April 27, 2005
By Barbara Schneider

GENEVA – Subsistence livelihood for the majority of the Cambodian population is increasingly threatened by "land grabbing" and unfair granting of land concessions, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) stated in a written statement to this year's 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The Commission met here, March 14-April 22.

"The lack of proper controls on the granting of land concessions has greatly compounded the general problem of landlessness and poverty in Cambodia," according to the report elaborated jointly with the LWF Department for World Service program in Cambodia. The report stated that the government grants land concessions to large multinational companies and businesses without prior consultation with the local populations.

Examples cited in the LWF statement include the 99-year concession (lease) to a Chinese company of a protected area under the administration of the Ministry of Environment. The land is located inside the Mt Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes the sacred hot springs of the Souy People in Kompong Speu Province. Although the Souy have petitioned the government to stop the development and work has temporarily halted, they have not been given information concerning the processes that are pending in view of the lease on their ancestral land.

The LWF expressed support to Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdech Hun Sen, who had meanwhile made a public statement declaring his disapproval of the current land concession system, which primarily affects the poorest section of the population.

The LWF statement pointed out that Cambodia was among the poorest nations in the world, with more than a third of the population living below the poverty line. Eighty five percent of the people were rural farmers who depended on agriculture for their survival.

The LWF began its involvement in development cooperation in Cambodia in 1979, just after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Lutheran World Information
Barbara Schneider is a youth trainee in the LWF Office for Communication Services.