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Article

13 Sep 2011

Author:
farmlandgrab.org

Bittersweet Harvest: Thai sugar company on land grab in Cambodia?

Cambodia's burgeoning sugar industry has appeared a sweet deal to both local and international investors of late. Allegations of land-grabbing and human rights abuses now dogging producers, however, have left many people souring on the sector...Thailand's SET-listed Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Plc (KSL) partnered in 2006 with the Taiwanese company Vewong and Cambodian businessman and senator Ly Yong Phat in a joint venture...as [it's] project has been developed thousands of Cambodian villagers claim they have been pushed off their farmland, in some cases left homeless and denied their livelihoods, according to local rights groups. Community leaders have been intimidated with lawsuits and attacked by police seeking to clear their land on behalf of the project...Meechai Piyavisadpat, an investor relations officer for KSL, said any land problems near the company's Cambodia concession were "not because of KSL's operations". He said that the concession had been lawfully granted by the Cambodian government, and that local residents affected by it had been properly compensated already. [also refers to Deutsche Bank]