International report criticises ANZ over financing of Cambodian plantation

ANZ’s decision to finance a Cambodian sugar plantation that forced more than 100 families off their own land has been criticised by an international human rights investigation.

ANZ’s decision to finance a Cambodian sugar plantation that forced more than 100 families off their own land has been criticised by an international human rights investigation.

The bank’s controlled entity, ANZ Royal Bank, backed Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which is wholly owned by Cambodian tycoon and senator Ly Yong Phat.

Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive Development International investigated ANZ’s role in the social and environmental disaster that followed, which found that PPS’s “illegal conduct was widely publicised … prior to ANZ’s loan decision, [but] ANZ proceeded to loan tens of millions of dollars to the firm without attaching any human rights, social or environmental safeguard requirements”.

In January, Fairfax Media revealed ANZ had financed a sugar plantation that involved child labour, military-backed land grabs, forced evictions and food shortages. The report said crops and property were destroyed and “dangerous workplace conditions [had] resulted in several worker deaths”.

The report said any “basic level of due diligence” by ANZ could have uncovered PPS’s shady history.

An ANZ spokesman said the company was reviewing the report and would make a formal statement in the next few days. The company responded to a letter sent by affected families in August, stating it was “open to a continuing dialogue” with them.

The complaint was made on behalf of 681 families from more than a dozen Cambodian villages, including Ou Angkum and Ta Kong.

The decision to finance such a project raised serious questions on the bank’s compliance with its own policies to “respect and promote human rights in the way [it] does business”, and a a global ethical banking code it is a signatory to.

SOURCE www.smh.com.au