"Landmark Settlement in Cambodian Land-grab Falls Short for Many Villagers", 16 March 2020

It has been more than a decade since 64-year old Khorn Khorn lost three hectares of land ... The controversial senator Ly Yong Phat wanted the holding to expand a sugarcane plantation in Kampong Speu province.

At her house in Sre Chrab village, … she couldn’t find work or make ends meet, her children dropped out of school, and she now has ever-growing debt, amounting to about $6,000, a substantial sum in a nation where the average annual income is $1,680, according to … government statistics.

“Before I lost the land, I had never been in debt,” Khorn Khorn said ... “I am afraid that I could not pay it. I don’t know whether my son will be able to pay this month or not,” she said…

The sugarcane plantation was given to Ly Yong Phat as an economic land concession,... The decade-old plantation has been involved in numerous counts of forced evictions, deforestation and child labor.

But, in a landmark settlement announced …, the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to some 1,200 families affected by the protracted dispute with Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar company…

The agreement with ANZ comes five years after a complaint filed against the bank with a little-known entity within Australia’s treasury department, the nonjudicial Australian National Contact Point (ANCP)…

Two rights groups, the local NGO Equitable Cambodia
and the U.S.-based Inclusive Development International, filed the complaint on behalf of the 1,200 families. Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, hoped that the compensation would help families rebuild their lives…