PUBLISHED: 16:21 EST, 12 April 2013 | UPDATED: 03:38 EST, 13 April 2013 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/

Tate & Lyle is facing a multi-million pound High Court lawsuit from Cambodian farmers, who claim the sugar giant knowingly profited from illegally seized land.

Lawyers acting for 200 villagers have accused Tate & Lyle of buying sugar from the Koh Kong Companies, despite being aware of allegations the Cambodian firm acquired its plantations unlawfully.

The Koh Kong Companies allegedly seized the land from villagers, who claim they were evicted by force after being subjected to ‘multiple instances of arson, theft and wrongful damage’.

Villagers also suffered the theft of their livestock, according to the claim, while a local activist named An In was murdered in 2007 while taking photographs of land being cleared for development. Koh Kong later converted the land to grow sugar cane and convert it to raw sugar for export to Tate & Lyle.

The first consignment of 10,000 tonnes of sugar, part of a five-year contract with Koh Kong, allegedly arrived at Tate & Lyle’s Silvertown refinery on the Thames in June 2010.

Tate & Lyle ‘knew that the villagers were the owners of the raw sugar or ought to have known given its position as a leading player in the sugar market’, the claim says.

The firm ‘wrongfully deprived’ the villagers of their property for its own benefit, according to the document.

The Cambodians want Tate & Lyle (up 5p to 847p) to pay them for the consignments of sugar it has received from Koh Kong, claiming they are the rightful owners of anything produced on their land.

Their claim could be as high as £10million, based on estimates of the amount of sugar the land can produce, as well as damages and interest accrued on the proceeds of any sales.

The case was filed in the High Court against both Tate & Lyle plc and former subsidiary Tate & Lyle Sugars, sold to American Sugar Refining in 2010 in a £211million deal.

Tate & Lyle Sugars says the land was legally purchased by the Koh Kong Companies, but also acknowledges: ‘Land ownership in Cambodia is difficult to establish, due to the country’s evolving legal and political structures following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime.’

Jones Day, the law firm acting for the villagers, declined to comment, as did Tate & Lyle plc. The firm has, in the past, been forced to deny that founder Sir Henry Tate made money from slavery, insisting he entered the industry after Britain abolished slavery.

The letter follows a resolution in October by the full European Parliament, which called for an investigation and a suspension of the Everything But Arms trade preferences for companies implicated in human rights abuses.

When will the European Commission listen to the only democratically elected body within the European Union and adhere to its human rights policy?   Thousands of displaced and dispossessed rural Cambodian families are waiting.

The Parliamentarians’ letter is available is available here.

Help us reach our target this month of 1000 signatures – sign and share now!

(October 31, 2012) Washington, D.C. – Today, two hundred and seven families from Sre Ambel District in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia whose land was forcibly seized for a sugar plantation and factory have turned to the U.S. Government to help mediate the long-running dispute with the exclusive purchaser of the tainted sugar, Yonkers, New York-based American Sugar Refining (ASR).  The villagers seek the U.S. Government’s assistance in settling a land dispute that has caused severe economic and social impacts to hundreds of families since powerful and well-connected companies and politicians confiscated their land through two controversial Economic Land Concessions in 2006.

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In the body’s motion, seven distinct areas of concern are listed, ranging from a rise in violence against protesters to specific cases such as that of Mam Sonando.

The parliament then calls for a number of recommendations, the strongest of which is that the EU’s decision-making body, the European Commission, temporarily halt its “Everything But Arms” (EBA) trade agreement with the Cambodian government – which allows Cambodian goods free access to European markets – “in cases where human rights abuses are identified”.

European Parliament Resolution on the situation in Cambodia (English)

European Parliament Resolution on the situation in Cambodia (Khmer)

Eleven Cambodian and international organizations wrote to European Commissioner for Trade Karel de Gucht today following upon an open letter they sent to the Commissioner on June 26^th outlining evidence of grave human rights abuses in the Cambodian agro-industrial sector directly linked to the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA) preferential trade scheme.  These communications have followed two years of requests by Cambodian organizations and affected communities seeking action from the European Commission (EC) on well-documented abuses occurring as a result of EBA incentives – abuses that should trigger an EC investigation under Article 17 of the EU’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Regulation.

