Wed Oct 31, 2007Cambodia PM slammed for disowning lesbian daughter
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Women's rights campaigners in Cambodia lashed out at Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday for trying to disown his adopted daughter because she is a lesbian.
"You do not have to agree with her decision, but you have to respect her rights," said Theary Seng, executive director of the Center for Social Development in the war-scarred southeast Asian nation's capital.
Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier, told a graduation ceremony this week he was "disappointed" that his 19-year-old daughter, whom he adopted in 1988, was a lesbian.
"I have my own problem -- my adopted daughter has a wife," he said. "Now I will ask the court to disown her from my family."
Hun Sen has been in charge of Cambodia for the last two decades and is not known for a liberal outlook to life or politics.
He and his wife, Bun Rany, have three sons and two daughters, and had kept the adoption of a third daughter a closely guarded secret. He did not reveal her name in his speech.
"I can educate people in the whole country, but I cannot educate my adopted daughter," he added. "We sent her to study in the U.S., but she did a bad job. She returned home and took a wife."
However, Hun Sen asked Cambodia's 13 million people to be more tolerant of homosexuals.
"I urge parents of gays not to discriminate against them, and do not call them transvestites," Hun Sen said.
"You do not have to agree with her decision, but you have to respect her rights," said Theary Seng, executive director of the Center for Social Development in the war-scarred southeast Asian nation's capital.
Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier, told a graduation ceremony this week he was "disappointed" that his 19-year-old daughter, whom he adopted in 1988, was a lesbian.
"I have my own problem -- my adopted daughter has a wife," he said. "Now I will ask the court to disown her from my family."
Hun Sen has been in charge of Cambodia for the last two decades and is not known for a liberal outlook to life or politics.
He and his wife, Bun Rany, have three sons and two daughters, and had kept the adoption of a third daughter a closely guarded secret. He did not reveal her name in his speech.
"I can educate people in the whole country, but I cannot educate my adopted daughter," he added. "We sent her to study in the U.S., but she did a bad job. She returned home and took a wife."
However, Hun Sen asked Cambodia's 13 million people to be more tolerant of homosexuals.
"I urge parents of gays not to discriminate against them, and do not call them transvestites," Hun Sen said.
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Son Son's Testimony: The Transfer of Cochin-China (Kampuchea-Krom) to the Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam
In 1863, His Majesty NORODOM, the King of Cambodia requested the France to protect our Country against the infringements of our neighbors. The France established the protectorate over Cambodia, but made our territory of Kampuchea-Krom its colony of Cochin-China.
In 1949, without consulting Cambodia, the French Government MRP, Mr. Costes-Floret decided to cede the Cochin-China to the Emperor Bao Dai, hoping by this transfer to preserve the essential privileges of the French in Indo-China. It is a remark of the Imperatrice Nam Phuong, a catholic as the MRP.
Under the order of His Majesty King NORODOM Sihanouk, a Cambodian Delegation (composed of LL. EE Chhean Vam, Thonn Ouk, Sonn Voeunsai and myself) were sent to the France to protest against this transfer, and to monitor the debates concerning this decision.
The debates started at the Assembly of the French Union at Verseilles. The President of this Assembly was Her Highness, the Princess Ping Peang Yukanthor, and the principal Cambodian members were Mr. Pan Yung, Sim Var, Thonn Ouk, Sok Chhong. Thanks to the President and to all Cambodian Members, the Assembly of the French Union voted an unfavorable opinion to this bill of transfer.
The French National Assembly sent the bill that presented by Government MRP, relating to this transfer, to the Council of the Republic, where we found the effective defenders in the person of Mr. Marc Rucart, a theosophist, and among the Gaullistes (of which Mr. Jacques Soustelle) all of the Friends of Her Highness Ping Peang Yukanthor.
The Council of the Republic was presided by S.E. Monerville, who had shown much sympathy to our cause, and enabled us to occupy the official platform to closely monitor all debates.
The Council of the Republic returned the bill to the French National Assembly for a second talk.
