwait, have been seeking agricultural investments in Africa.

South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics was forced to abandon a project to lease one million acres of land in Madagascar to produce corn earlier this year. The country's new president scrapped the deal following criticism that local people had not been consulted, and Daewoo was unsettled by unrest on the island.


LAND PRICES PER HECTARE
Sub-Saharan Africa - $800 to $1000
Argentina/Brazil - $5,000 - $,6000
Poland - $6000
US - $7000
UK - $18,000
Germany - $22,000

"We only operate in counties where we can have clear land title. If we can't get this, or we don't have a 99-year lease from the government, then we won't operate in that country," investor Ms. Payne says.

Investors say their ownership leads to better harvests and creates jobs paying above-average wages.

For now, the vast majority of the food stays in the country in which it is produced although it can be exported.

Since the state often owns the land and favors the investor, they’re prone to push out the poor.

As Africa's land becomes more sought after by international investors, the risk only grows that a continent that has often extended a begging bowl to the world could instead feed its richer neighbors.

Read more!

Cambodia joins microloan clean-up

By Stephen Kurczy


PHNOM PENH - Impoverished Cambodia has emerged as a global microfinance leader, becoming the first Asian nation to hold lenders accountable to their original mission of poverty reduction. If a new global initiative aimed at promoting greater transparency over microfinance institutions (MFIs) recently launched here gains traction, the multi-billion dollar industry could be set for a shake-out.

It has long been assumed that microfinance ventures, launched in the 1970s as non-profit enterprises to bring cheap credit to the poor, prioritize alleviating poverty over maximizing profits. In recent years, celebrities such Robert Duvall, Natalie Portman and Yeardley Smith, (the voice of Lisa in animated television series The Simpsons), became official spokespeople for different MFIs such as Pro Mujer (Pro Women), Finca International, and the Grameen Foundation.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund has in recent years channeled millions of dollars in donor funds into MFIs. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, says it has given more than US$600 million to more than 100 MFIs worldwide and maintains a commitment to double that investment to $1.2 billion by 2010, making IFC the largest investor in an industry servicing more than 80 million people around the world.

But so-called barefoot banking has come under growing criticism as MFIs reap huge profits. Reports have shown that many misrepresent their underlying loan fees, with some charging annual interest rates in excess of 100%. For instance, Mexico's Banco Compartamos, originally a non-profit institution, generated $458 million in an April 2008 initial public offering. Private investors piled into the offering because the bank charges its 1.4 million poor borrowers up to 128% annual interest.

Chuck Waterfield, a microfinance expert and Columbia University professor, has found that many MFIs, including Compartamos, advertise as pro-poor enterprises with 4% monthly interest rates but when additional hidden fees were added those rates often topped 10% per month.

Waterfield recently devised a platform for borrowers and international donors - who underwrite and provide cheap capital for many microcredit banks to on-lend - to view more clearly individual MFIs' true underlying interest rates. "Compartamos was a watershed for the industry. It takes a crisis to make you do what you should have done 10 years ago," Waterfield told Asia Times Online.

In mid-2008, he launched MicroFinance Transparency, a database of interest rates charged by individual microlenders that aims through publicity to refocus microfinance on poverty alleviation. The goal, he says, is to collect loan information from all microcredit lenders worldwide and publish their real annual percentage rates at his website, mftransparency.org.

"The organizations with the highest interest rates have the glossiest annual reports, with pictures of mothers with babies, and they talk about how they're helping those mothers while making boatloads of profits," Waterfield said on August 7 at a launch event in Phnom Penh. "So we put the prices up there and say, 'Nice annual report but you're charging twice the interest rate as anyone else to those mothers with babies'."

Waterfield hopes that all MFIs will openly join the initiative and prove they have nothing to hide. He first introduced the project in March in Peru, then in Bosnia in April, and this month in Cambodia before heading to another launch in Bangladesh. He acknowledges that he can't force microcredit lenders, many of whom bury hidden costs in the small print of their loan forms, to sign up to the initiative.

"We've got to build credibility and Cambodia helps us build credibility because it's a willing participant. The next country we go to will be a little less willing. And next year we'll go into the countries that are really reluctant to have us show up."

People over profits
While Cambodia is renowned for its endemic corruption and is often rated among the world's least transparent countries, Waterfield said he chose the country as the first Asian nation for his initiative because its registered MFIs rank among the world's top in terms of social performance, consumer protection and ethical practices.

Of the 12 Asian MFIs that have signed on to a social performance indicators program launched by the Washington DC-based Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), a provider of MFI business information and data services, half hailed from Cambodia.

Five Cambodian banks are also included in MIX's ranking of the world's top 100 MFIs; only India, with six, claims more. In June, Angkor Microfinance Kampuchea was one of three MFIs worldwide to receive the first gold award for social performance reporting from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Consultative Group to Assist the Poor.

"Cambodian MFIs have been at the forefront of industry reporting for many years," MIX's chief operating officer Blaine Stephens wrote in an e-mail in response to Asia Times Online questions. "My guess is that they will demonstrate as much commitment to reporting social performance as they have to reporting financial performance in an open and transparent manner."