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To view the full correspondence between the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament and concerned civil society organizations, click here.

In particular we welcome the statement that Ve Wong Corporation has received assurances from the Thai majority shareholders, KSL Group, that “if there is any evidence proving that Koh Kong Plantation Co Ltd. and Koh Kong Sugar Industry Co. Ltd. illegally acquired the land from residents, the companies are willing to return [the land] and compensate all relocation costs of all affected families.“

Unfortunately we have heard similar promises from KSL Group before, to no effect.

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia — More than five years after three villages and hundreds of farmers in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia had their lands illegally confiscated to make way for a major international sugar plantation connected to leading Thai, U.K, U.S., and Taiwanese corporations, the Koh Kong Provincial Court of First Instance will finally hear arguments on July 26, 2012. The long-running dispute pits residents of Chikor Leu commune’s villages of Trapeang Kandol, Chhouk and Chikor of Koh Kong’s Srae Ambel District against the companies, Koh Kong Sugar Industry Co., Ltd. (KKS) and Koh Kong Sugar Plantation Co., Ltd. (KKP) over an Economic Land Concession (ELC), that resulted in wide-spread displacement, severe livelihood impacts, and violent human rights violations; two-hundred and twenty villages from the affected communities are plaintiffs in the case, all of whom are appearing before the court on the hearing date.

Civil society organizations in Cambodia released a statement on the legal case this week affirming their support for the impacted communities.

The two implicated companies, KKP and KKS are 70% owned by leading Thai corporation Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Public Company Limited (KSL) which exercises effective control over operations in Cambodia and receives 100% of the processed sugar from the two Cambodian land concessions. Taiwanese Ve Wong Corporation holds 30% of both subsidiary companies, while powerful Cambodian Senator Ly Yong Phat formerly held shares in both subsidiary companies before allegedly relinquishing these stake-holdings in 2010. The sugar produced in Cambodia is then sold to U.K.’s Tate & Lyle Sugars, a subsidiary of Tate & Lyle that was recently acquired by U.S. American Sugar Refinery Company.

The dispute in Srae Ambel District began when the two Thai companies, KKS and KKP were granted ELC’s of 19,100 hectares in Srae Ambel District by the Government of Cambodia in violation of the Land Law 2001, sub-decree on Economic Land Concession 2005, and an agreement made between the companies and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Under Cambodia law, ELC’s cannot be granted in excess of 10,000 hectares, and in a blatant attempt to circumvent this requirement, KKS and KKP were incorporated separately despite serving a single business interest and essentially operating as one, and were each granted concessions just under 10,000 hectares. No consultations with the farming communities were conducted and no compensation in advance was made.

The dispute has now reached Thailand, where the affected communities through their lawyers, the Community Legal Education Center of Cambodia, filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) on 6 January 2010 alleging that KSL, through Cambodian subsidiaries KKP and KKS, obtained land concessions in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia in violation of Cambodian laws on economic land concessions and of human rights laws and standards. The complainants based its claim for jurisdiction on KSL’s ownership of KKP and KKS, its control over operations in Cambodia, and its duty to respect human rights wherever it operates. In what the complainants and their supporters consider as a success in transboundary human rights promotion and protection, the Thai NHRC accepted the complaint as case no. 58/2553. Just today, the NHRC released a statement finding evidence that KSL had violated the human rights of the impacted communities through their ELC. The Commission has completed its investigation and is now in the process of drafting the final report. In its statement today (click here for English translation), it confirmed its commitment “to ensure that communities and their natural resources remain protected, and that various human rights principles are applied in meeting the economic, social and environmental pillars for fairness and sustainable development.”

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