The United Nations say a 10,000 hectare land grant to a Chinese company violates the rights of indigenous people.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A decision by the Cambodian government to give a land concession to a Chinese company violates the rights of indigenous Phnong people.

Peter Leuprecht, special representative of the UN secretary-general for human rights in Cambodia, called on the government to cancel the deal signed in 2004 with China's Wuzhishan LS Group that would have granted it 10,000 hectares in north-eastern Mondulkiri province.

"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," Mr Leuprecht said.

Wuzhishan LS Group has sprayed herbicides in the area, which encompasses waterways, and has burned those areas in preparation for the plantation, Mr Leuprecht said. No environmental impact study was done.

The concession area is home to the Phnong's ancestral burial areas and spirit forests, and is also used by them to graze cattle and sow crops.

About 30 villagers are still maintaining a blockade around the concession area, said Sam Sarin, a representative of local rights group Adhoc.

Some figures show that Cambodian authorities have already granted the equivalent of about one third of the national territory in concessions to big business between 1993 and 1999.

What's more, the latest concession itself violates the 2001 Land Law, which requires the government to grant state lands to poor and landless farmers.  But such violations are possible because the law is still awaiting the passage of key amendments.

Mr Leuprecht asked that that "no more concessions of state land should be approved in Mondulkiri or elsewhere in Cambodia" until the amendments are in place.

In the meantime, the Wuzhishan Ls Group has an option to obtain nearly 190,000 hectares more, for a pine tree plantation.

Ethnic Phnong have already strongly protested against the concession, resulting in an order for work to be halted.

"The government has now begun to respond, but with partial measures which risk adding to the confusion," Leuprecht warned.

• cambodia
• china
• land
• concessions
• ethnic
• phnong
• human
• rights
• civil
• rights
• 2001
• land
• law
• amendments