PHNOM PENH, Cambodia \u2014 Five-months pregnant, Im Chanthy was told that her husband’s body had been found in the trunk of his car, brutally hacked to death for reporting on illegal logging and land concessions in Cambodia.<\/p>\n
Many of these concessions, a new report by environmental watchdog Global Witness found, are owned by two Vietnamese rubber companies, which \u2014 with the financial support of Deutsche Bank, an arm of the World Bank and local governments \u2014 have acquired more than 500,000 acres of land in Cambodia and neighboring Laos.<\/p>\n
The companies and officials involved have made millions growing resin trees and harvesting their sap to make rubber, while thousands of poor Cambodians and Laotians lost the little they had. Villagers have been sued and prosecuted, intimidated, threatened and shot at while trying to defend their livelihoods.<\/p>\n
Heng Serei Odom, the journalist, paid with his life, and his wife Chanthy is now raising their 5-month old daughter on construction sites. She works carrying sand bag after sand bag for $2.50 a day \u2014 too little to eat properly, or care for her sick child.<\/p>\n
\u201cI move around from one construction site to the other, where I build small tents to stay there temporarily. That’s why my daughter is sick a lot, because she has no proper accommodation to shade her and I don’t have enough milk to feed her,\u201d Chanthy said.<\/p>\n
The companies in question continue undeterred despite allegedly being aware that many of their undertakings, such as the extensive logging of timber in national parks, are illegal, according to “Rubber Barons,” the report released by London-based Global Witness on Monday that sheds light on the secretive operations of Hoan Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and the Vietnamese Rubber Group (VRG).<\/p>\n
Germany’s Deutsche Bank, according to the report, holds $3.3 million in a subsidiary of VRG, which is chiefly owned by the Vietnamese government, and $4.5 million in the privately owned HAGL. The International Finance Cooperation (IFC), which is an arm of the World Bank, indirectly funds HAGL through its $14.95 million share in a Vietnam-based fund that invests in HAGL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve known for some time that corrupt politicians in Cambodia and Laos are orchestrating the land-grabbing crisis that is doing so much damage in the region. This report completes the picture by exposing the pivotal role of Vietnam\u2019s rubber barons and their financiers, Deutsche Bank and IFC,\u201d said Megan MacInnes, who runs Global Witness\u2019 land team.<\/p>\n