Cambodian MFIs charge interest based on 30- or 31-day months. This may sound intuitive, but in Mexico and other developing countries most MFIs charge interest rates based on a four-week month, which effectively allows them to charge the borrower for an extra month every calendar year, Waterfield said.

The annual interest rates charged by MFIs in Cambodia are among the lowest worldwide at between 24% and 36%. While higher than normal rates on commercial consumer loans
, microloans are inherently more expensive because the lender receives less return while incurring overheads and transaction costs similar to those for larger loans.

"Here in Cambodia, we are committed to making sure that the financial services provided to the poor come as tools for their empowerment rather than shackles for their exploitation," Cambodian National Bank director general Tal Nay Im said on August 7. The National Bank has recently issued a legally binding sub-decree for MFIs to advertise their real effective interest rates.

Cambodia is the only country to outlaw flat interest rate loans, a credit structure where monthly interest is paid on the total loan amount even as the borrower pays down the principal - which means the borrower is effectively paying interest on money already paid back. In comparison, every MFI in Mexico charges a flat rate and only one microcredit bank in impoverished Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank, charges borrowers a declining rate where they pay less and less interest as the outstanding amount owed is paid down.

The Grameen Bank was founded in the 1970s by Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and the US Presidential Medal for Freedom this week for his efforts to provide low interest loans to the poor. While many microcredit institutions claim to take inspiration from his example, Yunus has publicly lamented the industry trend towards profit maximization over uplift of the poor.

He, for one, has strongly endorsed Waterfield's new Microfinance Transparency initiative. "Microfinance emerged as a struggle against loan sharks, so we don't want to see new loan sharks created in the name of microcredit," Yunus told BusinessWeek at the time of the project's launch.

While Cambodia's 18 MFIs have agreed to submit their loan data to MicroFinance Transparency, the Bangladeshi government is drafting a law that will require all their MFIs to submit data to the initiative. In Bangladesh, banks do not at present advertise their true interest rates, Waterfield said, and there is the risk of a consumer backlash if published interest rates suddenly appear to double overnight.

Leaky lending
Not all MFIs are equally excited about Waterfield's transparency initiative, particularly those whose reputation would take a hit through greater disclosure. One of mftransparency.org's features will show, in graphical form, the relationship between loan size and interest rates charged. That presentation will show more clearly where MFIs' priorities lie.

Many MFIs had been so profitable that hedge funds, venture capital firms, and other big private equity investors have sought ways to enter the business. In Cambodia, private equity fund Leopard Capital announced in March that "we are currently evaluating several options to invest in the sector, including participating in any pre-IPO [initial public offering, or sale of shares to the public] capital raising by a leading MFI, acquiring an existing MFI or merging an existing MFI with a smaller commercial bank."

Despite Cambodia's lead on MFI transparency, the sector has been facing financial troubles wrought by the global economic crisis. The industry-wide at-risk portfolio for the nation's 1 million microloan borrowers rose from 0.5% in mid-2008 to 3.39% in mid-2009. That's exposed flaws in previous client screening.

Mai Yop, a 55-year-old salt farmer in southern Cambodia's Kampot province, admits to having lied to get a $1,000 loan three years ago from microfinance bank Acleda. While microloans are extended solely for business purposes, such as the provision of new cattle or farming tools, Mai Yop says she used the money to pay for her husband's stomach surgery.

"I had to lie, or I wouldn't get any money," said Mai Yop, who now lives on a budget of $5 a day. In order to pay back her first loan, she took loans from two other microlenders, and finally from a high-interest charging informal moneylender who eventually seized her farmland due to non-payment.

Some borrowers say they'd be in a better situation today if they'd never taken on a microloan. "We are poorer than ever," said Oum Siv, a 50-year-old grocery vendor in Kampot. Earlier this year, she said she owed $10,000 to a private moneylender after taking out a series of microcredit loans for her husband's construction business, which failed to get off the ground amid the economic slowdown.

Cambodia's MFIs say they have since adopted more rigorous screening processes for potential borrowers. But the toll from years of lax screening has only now become apparent. The situation is similar in several Cambodian provinces, with tens of thousands of Cambodians unable to repay their microloans and now at risk of losing their homes and farmland.

Despite these challenges, Waterfield said that Cambodia remains a relative microcredit success story. Elsewhere, when it comes to openness and transparency, "some of these [lenders] say, 'We've been lying for 20 years for some legitimate reasons, so it's not so easy to start telling the truth.' Here, it was like, 'sure, what do you need, we'll give it to you.' There was no resistance, no nervousness. We'll never see that again ... anywhere we go."

Stephen Kurczy is a journalist roaming across Asia. He may be reached at kurczy@gmail.com. Read more!

A further 160 families in Cambodia face forced eviction

A further 160 families in Cambodia are to be forcibly evicted from their homes without being given adequate alternative housing or just compensation.

Two lakeside villages in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh received an official notice on Monday, giving them seven days to dismantle their houses. A private company is due to redevelop the site for tourism and commercial use.