Our Delegation worked a lot: we shared the works to approach various political parties. Against our attempt, Mr. Frederic Dupont who refused assisting to his group. The Socialists initially promised us to vote against the bill to transfer of Cochin-China, but they had been solicited strongly by the Government MRP. Mr. Gaston Deferre, to comfort us, had presented a motion bearing his name, demanding the French Government to take care ahead of times all the pending questions between the Protectorate of Cambodia and the Colony of Cochin-China, before transfering this colony to Vietnam.
The Deferre motion was voted for by a large majority of the French National Assembly.
Among the pending questions, there is the border between the two Countries. The Vinh-Te Canal was manually labored and digged by the mixture of Khmer-Vietnamese, must be the natural border, and not as many kilometers in inside of our territory as it was traced. There has been also the incorporation of several Khmer villages into the territory of Cochin-China because the French plantations located in the Cochin-China having the needs of manual labors... It will be necessary for us to consult with all the files of the French Ministry of Colonies to raise all the discussion with the French administrators of Protectorate who defend our interests, and that of Cochin-China who had the tendency to support the French colony at our expenses.
There is also the question of the status of the Khmer minority in Cochin-China (Khmer Krom). The French Government recognized the Khmer of Cochin-China:
1) the right to practice their Buddhist religion of Small Vehicle, aside from such right has been recognized by the Vietnamese for Chauvay Son Kuy who accepted to be put to death in exchange of this right,
2) the right of celebrate all of the Khmer Festivals,
3) the right to raise the flag of national Khmer,
4) the right to teach and to learn the Khmer language,
5) the right to have a Khmer governor in the districts and in the provinces of Khmer majority,
6) the right to have the Khmer deputies at the Assembly of the Cochin-China etc...
However there are now in Kampuchea-Krom 683 Vat (Buddhist temples), 40,000 Khmer-Krom Monks and a Khmer population approaching of 8 millions people.
By accepting the transfer of Cochin-China, Vietnam must also accept all obligations from the France: in particular the recognition of our borders, and the status of Khmer Kampuchea-Krom which has been recognized by the France ...
Our Buddhist Monks, as well as our Compatriots of Kampuchea-Krom, are subjected to inhumane treatements. Such as our Monks are disrobed, imprisonned if not killed, if they show too attaching to the Mother Country, to defense the Khmer heart, our traditions, our patriotism.
Associations of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom can provide the details of these inhumane treatments.
In the negotiations with Vietnam, it is very desirable to raise all these questions concerning the national interest, and the rights of our Compatriots of Kampuchea-Krom.
Phnom-Penh, February 27, 1994
Signed: Son Sann
Senior Members of the National Assembly
F**king double standard. Do as I say, not what I do. LOL This one is going to catch international attention.
Khmer Krom People in Vietnam
By Bunroeun Thach, Ph.D. (International Relations/Political Science)
The world in general is still ignorant about what is Kampuchea Krom. Today, the origin of Kampuchea Krom is being systematically effaced from the world history by the Vietnamese colonialist government and its supporters. Kampuchea Krom history, its geography, its people, its culture, and its people identity are now being questioned by even the scholars.
According to the July 12-25, 1996 issue of Phnom Penh Post which cover the "Angkor Borei: The Cradle of Cambodia?" It said: "Vietnamese scholars are quoted as saying: 'The Funan (Nokor Phnom) empire existed before Khmer ethnicity arose. Linguistic evidence that these people were indeed Khmer is simply lacking".
Supporting this statement was an American scholar, Miriam Stark, who said:
"There is no question that the people of Angkor empire were Khmer. But as to Funan (Nokor Phnom), we don't know what language they spoke, though we can find out how old the site is (Angkor Borei), what agriculture was engaged in, what the demographic potential of the site was. We can learn how they lived, and what they did. But whether they were Khmer is perhaps an unanswering question."
As a child of the Khmer Krom, the indigenous people of this land which known to us as Kampuchea Krom, when I learned from these above quotations, they hurt very, very deeply. I would like therefore to demonstrate facts and evidences of the existences of my people, the Khmer Krom, to the world and our rightful ownership to this land, the ancient Nokor Phnom (Funan) or the current Kampuchea Krom.
