Vietnam: Cambodian Monk’s Arrest a Mockery of Justice

By Serey Chau
President of KKFYC (http://www.kkfyc.org)

In September, 2003, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry told reporters that a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Venerable Thich Tri Luc, was arrested on July, 2002 at the Cambodia-Vietnam border. The Human Rights organizations around the world, especially the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, were shocked by that news because Ven. Thich Tri Luc, who was granted a refugee status by UNHCR to live in Cambodia in June, 2002 disappeared after being escorted by an unidentified man from his house on July 25, 2002. The Vietnamese officials had previously denied any knowledge of Ven. Thich Tri Luc’s whereabouts after his disappearance from Cambodia.

On August 1, 2007, the Voice of Vietnam (VOV News) posted an article on its Website announced that the Vietnamese authority just arrested a person who is a “disappeared monk”, Ven. Tim Sakhorn, for attempting to enter Vietnam illegally. The disappeared monk, Ven. Tim Sakhorn was arrested, defrocked, and deported to Vietnam by the Cambodian authorities on June 30, 2007. Just like Ven. Thich Tri Luc’s case, the Vietnamese officials at the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia denied any knowledge of Ven. Tim Sakhorn’s whereabouts after he was deported to Vietnam. The spokesman of the Vietnamese Embassy, Trinh Ba Cam, said that Vietnam did not interfere with Cambodia’s internal affairs, so he did not know the whereabouts of Ven. Tim Sakhorn.

Instead of charging Ven. Tim Sakhorn with the initial alleged crime of entering Vietnam illegally, he is being detained and will be tried for the crime of “sabotaging the unification policy” under Article 87 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Interestingly, Ven. Tim Sakhorn’s case is very similar to Ven. Thich Tri Luc because Ven. Thich Tri Luc was tried under Article 91 of Vietnam’s Penal Code on charges of fleeing abroad in order to oppose the Vietnamese Communist government. It is ironic to see a government who is a member of the United Nations be afraid of Buddhist monks like Ven. Thich Tri Luc, who live on peaceful principles. Now, the Vietnamese Communist government uses the same trick to accused Ven. Tim Sakhorn so they can imprison Ven. Tim Sakhorn.

Ven. Tim Sakhorn was defrocked by the Cambodian authority because they accused him of undermining the relationship between Cambodia and Vietnam. According to Buddhism, a Buddhist monk could only be defrocked if he violates the Buddhist rules. After defrocked Ven. Tim Sakhorn, Cambodian authority realized that they made a mistake because Buddhism is a national religion in Cambodia. Thus, Cambodian authority set up a case that where they searched Ven. Tim Sakhorn’s room, they found pornography pictures and even claim to have seen a lady sleeping on Ven. Tim Sakhorn’s bed. They broadcasted that news on the national Television. That news made the Cambodian public even angrier because everyone realized that it was a setup by the Cambodian government and it is ashamed for Cambodian government to use that dirty trick to against a Buddhist monk like Ven. Tim Sakhorn.

The spokesman of the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia now proudly says that Ven. Tim Sakhorn is a Vietnamese citizen, so he must be tried in Vietnam. In reality, Ven. Tim Sakhorn left his hometown in Kampuchea Krom (currently known as South Vietnam) to live in Cambodia with his whole family in 1979. He has no current relatives living in Vietnam. He became a Buddhist monk in 1991 and was promoted to Abbot of North Phnom Denh Temple in 2000. If Ven. Tim Sakhorn is not a Cambodian citizen, he would not be granted a Cambodian Buddhist Monk Identification (called Chay-Ya in Khmer). He would not be nominated to be an Abbot of a temple in Cambodia. If Vietnam still considers Ven. Tim Sakhorn as a Vietnamese citizen even he came to live in Cambodia since 1979, what happens to millions of the Vietnamese people who illegal came to live in Cambodia now. Do they still carry Vietnamese citizen? If they do, should they be returned to Vietnam too? How about the Vietnamese people who came to live in the United States or other countries? Does Vietnam still have a right to arrest them or they just can arrest the people who have Vietnamese citizen in Cambodia?

Vietnamese Communist (VC) government accused Ven. Tim Sakhorn as a member of Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) who tries to propagate anti-Vietnamese activities. The VC government knows that KKF is a Khmer-Krom Indigenous Peoples Organization that is why KKF can attend the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York every year because Vietnam also sends it own delegation to attend the forum too. If KKF is an organization that wants to overthrow the Vietnamese government or an organization that is trying to “sabotaging the unification policy” between Vietnamese and Khmer-Krom as the Vietnamese always accuses, then KKF will never be allowed to attend UNPFII. KKF has made many positive recommendations to the VC government to respect the rights of the indigenous peoples in Vietnam. KKF offers to have a dialog with the VC government at the UNPFII, but the VC government always refuses and stubbornly accuses KKF of being a separatist group. Many indigenous peoples and organizations attending the Permanent Forum are greatly disturbed with the VC government’s attitude towards the Khmer Krom people.

Vietnam accused Ven. Tim Sakhorn helped sending KKF’s DVD and documents to Khmer-Krom in Vietnam for the anti-Vietnamese activities. In reality, the KKF’s DVD is just a DVD detailing the activities of KKF at the UNPFII which has Vietnam’s delegation attended too. If Vietnam attended UNPFII every year, why is Vietnam scared to let the Khmer Krom in Kampuchea Krom watch KKF’s DVD so they can know about the activities of KKF members who represented for the voiceless of millions of Khmer Krom in Kampuchea Krom at the UNPFII?

Vietnam is a member of United Nations. The documents that the members of KKF bring to Kampuchea Krom are just documents to promote human rights, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If Vietnam respects human rights of the Khmer Krom people, why is Vietnam afraid of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that everyone on this earth inspires to achieve?

It doesn’t matter what tactics that the VC government uses to accuse Ven. Tim Sakhorn, no one in this world will believe them. The case of Ven. Tim Sakhorn is pretty similar with the “kidnapped” case of Ven. Thich Tri Luc. Unfortunately, the case of Ven. Tim Sakhorn makes the Cambodian people feel really ashamed of their own government because the Cambodian authority actually helped Vietnam to “legally” arrest Ven. Tim Sakhorn at Vietnam-Cambodia border so Vietnam did not need to go to Cambodia to kidnap Ven. Tim Sakhorn as they did to Ven. Thich Tri Luc.

The VC government stubbornly accused Ven. Thich Tri Luc of committing the injustice crime that he did not commit, but they did not succeed because of the pressures of the Human Rights organizations and the countries who respect human rights. They released Ven. Thich Tri Luc to live in Holland now. Unfortunately, the VC government is using the same trick to accuse Ven. Tim Sakhorn of committing the same crime again.

If Vietnam wants to have peace in its country, the VC government must respect human rights of the people in Vietnam, included all its indigenous peoples. If the VC government released Ven. Thich Tri Luc in the past, then the VC government has no rights to imprison Ven. Tim Sakhorn who is a Cambodian Buddhist monk and also a Cambodian citizen.