Around 4,200 families living on or around Boeung Kak Lake in central Phnom Penh are affected by this re-development, which is the outcome of an agreement reached in 2007 between the Municipality of Phnom Penh and the private company. The company started filling the lake with sand in August 2008, in preparation for building.

The agreement was made without any prior consultation with the affected families, who since learning about the deal have repeatedly protested and voiced concern about the plans. At least two villagers have been arrested for their peaceful protests.

Company workers and security forces have intimidated and harassed many others, while the rising water levels caused by the filling of the lake, have flooded and destroyed many homes around its shore, forcing people to move.

The inhabitants of Village 2 and Village 4 were offered three options by the notice signed by the Daun Penh district governor: compensation of 8,000 USD plus an additional two million riel (approx 500 USD) to cover the cost of dismantling the houses; a flat at a resettlement site some 20 kilometres away plus two million riel; or new housing on-site but with temporary relocation.

The resettlement site at Damnak Trayoeung has no adequate shelter, water, electricity, sanitation, sewerage, health care or job opportunities.

The offer of on-site development is welcome as it demonstrates that the authorities are exploring alternatives other than eviction. This is also the option favoured by most of the 160 families.

However, according to the notice, they still have to dismantle their homes within seven days and accept relocation to a site far away from their work places and schools for an undetermined period, with no formal assurances that they will be able to return to secure tenure at Boeung Kak.

Last month, security forces forcibly evicted 60 low-income families from their homes in an area of central Phnom Penh called Group 78. The families in Group 78 had been living under the threat of forced evictions for three years, with the Cambodian authorities following none of the safeguards required under international law.

The Cambodian Government has consistently failed to guarantee the right to adequate housing and to protect its population against forced evictions. In 2008 alone, Amnesty International received reports about 27 forced evictions, affecting an estimated 23,000 people.

Amnesty International is reiterating its calls on the government to end forced evictions and introduce a moratorium on all mass evictions until there is a legal framework in place which protects human rights.

Amnesty International has urged the Cambodian authorities to halt immediately any plans to forcibly evict the families living in Villages 2 and 4 in Boeung Kak.

The organization also urged them to reconsider the plan to move the community to the resettlement site at Damnak Trayoeung and called on the authorities to hold genuine consultations about the onsite development plans, including clarifying the time frame for temporary relocation and a guarantee of security of tenure at Boeung Kak.

Moreover, Amnesty International is demanding that the authorities uphold Cambodia's obligations under international human rights treaties prohibiting forced eviction and related human rights violations. Read more!

Cambodian HIV Villages Draws Controversy

25 kilometers outside of Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, lies a village built by the government for HIV-infected patients and their families.

Come to be known as the "AIDS colony", in the past two months the government has relocated 47 families to live in its metal and wooden sheds.

With inadequate sanitation and no running water, the area is not a health sanctuary for HIV-infected patients, who require personal attention and care.

The government maintains it is taking care of patients by building new homes and offering healthcare and ownership rights previously unavailable.

But HIV-infected people living in the village say they have not received any official recognition of ownership rights nor government compensation for their old homes.

40-year-old HIV patient Chheang Toma says even with free medical treatment, he has no real means of earning a living in the colony.

[Chheang Toma, HIV Patient]:
"I feel sluggish in my arms and on my legs everyday and I cannot walk well. I will hang on, until the day I need to go to sleep in the hospital. I wanted to go now, but I have no money to spend for food, although they give treatment free of charge."

With little prospect of work in the area due to the distance from the city, people say they must survive largely on donations from the government and NGOs.

[Suon Davy, HIV Patient]:
"I face great difficulty for my family day to day, because we live far away from the hospital, far from any job opportunities and it is very hot here."

Local human rights activist Dr. Kek Galabru says the government actions are discriminatory while the conditions could pose health risks to already vulnerable patients.

[Dr. Kek Galabru, President, Lacadho NGO]:
"It's regretful that city hall sent 40 families to Tuol Sambo village. This is a discriminatory act because by putting them together like this, everyone will know this is an AIDS community."

The "AIDS colony" is one of a number of forced evictions in Cambodia, where the government has faced escalating criticism about its mandatory relocations.

Many HIV-infected people living in Tuol Sambo previously resided in squatter areas in the Borei Keila area of the capital, forced out as the government took over the land to build high-rise buildings.

Last month, the World Bank urged Cambodia to halt the forced evictions from disputed land, saying it threatened the livelihoods of thousands of urban dwellers. Read more!

Webb Visiting Government Officials in Laos

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) arrived Thursday in Vientiane, Laos to meet with a number of high-level government officials and industry leaders to advance U.S. interests in the region. His visit to Laos is part of a two-week, five-nation tour of Asia that also includes Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Webb, who has long experience in the region, serves as chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“It is vitally important that the United States re-engage with Southeast Asia at all levels," says Webb. “Our relations with Laos have never been fully repaired since the end of the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago. I look forward to working with Lao officials in order to bring our two countries closer together economically, culturally, and diplomatically.”

Webb’s schedule in Laos includes meetings with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of National Defense as well as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce which is responsible for Laos' bid to join the WTO.