Kampuchea Krom is an un-official Khmer name for the Mekong delta region, comprised the entire southern part of Vietnam. Its territory measures up to 65,000 square kilometers. The indigenous people of Kampuchea Krom as Nokor Phnom (or Funan, in the corrupt Chinese translation). As a commercial power, Nokor Phnom was well known for its deep-sea city of O Keo (historians also used the corrupt term, Oc-eo).
Its exact location is in the Kramoun Sar (Rach Gia) province. O Keo was a trading center in Southeast Asia where the Indian, the Arabs, the Roman, the Chines and Japanese met. Many Khmer and non-Khmer coins, including those of Rome have been found at O Keo in the surrounding provinces. Economically, the Khmer of Nokor Phnom were geniuses in their own right as is shown by their mastery of water management. One can still find hundreds if not thousands of canals today in the Mekong delta of Kampuchea Krom. They were built by the ancient Khmers of Nokor Phnom.
In fact, Khmer Krom do not call their water streams as "Stung" as the Khmer in Cambodia called them. But they know only "Prek." For "Prek" means canal and "Stung" means natural streams. This demonstrated that the Khmer Krom have their water management schemes being built into their cultural psychology long ago. They were the masters of the wet rice culture.
During the Nokor Phnom period, Chinese and Indian sources proved that "Buddhism in Kampuchea was old as Brahmanism," said Peter Gyallay-Pap, in Radical Conservatism, 1990. Archaeologists discovered statutes of Buddha as well as Lokecsvara, Vishnu, Shiva, Harihara, and many others scattered throughout Kampuchea Krom.
During the Khmer Empire, according to Malleret, in his La Minorite Cambodgien de Chochine, hospitals bult by the thirteen century Khmer King Jayavarman VII have been located near Prek Russey (today Can Tho). Historically Nokor Phnom was the Khmer Empire's first state, that is Kampuchea Krom today.
Kampuchea Krom was part of the present Cambodia until May 21, 1949, when the colonialist French ceded it illegally to Vietnam. Thus today, Cambodia continues to have its legal rights over this former territory. The author of this article is also a Khmer Krom.
Not long ago, we Khmer children enjoyed singing a song then "den dei Khmer pre tha Sovannaphum" (Khmer nation means Sovannabhumi). It was a nationalistic song that touched our hearts very deeply. Our song evoked in us nostalgia for the glorious Khmer past.
As children we had learned that, since the time of Buddha, 500 B.C., Sovannaphum was what today is called mainland Southeast Asia, and the Khmer Empire encompassed the main part of that. We had also learned that evidence has been discovered showing that the Khmer civilization can be found in Laos, in Thailand, and in Vietnam, where millions of ethnic Khmer civilization to today's regional geo-political realities.
Westerners came to know the land of the first Khmer state Nokor Phnom was in a sinonized term Funan. Later they knew it was the "Lower Cochin-China" which the Khmer called it Kampuchea Krom (Lower Cambodia). In 1861, during which time the Vietnamese invaded this Khmer land, French scholars Cortambert and de Rosny, in their Le Kambodge Annamite, wrote:
"Lower Cochin-China, or Vietnam's Cambodia, which is the part of Cambodia which had submitted to the Annmite Empire, is the southern most part of this empire before the French conquest. It is today (1861) almost in our hands. It extends to the edge of "Cap de Kambodge (today Ca Mau) and swings to the northeast with the rest of the Kingdom of Cambodia. We can compare its extent with that of Britain. This country (Kampuchea Krom) is extremely fertile, formed entirely of the Mekong delta, and it is watered by the Dong Nai and the river of Prei Nokor (today Ho Chi Minh City). It is a great place for commerce. It is the connection between Thailand, Cambodia, English India, the Malaka Strait, and Burma on one side, and so the other side with Cochinchina proper (Annam), China, the Philippines, and others (author's translation from French)."
Later, in 1940s, French archaeologists such as Louis Malleret devoted his research to the past history of Kampuchea Krom. According to Malleret, in the B.S.E.I., Vol.12, p.8, said: “From the beginning of the first century to the thirteenth century, Kampuchea Krom was then part of the Khmer Empireâ€.
