By Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie
The Sydney Morning Herald
August 20, 2014
ANZ executives have been told of families being forcibly removed from their homes, of food shortages, inadequate COMPENSATION, intimidation by military units and resettlement on unproductive land. A petition bearing the thumb prints of more than 300 affected villagers was presented to ANZ executives in the Cambodian capital this month.
But the bank, which last week announced an 8 per cent lift in its nine-month profit of $5.2 billion, is resisting pressure to assist the hundreds of families who claim they been adversely affected.
A spokesman for ANZ told Fairfax Media: “Relationships with the local community are a matter for PPS and it is not appropriate for ANZ to consider any compensation measures.
“ANZ is no longer a financier to PPS and it is no longer appropriate to have any discussions on the company’s business. Any issues would need to be raised with PPS directly.”
Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie
ANZ is resisting pressure to assist the hundreds of families who claim they been adversely affected. Photo: Ken Irwin
ANZ has ruled out helping hundreds of poor Cambodian families forcibly evicted from their land to make way for sugar-cane plantations that involved child labour and led to food shortages.
Fairfax Media this year revealed confidential audits that disclosed that ANZ’s Cambodian subsidiary, ANZ Royal Bank, had FINANCED sugar plantations belonging to the Phnom Penh Sugar company owned by powerful Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat.
Dozens of farmers and villagers last week protested outside ANZ’s headquarters in Phnom Penh. The protest’s leaders met ANZ executives and asked for their help, arguing that the sugar plantations would not have gone ahead without THE BANK’s financial support.
ANZ is a signatory to a global ethical banking code and has internal policies that require recipients of LOANS in developing countries ensure they have proper environmental, health and social management programs.
Protest leaders claim they were visited by Cambodian police over the weekend and threatened with violence if they continued their campaign against the bank.
The ANZ spokesman said he had no knowledge of the police involvement and that no one from the bank had asked police to intervene.
One villager visited by police over the weekend said they wanted to identify the “ringleaders” of the protest.
“One of the local authorities said, ‘If you go to Phnom Penh again be careful because you might be beaten to death’,” the villager said.
Another protester visited by police, Cheng Sopheap, said the families affected by the sugar plantations believed ANZ had a responsibility to help because it failed to ensure PPS acted in accordance with the bank’s ethical lending policies.
“Ly Yong Phat’s companies have bulldozed community houses and farm land, his company has destroyed rice fields. There was a forced eviction and children could not come to school,” Mr Sopheap said.
“The impact on the communities [is] because LYP’s companies got LOANS from ANZ bank.”
PPS company says it has properly COMPENSATED families, resettled them on new land and offered work in the plantations.
Senator Phat is one of Cambodia’s richest men and is part of the ruling political party.
The head of the Royal Group of companies, which ANZ partners in Cambodia, is tycoon Kith Meng.
Both Mr Meng and Senator Phat are close associates of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen.
1 comment:
“The impact on the communities [is] because LYP’s companies got LOANS from ANZ bank.”
This is why International Business folks do not want to do business in Cambodia. Khmer folks always blame.
Let's try a different example. You build road for the Khmer to drive around. One drunk Khmer drives a car over another Khmer dead. Guess what, if the dead Khmer family could not find the other Khmer driver, they would blame the company who build the road, "If you did not build this road, my love one would not be hit by the car."
When I was in college, there were some South East Asian students who probably had some mix blood with the Khmer gave me so much trouble. These students wanted to succeed in the Engineering program but they could not pass this one very difficult class, Advanced Physics with Quantum Physics and Relativity Theory.
That class was so easy for me, I skipped one full year of Physics requirement, went straight into that class as a Freshman. At age 19, I sat at the front-row, challenged my professor frequently and aced that class with an A grade.
These ASEAN students demanded me to help them with this class. But unfortunately, their race was so inferior. They were not meant to pass that class. They were not meant to be engineers. But they blamed me for their failure, "We know this class was easier for you, but you refuse to help us. You want only the Whites to be engineers."
When I replied to them, "I already tried to help you folks. You folks cannot learn this subject." They got angry and wanted to kill me. Sound familiar? That's Khmer mentality, blaming others and wanting to kill.
-Drgunzet-
P.S. Ok, those students were South Vietnamese. I was explained by a North Vietnamese that the South Vietnamese folks were dirty Vietnamese who were plucked out of North Vietnam, dumped to South Vietnam then got mixed up with dirty Khmer!
I think it's normal for all races to be different and play different roles. Not everyone has to become engineers. You find your role, no matter how small it is, do it well and be nice. People will love you.
When I first came to America, I had limited English and low skill. I worked as a coolie, doing labor jobs. I was not much of a laborer either, because I was skinny and weak. But I was humble and always found way to get my job done and fit in. The Whites just loved me and took turn to drive to my poor neighborhood to bring me home to feed and gave me more coolie jobs. They told me, "We feel safer when you are at our place. We heard that you are an extremely bright fellow." And yes, later on, I became the State Scholar and was considered the brightest mind the State produced that year.
Dear Khmer, you need to be humble and get help. You are angry and barbaric, blaming others with your nonsense, nobody will want to help you.
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