Webb will also meet with the Mekong River Commission and business leaders to look at investment opportunities for the United States in Laos and ways to expand cooperation between the two countries.

Webb has enjoyed a continuous personal involvement in Asian and Pacific affairs that long predates his time in the Senate. In addition to his more recent visits as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Webb has worked and traveled throughout this vast region, from Micronesia to Burma, for nearly four decades, as a Marine Corps officer, a defense planner, a journalist, a novelist, a Department of Defense executive, and as a business consultant.

Webb served as an infantry Marine in Vietnam, and later as assistant secretary of defense and Secretary of the Navy in the Pentagon. He also served as an Asia-Pacific regional military planner in Guam, has written extensively on local, national and international issues in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and in the 1990s worked as a consultant for companies wishing to do business in Vietnam. He has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since joining the U.S. Senate in January 2007.

As chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, Webb oversees U.S. relations with countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim, and Oceana. The subcommittee also oversees regional organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
Read more!

India, Southeast Asian Nations Sign Free Trade Agreement

By Heda Bayron, Bangkok


India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have signed a free trade agreement after more than six years of negotiations.

Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations sealed the agreement in Bangkok Thursday. They met on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting.

The agreement creates one of Asia's biggest trading areas and integrates India's fast growing economy with 10 of its neighbors.

Trade between India and ASEAN amounts to $40 billion each year. Under the pact, India and ASEAN will eliminate tariffs on various goods by 2016.

"India has got the market of 1.1 billion in population and ASEAN of 550 million," said Krisda Piempongsant, the spokesman of Thailand's Commerce Ministry, host of the meeting. "The size of the two combined will be much, much bigger than China, Japan and South Korea put together."

India has been playing catch up as other large economies in the region - China, Japan and South Korea - have already entered into agreements with ASEAN. Australia and New Zealand also have trade pacts with the grouping.

With these agreements, ASEAN stands at the center of what could become an even bigger free trade area, involving all six trading partners and ASEAN.

"All six countries are in one way or another have an FTA with ASEAN. The ASEAN plus six is a possibility," said Piempongsant.

The agreement comes at a time when global trade liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization have stalled, largely because of disputes between developed and developing nations over state subsidies on agriculture and trade in manufactured goods.

ASEAN comprises of Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Laos, Brunei, Vietnam and Cambodia.


Read more!

Japan commits to assist Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam

Japan remains strong commitment to providing assistance to the Development Triangle Area of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (CLV), the Lao newspaper Vientiane Times reported Wednesday.

The commitment was made by Ishikane Kimihiro, deputy head of the Southeast and Southwest Asian Department of Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the third CLV-Japan working level meeting held in Vientiane.

The meeting was to review the implementation of cooperation activities funded by Japan and draw up future direction to attract more direct investment of Japan to the triangle area, said the newspaper.

Kimihiro said that his country's assistance would contribute to stability and prosperity of the CLV countries in particular and that of Asia in general.

Japan has so far provided 20 million U.S. dollars for development related to the triangle, said Ya Seng, an official from Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The development triangle area is located in the border areas of the three CLV countries that share many common factors. These include untapped natural resources, potential for economic development and similar socio-cultural conditions.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Khmer Rouge official wants 'harshest punishment'

By SOPHENG CHEANG


PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - The former chief of the Khmer Rouge's main torture center, being tried by a U.N.-backed tribunal on genocide charges, asked the Cambodian people Wednesday to give him "the harshest punishment."

The statement from Kaing Guek Eav, who headed the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, came as a widow wept before the court, demanding justice for the death of her husband and four children during the communist regime's reign of terror.

"I accept the regret, the sorrow and the suffering of the million Cambodian people who lost their husbands and wives," the defendant told the tribunal. "I would like the Cambodian people to condemn me to the harshest punishment."

Kaing Guek Eav _ better known as Duch _ is being tried for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. Up to 16,000 people were tortured under his command and later killed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule. Only a handful survived.

Duch (pronounced DOIK) later became an evangelical Christian and worked for international aid organizations after the ouster of the Khmer Rouge.

He noted Wednesday that Jesus Christ was stoned before his death by crucifixion.

"If Cambodians followed this traditional punishment, they could do that to me. I would accept it," he said.

Duch is the first of five senior Khmer Rouge figures scheduled to face long-delayed trials and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. His trial, which started in March, is expected to finish by the end of the year.

He could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Cambodia has no death penalty.

Cambodia and the U.N. also announced Wednesday the appointment of a corruption watchdog for the tribunal, whose credibility and funding has been threatened by allegations of wrongdoing _ notably that some Cambodian personnel paid kickbacks to get their jobs.

During Wednesday's court session, Bou Thon, 64, said her husband was a driver at the Khmer Rouge's Industry Ministry when he was accused of being a traitor and sent to S-21. She was assigned as a cook.

Her husband and four children vanished, and Bou Thon said she believed all were killed at Choeung Ek, better known as the Killing Fields, outside Phnom Penh where S-21 prisoners were dispatched for execution.