One map, compiled with scientific proof in very recent years (1942) show about two hundred Khmer sites scattered around the delta. This map revealed the existence of the ancient canals, and the basins where today are the vast rice fields.
After the 6th century, Nokor Phnom joined its sister state of Chen Lea (the known corrupt term is also Chenla) to form two Chen Lea(s): Chen lea tuk (Chenla Water) and Chen lea kauk (Chenla Dry or land). This union lasted for two hundred years. However, for a brief period they were both being dominated by Java until 802 when a united Khmer Empire emerged.
It was the work of a Khmer monarch Jayavarman II (802-869). He was a Khmer prince who had been sent to Java to study. Upon his return, Jayavarman II brought home not only the Javanese polity devaraja( divine ruler) but was with that polity which he freed the Khmers from Javanese conquerors. And the Khmer Empire was formed (9th to 13th century). Since then, Khmer Empire flourished not only economically but culturally as recognized today by the art and architecture of Angkor Wat which was built by the Khmer king, Suriyavarman II (1113-1150).
The Khmer kings were not only followers of Hinduism (devaraja) but Mahayana Buddhism (Budddharaja), including Suriyavarman (.1050) and Jayavarman VII (d. 1218?).
By 13th century, the Khmer Empire began to crumble when faced with the newcomers from the north. First were the Thai. John Cady, in his Thailand, Burma, Laos, & Cambodia, 1966, said: "His reign (Suriyavarman II) witness the beginnings of the infiltration of Thai-Laos people by inclusion of Thai mercenary troops in the Cambodian army." David Steinberg, in his Cambodia: Its people, its society, its culture, 1957, also said:
"Jayavarman VII achieved great things, but after his death the empire began to fall apart. The people were exhausted by huge construction projects and by wars of conquest. Mongol pressure on the Thai kingdom in the thirteenth century gave greater impetus to Thai infiltration of Cambodia. By the end of the thirteenth century, independent Thai kingdoms had been created in former Khmer territory. In 1353, a Thai army captured Angkor; later the Kabujans (Khmer) regained it, but wars with The Thai contined for centuries. Angkor was looted a number of times, and thousands of artists and scholars were carried away to slavery in Thailand. In 1430-31 the Thais again captured Angkor, this time aided by treachery within the Khmer capital. This conquest marks the end of the magnificent Khmer era, as nearly as any event can. The Khmer recaptured their city, but abandoned it as a capital."
The next four hundred years (1432-1864) was the transition period of the Khmer Empire, from a great nation to a nearly extinct French protectorate. During the first half of this period, Cambodia was involved in a duel with Thailand, in which Thailand claimed suzerainty over Cambodia and for centuries tried to validate its claim by forceful means, as well as through puppet Khmer kings.
Despite Thailand was showing greater strength in winning the wars over Cambodia, but the Thai did allow the Khmer to keep what was Khmer. By contrast, when the Khmer came in contact with the new neighbor to the east, Vietnam, it was a different matter. Earlier we described Kampuchea Krom as a fertile land, suitable for the northern neighbors to move in.
Furthermore, the Khmer kings failed to a trap set by the Vietnamese court with sordid schemes. Jean Moura, in his Le Royaume du Cambodge, said:
"In 1618, in the month of March, Prince Prea-chey-chessda was crowned under the title 'Samdech prea-chey-chessda -thireach-reamea-thupphadey-barommopit... At this moment, the King of Annam presented one his daughters to be married to the newly crowned king of Cambodia. This princess was very beautiful. She succeeded in making the king fall in love with her. She was made the queen of the Kingdom."
In 1623, the King of Annam sent an ambassador with a rich present to the court of Oudong, then the Cambodian capital. At the beginning of this mission, the Vietnamese ambassador was ordered to seek authorization from the King of Cambodia, which meant the cessation of the Vietnamese government from paying customs for obtaining Prei Nokor (today Ho Chi Minh City).
The Cambodian king, without objection, accepted these propositions and the Vietnamese established themselves on the territory of Prei Nokor. This kind of sordid acts on the part of the Vietnamese authorities created presidents for the Khmers to never again trust the Vietnamese.
