UN asks Cambodia to cancel land grant to China firm

GENEVA - A UN human rights investigator called on Cambodia on Tuesday to cancel a state land grant to a Chinese company for a pine tree plantation, saying it violated indigenous people's rights.

Peter Leuprecht, special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for human rights in Cambodia, said Wuzhishan LS Group had been granted 10,000ha of state land in Mondulkiri province with a promise of 189,999ha more.

"The government and the company have disregarded the well-being, culture and livelihoods of the Phnong indigenous people who make up more than half the population of the province, and many breaches of the law and of human rights have been committed," he said in a statement issued in Geneva.

No environmental or social impact studies had been carried out on the August 2004 concession which encompasses hilly grasslands and forests in the valleys, according to Leuprecht.

Wuzhishan had sprayed herbicide in the hills where the Phnong graze their cattle, while "their ancestral burial areas and spirit forests have also been desecrated in the process of clearing and planting", he added.

The estimated 25,000 Phnong people had the right to "collective title" under the 2001 Land Law, yet their concerns have been ignored, according to Leuprecht, an Austrian law professor serving in the independent post.

"They are asking for their land back and for the company to leave. The government has now begun to respond, but with partial measures which risk adding to the confusion," he said.

Leuprecht said in a report last month that working conditions were harsh and 30 workers had been treated in hospital in May, mainly for malaria.

"The company does not provide doctors or medical treatment for workers in breach of the labour law," he said.

- REUTERS