With tears in her eyes, Bou Thon said she tried to forgive and forget but could not.

Duch, asked by the judge to speak about the Khmer Rouge killings, said they were "like the death of an elephant which no one can hide with only two tamarind tree leaves."


Read more!

Cambodia: A land up for sale?

Romam Fil is moving rapidly through a dense patch of forest. Every few metres he pauses and points to edible plants and roots that the Jarai people of north eastern Cambodia have relied on for generations.

Then suddenly the trees come to an end. In front of us is a vast clearing, the red earth churned up and dotted with tree stumps.

Beyond that, stretching as far as we can see is a rubber plantation, the young trees are still thin and spindly and sway gently in the breeze.

This is the scene of a battle the Jarai people of Kong Yu village have been fighting, and losing for the past five years.

It started when local officials called a meeting and said they needed some of the forest.

"They told us they wanted to give part of our land to disabled soldiers," said Mr Fil.

"They said if you don't give us the land, we'll take it. So we agreed to give them a small area, just 50 hectares."

The villagers say they were then invited to a party and when many of them were drunk they were asked to put their thumbprints on documents.

"Most of us don't know how to read or write, and the chiefs did not explain what the thumbprints were for," said Mr Fil.

The villagers later found they had signed away more than 400 hectares - and the land was not for disabled soldiers, but a private company who began making way for the rubber plantation.

"They cleared areas where our people had their farms, and they destroyed our burial ground," said Mr Fil.

Political connections?

Lawyers for the owner of the plantation company, a powerful businesswoman called Keat Kolney, insist she bought the land legally.

But groups advocating for local land rights in Cambodia say part of the reason she was able to acquire the land is because she is married to a senior official in the ministry of land management.
It is not the only case where those closely connected to senior government figures are alleged to have taken land from poor Cambodians.

Five years ago, in north-western Pursat province a large grazing area was turned into an economic land concession - land the government grants to private firms for investment in large-scale agriculture.

It was allocated to a politically well-connected company called Pheapimex.

"They just came one day with their bulldozers and started clearing the land straight away," said Chamran, a farmer in the area.

"So we organised a demonstration but then a grenade was thrown among us - we don't know who by. Nine people were injured. The military police pointed a gun in my stomach and said if you hold another demonstration we will kill you."

Transparent process

Under the law, land concessions granted by the government should not exceed 10,000 hectares but the Pheapimex concession, although much of it is so far inactive, covers 300,000 hectares.

Global Witness, an environmental pressure group, estimates Pheapimex now controls 7% of Cambodia's land area.

The organisation says the company's owners, a prominent senator and his wife, have strong links to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Pheapimex did not reply to requests for a response to these allegations, but the Cambodian government maintains that the process by which private companies acquire land is both transparent and legal.

"The requirement is not to be close to the prime minister," said Phay Siphan, spokesman for Cambodia's Council of Ministers.

"The requirement is that you have enough capital, you have the technology to develop the land."
'Kleptocratic state'

It is not just in rural areas that people complain of losing land.

Cambodia's recent stability, following decades of violence, has attracted a rapid boom in tourism and a race among foreign and local entrepreneurs for prime real estate on which to build new resorts.

Many of the country's beaches have already been bought up.

And rights groups estimate that 30,000 people have been forcibly evicted from their homes in the capital Phnom Penh over the past five years to make way for new developments.

The roots of the problem date back to the 1970s when the brutal Khmer Rouge regime abolished private property and destroyed many title documents.

A land law passed in 2001 recognises the rights of people who have lived on land without dispute for five years or more, but in many cases it is not being implemented.

The UN estimates hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are now affected by land disputes.

But land is not the only state asset being sold at an alarming rate.

Beginning in the 1990s, large swathes of the country's rich forests were bought up by logging companies.

Now sizeable mining and gas concessions are also being granted to private enterprises.

Eleanor Nichol of Global Witness believes individual members of the Cambodian government, right up to the highest levels, are benefiting.

"Essentially what we're dealing with here is a kleptocratic state which is using the country and its assets as their own personal slush fund," she said.

The Cambodian government rejects these allegations.

"They could accuse [the government of] anything they like. Cambodia operates under a modernised state of law. Everyone is together under one law,” said Phay Siphan.

Back in Kong Yu village, the Jarai people are waiting to hear the result of suit filed in a local court to try to get their land back.

"If the company gets the land, many of our people will starve," says Mr Fil.

"If we lose the land, we have lost everything.” Read more!

Anti-corruption watchdog to join UN-backed genocide court in Cambodia

12 August 2009 – The United Nations and Cambodia have announced an agreement to establish an anti-corruption watchdog to oversee the tribunal set up to bring to justice the perpetrators of the country’s notorious ‘killing fields’ genocide over three decades ago.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), set up in 2003 by the UN and Cambodia and staffed by local and international employees, is tasked with trying senior leaders and those most responsible for serious violations of Cambodian and international law committed during the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 and 1979.