Furthermore, the Vietnamese were much brutal then the Thai, when the former conquered the Khmers. The Khmers always remind their children of the case, in 1813 during the forced labor of digging the Vinh Te canal. The Vietnamese soldiers buried the Khmer labourers alive and used their heads as stands for a wood stove to boil water for the Vietnamese masters. At that moment, the Vietnamese torturers said, "Be careful not to spill my master's tea (Dung nhuc nhit kumpop te ong anh)".
According to Keith Weller Taylor, in his The Birth of Vietnam (1983), the original homeland of the Vietnamese is Tonking. Its society was formed by feudalism. The Hong Bang dynasty of Lac (247 B.C.) were their rulers. Another succeeded ruler was Thuc (257-208 B.C.).
After this period, the Vietnamese were forced to stay under the domination of China for twelve centuries. The Chinese relinquished Vietnam in 939, but Vietnam still received strong influence form the Chinese court. Because of the uneasy relationship with China, the Vietnamese looked to the south and become expansionist conquerors themselves for the next thousand years.
This southward movement was well known in Vietnamese as Nam Tien. The Vietnamese used a picture of the growing bamboo trees to symbolize their Nam Tien. Their philosophy is that just like how the bamboo trees grow, Vietnamese territory will always spread endlessly.
After taking the entire Champa Kingdom (currently central part of Vietnam) in 1658, the Vietnamese then moved slowly to control Khmer territory, first in Kampuchea Krom and later they took the entire Cambodia. As mentioned above, the Vietnamese court of Hue received permission from the King of Cambodia in 1623 to station its troops in Prei Nokor.
By 1698, Vietnam totally occupied Prei Nokor and baptized with its new name, Saigon (and since 1975 communist victory it has been re-named Ho Minh City). In fact, Vietnamese changed all the Khmer names of the Kampuchea Krom's villages, towns and cities to Vietnamese. It was simply a means which the Vietnamese used to steal the land from the Khmer indigenous people and kept the world ignorance about the existence of Kampuchea Krom.
Despite the Khmer court issued some kind of agreements with the Vietnamese court, the indigenous people, the Khmer Krom refused to recognize them.
In 1743, the Khmer Krom of Khleang (Vietnamized Soc Trang) province revolved and expelled the Vietnamese. Khmer army, in 1748, also crushed the Vietnamese army at Sap Angkam, in Cambodia's Pursat province.
In 1776, people of Peam Me Sar (My Tho) and Long Hor (Vinh Long) provinces revolted and liberated their provinces. From 1835 to 1847, the famous people uprising took place in the province of Preah Trapeang (Travinh), under the leadership of Khmer governor, Chavay Kuy.
In 1841, as a pacifist Khmer Buddhist, Chavay Kuy gave himself up in exchange for the Vietnamese court of Hue's recognition and agreement for the Khmer Krom to have their rights and freeedom of worship, of following their traditional costumes, and practice their education in Khmer language.
Following the Vietnamese beheaded Chavay Kuy, in 1841, Khmer people through out the country rose up against the Vietnamese armies.
In 1858, the people of Moat Chrouk (Chau Doc) liberated their territory and rejoined it with Cambodia. In the same year, the Khmer army also drove the Vietnamese out the the provinces of Khleang (Soc Trang), Preah Trapeang (Travinh), and Kramoun Sar (Rach Gia).
According to Adhemard Leclere, in his Histoire de Cambodge, 1941, King Ang Duong, in 1857, secretly contacted the French Emperor Napoleon III, through a French Catholic misssionary, Monseigneur Miche, invited the French to attack the Vietnamese forces stationed in Prei Nokor, with a promise to pay 500 (men) after the victory.
In 1858, Napoleon III ordered Admiral Douda de la Grandiere to follow this request. King Ang Duong then sent Khmer Royal Army to liberate the southern Treang province, and others including Bassac, Preah Trapeang, Kramoun Sar, and Moat Chrouk, under the command of the Khmer General Kep. After, King Ang Duong passed away in 1860, his son, King Norodom came to the throne.
