Monday, June 11, 2007

Khmer Krom Associations postpone Dhammayietra Walk for Peace [-Gov't use delay tactics to prevent the Dhammayietra]

9 June 2007
By Mayarith Radio Free Asia

Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The plan for a Dhammayietra Walk for Peace which will be participated by up to 1,000 monks and laymen this Sunday, has been postponed because the Phnom Penh municipality did not give its authorization.

Thach Setha, President of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom community, told RFA on Saturday that the plan organized by three Khmer Kampuchea Krom associations, including the Khmer Krom Monks association and the Federation of Khmer Kampuchea Krom Student Monks, has been postponed.

Thach Setha said: “Yesterday (Saturday), they invited me, Monk Yoeung Sin and Monk Chau Sang, the Dhammayietra Walk for Peace representatives, for a meeting at the city hall, and they showed us the writing of Sar Kheng, the Vice-prime minister and Minister of Interior, which said that they cannot authorize (our Dhammayietra) because we gave them a too short notice, and secondly because we did not ask the proper authorities: we should have asked the municipality and the provinces involved only, we cannot ask (the authorization from) the Ministry of Interior. That was the reason why the government does not provide its authorization to us.”

The Dhammayietra Walk for Peace to pray for peace for Khmer people currently living in the former Kampuchea Krom lands, was organized following the recent events which took place in Vietnam whereby several Khmer Krom were defrocked and sentenced to jail after they demonstrated against the Hanoi regime.

The Dhammayietra organizers said that the three Khmer Kampuchea Krom associations will meet each other again to discuss and to ask the authorization for the Dhammayietra one more time from the municipality of Phnom Penh: “We will send in our request, including the documents they said were missing, and we will fulfill all the requirements again … But we will have to hold another meeting with all the Khmer Krom associations to decide one more time. In fact, there was ample time, I sent in my request (to hold the Dhammayietra) on Thursday, there was sufficient amount of time, but the Ministry of Interior said that in my request letter, I did not affix the association stamp. My habit is to sign my letters only, I never had to affix the association stamp on them, but the ministry required to see the red (association) stamp (affixed on the letter). When I returned back (to provide the stamped letter), they said that something else is meeting, they asked to see the authorization to form the association. In fact, the ministry has the government authorization for us to form the association, but they insisted that we provide the document to them. So it was another day lost on Thursday, and on Friday, they received everything from us. On Saturday, they told us that the date is too close, we can see that they created all these delays so that we cannot organize (the Dhammayietra), this is not our fault, this is a government delay tactic to prevent us from organizing (the Dhammayietra).”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh good, that ought keep Ah Khmer-
Yuon squatters from grabbing land
on the mountain and keep us from
exploring our natural resources.

Anonymous said...

Hun Sen will never do anything for the Khmer Krom because he doesn't want to hurt his boss, the Vienamese goverment which had put him on power. That 's the big probem!
The Playboy Kheu Kanharith, who uses to mistreat beer-girls, is one of the real Cleaners of Hun Sen's Family member buttock.

Anonymous said...

no one do anything for khmer krom but khmer krom themself.....be like those monks...don't just say but no action like ankor borei news.....i support all those monk 100 percent..be patient...god buddha will destroy all evil person....keep asking...you will walk....