Designating an Independent Counsellor “represents a further step to help strengthen the human resources management in the entire ECCC administration, including anti-corruption measures,” according to a joint statement issued today in Phnom Penh, the capital, by UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksøe-Jensen and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

The new office will “ensure the requirements of due process of law, including full protection of staff on both sides of the ECCC against any possible retaliation for good faith reporting of wrongdoing,” the statement added.

“In this context, the Independent Counsellor will be available to all staff to bring forward any concerns confidentially, and will be empowered to address such concerns.”

The tribunal is staffed by a mixture of Cambodian and international employees and judges, and there are two prosecutors: Robert Petit, who is stepping down as International Co-Prosecutor on 1 September, and Chea Leang, who is Cambodian.

Estimates vary, but as many as 2 million people are thought to have died during the rule of the Khmer Rouge, which was then followed by a protracted period of civil war in the impoverished South-East Asian country.

Currently there are two cases before the court, including the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as “Duch,” who is charged with crimes including torture and premeditated murder while he was in charge of the renowned S-21 detention camp. Nuon Chea faces charges of having planned and ordered the murder, torture and enslavement of civilians.


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'Killing fields' tribunal to be monitored

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, The United Nations and Cambodia said Wednesday they will create an anti-corruption watchdog to oversee the so-called "killing fields" genocide tribunal.

The Cambodian tribunal, called the Extraordinary Chambers, was set up in 2003 to try senior leaders and others allegedly most responsible for serious violations of Cambodian and international law committed during Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979.

Designating an independent counselor "represents a further step to help strengthen the human resources management in the entire (tribunal) administration, including anti-corruption measures," said a joint statement issued in Phnom Penh by U.N Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

The statement went on to say the watchdog would help protect court staff "against any possible retaliation for good faith reporting of wrongdoing. In this context, the independent counselor will be available to all staff to bring forward any concerns confidentially, and will be empowered to address such concerns."

The tribunal is staffed by Cambodian and international employees, prosecutors and judges.

As many as 2 million people may have died in the Southeast Asian nation during the Khmer Rouge rule, which was followed by civil war.

Defendants before the court include former S-21 detention camp commander Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Duch," who is charged with torture and premeditated murder, and Nuon Chea, who is charged with planning and ordering the murder, torture and enslavement of civilians.

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Cambodian Sentence Upheld

Rights groups condemn an appeals court ruling against a newspaper editor who reported alleged corruption.

PHNOM PENH—A Cambodian appeals court has upheld the prison sentence of a newspaper editor and publisher jailed for "disinformation" after he ran articles alleging high-level government corruption, and his lawyer is vowing to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Hang Chakra, former editor-in-chief of Khmer Machas Srok, was sentenced to a year in jail on June 26 by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and was fined 9 million riel (about U.S. $2,250).

He has been held in a cell with 50 other men at Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison since his conviction. On Aug. 11, a three-judge appellate panel upheld the sentence.

Hang Chakra's lawyer, Choung Chou Ngy, is vowing to appeal to the Cambodian Supreme Court.

“There has been no unrest resulting from this publication—the Appeals Court decision is unfair,” Choung Chou Ngy told reporters here.

Hang Chakra refused during the hearing to identify sources for the article, citing protections under Cambodia’s 1995 Press Law. He was tried under the tougher 1992 UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) Criminal Code.

Prosecutor attorney Suong Chanthan said he was pleased with the ruling.

Ruling denounced

Opposition MPs, human rights groups, and staff from the U.S. Embassy here attended the appellate hearing and denounced the ruling.

“This judgment constitutes a threat to freedom of expression,” Sam Ath, chief investigator at the local human rights group LICADHO, said.

Son Chhay, an MP from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, also condemned the ruling.

“The court’s judgment shows the ruling party’s stance to condemn those who dare to express opinions critical of the government,” he said.

Sara Colm, country specialist for Human Rights Watch, said the Appeal Court decision was "more than disappointing."

"This is yet another indication that the space for opposition journalists and NGOs and human rights defenders in Cambodia is shrinking," Colm said.

"The fact that this was upheld on appeal will only solidify the control of the ruling party over the press and dissenting voices."
Cambodia’s government has brought several defamation and disinformation lawsuits this year in what rights activists regard as a significant crackdown on freedom of expression.

‘Campaign of harassment’

Human Rights Watch has urged Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to end what it called a “campaign of harassment, threats, and unwarranted legal action aimed at consolidating its rule by silencing the political opposition and peaceful critics.”

The New York-based organization cited “at least nine politically motivated criminal defamation and disinformation cases against journalists, opposition members of parliament, lawyers, and government critics,” including the case against Hang Chakra.

Human Rights Watch also urged Cambodia’s international donors to press the government to stop what it called its heavy-handed harassment of opposition members.

Cambodia's National Assembly meanwhile voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of two of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party's most active members, paving the way to try them on criminal charges of defamation against Hun Sen and 22 military officials, respectively.

All the recent lawsuits were filed under the UNTAC Criminal Code's Articles 62 and 63, laws addressing disinformation and defamation and libel, Human Rights Watch said. Read more!

Cambodia committed to democracy, human rights with rule of law: official

Cambodia is more than ever committed to human rights promotion and protection approach with its organic laws, said a government statement released on Tuesday by the Foreign Ministry's spokesman.