In 1864, the Khmer King with a promise from French Admiral de la Grandiere, that France will return Kampuchea Krom (known as French Cochinchina) solely to Cambodia upon France withdrawal, placed Cambodia under French protection.
However, in 1884, at a gun point, King Norodom (son of Ang Duong and grandfather of the current King Norodom Sihanouk) was forced to sign off Cambodia to become a French colony. However, under the French Khmer Krom enjoyed extent privileges, including having their rights to be Khmer citizen in Cambodia (same practice also adopted by the current Royal Government of Cambodia), their rights to follow Khmer educational system, their rights to worship Buddhist religion, their rights to hold governmental positions, including governorship of all Khmer provinces. Khmer Buddhist temple received direct order from Phnom Penh patriarchs.
In fact, in 1941, after being crowned, King Noro dom Sihanouk went to province of Khleang and inaugurated the Friendship Association of Khmer Kampuchea Krom, which today has its branches throughout the world, including this one.
However, the French colonialist government betrayed its own words when they departed from Kampuchea Krom. At midnight of May 21s, 1949, in front a great protest from the Khmer delegation headed by its Prime Minister, Chhean Vam and his delegates including Son Sann and Princess Ping Peang Yukunthor, the French National Assembly voted to connect its French Cochinchina (Kampuchea Krom) not to Cambodia which has historical and legal rights, but to Vietnam. V.M. Reddi, in his A History of Cambodian Independence, 1970, wrote:
"Perhaps what affected the Cambodian nationalist feelings most was the transfer to Vietnam of the three western provinces of Cochinchina, namely, Rach Gia [Kramoun Sar], Soc Trang [Kleang], Travinh [Preah Trapeang] , which the Cambodian claimed as theirs on the basis of race, history, and population. Ever since the establishment of the French protectorate, Cambodia never ceased to remind France of its historical rights over these areas. In spite of these reminders, France, having committed herself to the Bao Dai solution, transferred them to Vietnam. No matter whether France's troubles in Vietnam did or did not end, certainly, she gained the displeasure of the Cambodian nation."
France irresponsible actions caused the then Khmer Prime Minister Chhean Vam to present his resignation to King Norodom Sihanouk, at the Phnom Penh Royal Palace. But worst was that France had indirectly subjugated Khmer Krom for life of their rights to a nation-hood and their dignity as a human race, despite the French how bad the Vietnamese treated Khmer Krom.
For instance, in 1945, the communist Vietminh persecuted many Khmer Krom a la Nazi styles. In which cases Khmer Krom leaders and intellectuals were called upon to gather themselves in the rice granaries (lam, in Vietnamese), in the provinces of Kleang (Soc Trang). As the granaries were filled with Khmer Krom, the doors were ordered to be closed and petroleum were poured upon them.
Finally, the Vietnam set Khmer Krom on fire, alive! After the French was defeated in its Indochina, in post 1954 Geneva Conference, the Ngo Dinh Diem regime of Republic of Vietnam shown its true claws with his famous decree of August 29, 1956. He simply erased the Khmer nationality from the Khmer Krom by calling them "Nguoi Viet goc Mien" (Vietnamese of Khmer origin). This was a new term which was adopted by all following Vietnamese governments. Gerald C. Hickey, in his Accommodation and Coalition in South Vietnam, 1970, said:
"The policy of Ngo Dinh Diem government was to integrate the ethnic minorities into the national framework by forced assimilation."
In 1969, twenty five thousand Khmer Krom Buddhist monks, under the leadership of the Venerables Lam Em and Kim Sang, conducted non-violent demonstration in front of the former Norodom Palace (which was being Vietnamized into Dinh Doc Lap--Independence Palace) in Saigon, demanding the minority rights for Khmer Krom from the Thieu-Ky regime. The American Vietnam War ended when communist forces took over Cambodia on April 17, 1975, Vietnam on April 30, 1975, and Vietnam on April 30, 1975, and Laos in a later date. In 1978, the communist Vietnam they invaded and occupied Cambodia for the 13 years.
