SOCFIN

In July 2021, a French court ruled against a group of Indigenous Bunong farmers from Mondulkiri in Northeastern Cambodia. In light of recent discussions on the potential and constraints of legal activism, we aim here to highlight entrenched structural factors that can hinder communities in legal challenges to corporate land grabs.

Executive members of an organisation representing landowners engaged in a long drawn out dispute with Socfin Agriculture Company in Malen Chiefdom in the Pujehun district have appealed to President Julius Maada to intervene.

A joint statement issued by 97 Bunong indigenous families in Mondulkiri province expressed disappointment in the Tribunal of Nanterre in France which overruled their complaints concerning 2,386ha of disputed land with French company Bollore. The families from Pech Chreada district’s Bou Sra commune said they would grant lawyers the right to file an appeal in France.

"Depuis 1897 que nous avons cédé nos terres à la Safacam, elle ne nous a jamais fait don même d’une borne fontaine".

« Les auditeurs constitués par Safacam ont fait tout, sauf ce qu’il fallait faire » selon Emanuel Elong le président national de la Synaparcam, la synergie nationale des paysans du Cameroun.

This community of itinerant farmers believes it was robbed of nearly 7,000 hectares of its land when the Cambodian government granted a concession to a joint venture in which the Bolloré group is a stakeholder.

Cette affaire illustre la difficulté des peuples autochtones à faire valoir leurs droits face à des multinationales.

The court of Nanterre has just dismissed 80 Bunong farmers who accused the French group of illegally appropriating their land in Cambodia. Ten years ago, Noam Léandri from Angers was commissioned by the International Federation for Human Rights to produce a report on the subject. He looks back.

Pour le leader communautaire Michel Essonga : « Il est difficile de comprendre comment Safacam a pu obtenir un certificat Rspo sans changer ses pratiques. Elle viole nos droits fonciers et pollue nos ruisseaux et rivières. Les gens sont intimidés et harcelés. Pourquoi les auditeurs n'ont-ils pas pris nos doléances en considération ? »

The Cambodian farmers who sued the Breton businessman for land grabbing were dismissed by the court of Nanterre.

Les paysans cambodgiens ont été déboutés par le tribunal de Nanterre, dans une affaire d’accaparement de terres les opposant à l’homme d’affaires breton.

Le tribunal français a trouvé qu' "aucun des 80 demandeurs et intervenants volontaires ne justifie d'un droit réel ou personnel pour exploiter les terres litigieuses".