The statement was made after Ouch Borith, secretary of state for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on Friday exchanged views on the issues of human rights with European Union's delegation led by the British Ambassador Andrew Mace, who is representing Sweden in their presidency of the EU.

During the meeting, Ouch Borith underlined that "Cambodia is more than ever committed to human rights promotion and protection approach with its organic laws."

At the same time, Ouch Borith stressed that Cambodia's democracy is based on the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"While individual rights, freedom of expression and a culture of debates are taking deeper roots in Cambodia, we must recognize that the exercise of these rights and freedoms in any democratic society must be within the rule of law," he said

EU's meeting with the government follows a Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruling on Aug. 4 that found opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmaker Mu Sochua guilty of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen and ordered her to pay about 4,100 U.S. dollars in fines and compensation.

The EU expressed "concern over a number of instances in which criminal charges of defamation and disinformation have been used against representatives of civil society, the media and the political opposition," according to the report of the Cambodia Daily.

"Laws and regulations concerning defamation and disinformation exist worldwide, particularly in developed countries, to protect and guarantee the right to dignity of everyone," Ouch Borith said.

"The verdicts by the Cambodian Court on the recent defamation and disinformation cases are in compliance with the existing laws in relation to these offences," he added.

Admitting "the country still faces many challenges," Ouch Borith reassured the delegation of the EU that "Cambodia is firmly committed to ensuring that the country embraces the principles of democracy and human rights with the rule of law."

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Hundreds expected in Phnom Penh to protest land grabs

Phnom Penh - Hundreds of people were expected in Phnom Penh Tuesday to deliver to the government a petition protesting land grabs and forced evictions.

Organizers said representatives from 19 of the kingdom's 24 provinces and municipalities would hand the petition to the office of Prime Minister Hun Sen, the cabinet and three government ministries.

They said 200,000 hectares of land are at risk. The petitions contain more than 15,000 thumbprints, a standard way of signing in Cambodia, where literacy rates are low.

The land seizures are carried out by companies with government connections, politicians and the military. Development is the standard reason the government gives for granting these mining or land concessions.

In a statement, the organizers said forced evictions, displacement and landlessness are reaching 'crisis proportions.'

'Evictions and land confiscation continue in Cambodia, despite calls by the World Bank, the ADB [the Asian Development Bank], the UN and Cambodia's donors for the government to enact a moratorium on forced evictions and land confiscation until it establishes effective conflict resolution mechanisms and relocation procedures meeting international standards,' they wrote.

Organizers said communities are being driven into poverty by land grabs, and their efforts to find peaceful solutions are met with intimidation, court action and even violence from the police and military.

'When we try to protect our legal rights, we receive intimidation,' villager Pol Cheoun from Battambang province in western Cambodia said in the statement. 'We want the government and the donors to know what is happening. We are losing our land, forest and fisheries we depend on. We are getting poorer and poorer, and the rich are getting richer.'

A community activist from the northern province of Oddar Meanchey told the Cambodia Daily newspaper that he is in favour of development, 'but I don't want to see development lead people to tears,' he said.

Amnesty International wrote last year that 150,000 Cambodians are at risk of losing their land.
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Investment in Cambodian tourism reaches $354 mln in half year

The Hun Xen government have invested about 354 million US dollars in tourism. It seem is very surprised, but it doesn't very surprised in any strategy. It is the old games which those officials always used to steal money from poor Cambodians.


PHNOM PENH, The investment in Cambodia's tourism reached to about 354 million U.S. dollars in the first six months of this year and is a leading field that got the most investment, the local media said on Tuesday.

"Council for Development of Cambodia (CDC) approved about 1.22 billion U.S. dollars investment projects totally from private companies and 354 million U.S. dollars of the total is on tourism investment project," the khmer language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea quoted the document from CDC as saying.

Agricultural field stands second row after tourism with 323 million U.S. dollars and next field is industry with 303 million U.S. dollars.

In total, Cambodia received 53 investment projects for the first half year and tourism field attracted seven projects, while agri-industry has 12 projects, garment industry with 14 projects and three in energy projects.

If we consider on the projects for the first six month of this year, it increases four projects but the investment capital went down about 3.2 billion U.S. dollars compared with the same period of last year, it said, adding that for first six month of last year, Cambodia yielded with 49 investment projects with about 4.43billion U.S. dollar.
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UTSA forms research partnerships with Cambodian universities

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has formed relationships with two Cambodian universities that will allow faculty and staff at all three schools to collaborate in research, teaching and study abroad programs.

UTSA formed partnerships with Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia’s first and largest university, and Pannasastra University. Pannasastra is a private university that was opened in 2000 by a group of Cambodian Americans who fled the country because of the genocide that took place during the 1970s. However, they decided to return home with advanced degrees to start the university.

The collaborative efforts between the universities began earlier this year when UTSA associate professor of bicultural-bilingual studies, Wayne Wright, traveled on a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at RUPP in the master of education program.

Wright, who is fluent in Cambodian, says he chose the country in order to contribute to the rebuilding of the education system devastated by genocide and decades of civil war. Additionally, he was able to introduce his children to the Cambodian language, history and culture and reconnect with his wife’s family who live near the capital.

Wright will be supervising five master’s students working on their theses at RUPP and will be finishing up a research project that he started with one of the faculty members there.

“My hope is to find funding to support a big collaborative research project related to teacher training in Cambodia that can involve all three universities,” Wright says.

UTSA president Ricardo Romo says agreements like these are important for UTSA students.

“We would be left behind if we didn’t try to be a bit more proactive in setting up programs that would allow the students to see other parts of the world,” Romo says. “We need to take advantage of these kinds of connections with other universities and let our students reap the benefits of those kinds of networks.” Read more!

Cambodia continues to extend visa exemptions to aid economy: official

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia will continue to extend the visa-exemption program to four additional ASEAN member states despite the loss of revenue, local media reported on Monday, citing a tourism official.

Cambodian tourism officials last week announced the loss of more than 14 million U.S. dollars in revenue generated by tourists from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since January 2008, when the government adopted a visa-exemption agreement with five ASEAN countries .

According to a report by the Ministry of Tourism, Cambodia honored 278,842 visa exemptions in the first half of this year from travelers from Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos, which resulted in a loss of 5.5 million U.S. dollars in revenue, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

The report added that last year revenues declined by 8.6 million U.S. dollars after visa exemptions totaling 431,426 were issued to tourists from the same countries.

"We realize that our visa-exemption program for travelers from ASEAN countries results in lower national revenues, but we will continue it because increased arrivals can boost economic growth Kingdom-wide and will create many jobs for Cambodians," Thong Khon was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

He added that visa exemptions would be extended to all ASEAN countries by 2015.

"Next year, we will implement visa exemptions for Thailand, followed later by Indonesia, Brunei and Myanmar," Thong Khon said.

Cambodia agreed to its first visa-exemption program with Malaysia in the late 1990s, adding the Philippines, Singapore, Laos and Vietnam in subsequent years.

The Ministry of Tourism estimates that under the visa-exemption program, at least one million tourists from nine ASEAN countries will travel to Cambodia between 2010 and 2011. (PNA/Xinhua) ALM

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US to hold seminars for Vietnamese meat inspectors

HCM CITY — The US’ Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will hold two week-long seminars for Vietnamese meat inspectors next month, Michael Riedel, Agricultural Attache at the American consulate in HCM City, told a conference last week.

One would be held in Ha Noi and the other in HCM City.

Also this [autumn], some Vietnamese food safety officials would go to the US to participate in FSIS’ training in HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) implementation, Riedel added.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), under which the FSIS functions, is working with the Department of Animal Health in Ha Noi and the Division of Animal Health in HCM City to arrange the seminars.

"We work very hard to identify areas where Vietnamese and US organisations could work together to learn from each other," he said.

The USDA’s main task is to expand and maintain overseas markets for US agricultural exports.

It also produces reports like the annual grain report about Viet Nam and Food Retail Sector report for the benefit of American farmers and exporters.

"The HCM City office also covers Cambodia where we do many of the activities above, while also conducting some food aid programmes," Riedel said. — VNS
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DoCoMo Eyeing Acquisition in Cambodia

­Japan's DoCoMo has confirmed that it is interesting in buying a mobile network in Cambodia. The country has several operators as possible targets, including Millicom's local subsidiary, Mobitel which the parent company has put up for sale.

However, DoCoMo has not decided to make a bid for Mobitel, which sources have priced at several hundred million dollars, and will consider other M&A targets in Cambodia and political and economic risks, Toshinari Kunieda, senior vice president and managing director of DoCoMo's global business told the Reuters news agency.

"It's like a marriage proposal -- you don't make an offer the day after falling in love at first sight, you look at other potential partners, too," Kunieda told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "But we will date."

Statistics from the Mobile World database shows the Cambodia ended last year with an estimated 3.77 million mobile phone subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 26%. The country has seven active network operators, along with two seemingly dormant license holders.

The Japanese operator is also seeking investments in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and China. It already owns 26% of India's Tata Teleservices, 30% of Bangladesh's Aktel and 16.5% of Malaysia's U-Mobile.

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Maybank opens 5th branch in Cambodia

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has opened its fifth branch in Cambodia.

Located in Chbar Amplov town, south-east of Phnom Penh City, the branch would offer commercial and wholesale banking together with selected retail banking services.

It would also offer trade finance facilities, deposit and placement products, remittance and foreign exchange service as well as housing loans.

Maybank head of international Abdul Farid Alias said the opening of the fifth branch was part of the bank's strategy to strengthen its presence in the region as well as support the expanding Cambodian economy.

"Our Cambodian operations, which began in 1993, have shown positive growth over the years arising from the rapid economic growth there.

"In the past three years, for example, loans grew by 185 per cent while deposits grew by 27 per cent," he said in a statement today.

He said the bank would continue to increase its range of facilities and services to reach even more segments of the local market as it expanded its operations in Cambodia. -- Bernama
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