Ho Chi Minh's political scheme of establishing the Indochina Federation under the Vietnamese control realized. The Khmer resistant forces with the support from United Nations in 1991 was able to have Vietnam agreed to relinquish Cambodia. However, under the communist Vietnamese regimes, Khmer Krom continued to face greater suffering, including exterminations and persecutions.
There has not been Western studies’ being done, regarding how the Vietnamese communists treated Khmer Krom. Yet there were many un-reported incidents happened. Many witnesses who are alive today can testify about the communist Vietnamese atrocities against Khmer Krom in the past and present.
In relations to the U.S Department of State sponsoring the so-called "study of genocide in Cambodia," another study should be conducted, especially regarding how the communist Vietnam conducted its genocide actions against the Khmer people.
After the 1976 Khmer Krom up rising, many Khmer Krom, especially Buddhist monks were persecuted by the Vietnamese authorities. One of them was the Venerable Kim Toc Chuong, the Buddhist patriarch in the Preah Trapeang province. Many thousands other Khmer Krom were imprisoned and faced brutal tortures until today.
Khmer Krom ask the world nothing but their rights to freedom, human dignities, and self-determination, principles which are embedded in the Charter of the United Nations. An organization of community of nations, which Vietnam is a member.
http://khmerkrom.org
Most every body in Phnom Penh know about Hun Sen's adopted daughter!
And Hun Sen never told the whold town about any of his children's name, you have to find it out yourself dude KI!
By the way people in Phnom Penh said that a fortune teller told Borany that they have to have 6 children or they will DOOM! so they adapted her around (1993or4?)
HIS TIME MAY COME, SOON? 2008?
Hanoi or Hell? both HAShashass to Cambodian!
C
Geography
Kampuchea Krom means "Cambodia Below" or "South Cambodia". "Krom" in Khmer also means under to indicate "Southern." Kampuchea Krom was the southernmost territory of the Khmer Empire, and it was once known as (French) Cochin China. It is the South-western part of Vietnam. It covers an area of 89,000 Km2 with Cambodia to the north, the Gulf of Siam to the west and the South China Sea to the south, and the Champa's territory to the northeast.
Prei Nokor was one of the most important commercial cities in Kampuchea Krom. The Vietnam's government changed the name to Saigon, then, to Ho Chi Minh City in 1975. The Vietnamese find most Khmer locality names difficult to pronounce so they changed them to Vietnamese. These new Vietnamese names have no meaning whereas their Khmers' are related to historic events or accounts.
There were two long rivers: the Mekong and Bassac rivers. The Mekong Delta had 40,000 Km2 of field that full of rice field and forest. There was a historic canal Chum Nik Prek Teng or Te Ong Anussa (Vinh Te) from Mot Chrouk to Peam (Ha Tien). It was 53 Km long and 25 meter wide. There were Cheung Baa Deng mountain in the province of Raung Damrey (Tay Ninh) and Seven mountains: (Ktau, Ta Khvaa, Ook Yaum, Po Peal, Nak Ta thnauk, Phnom Rau and Phnom Tra Daak) in the province of Mot Chrouk(Chau Doc). Kampuchea Krom consist of four provinces DO NAI, LONG HO, MOT CHROUK and PEAM, later on divided into 21 provinces:
Khmer Name Vietnamese Translation
1 Preah Trapeang Tra Vinh (Vinh Binh)
2 Khleang Soc Trang
3 Mort Chrouk Chau Doc
4 Kramuon Sor Rach Gia
5 Pol Leav Bac Lieu
6 Tuk Khmau Ca Mau
7 Peam Ha Tien
8 Prek Russey Can Tho
9 Long Hor Vinh Long
10 Peam Barach Long Xuyen
11 Raung Domrei Tay Ninh
12 Prey Nokor Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon)
13 Tuol Tamoak Thu Du Mot
14 Changva Trapeang Sraka Trey Bien Hoa
15 Me Sor My Tho
16 Preah Suorkea Baria
17 Koh Koang Go Cong
18 Kampong Russey Ben Tre
19 Kampong Kou Tan An
20 O Kab Vung Tau
21 Koh Tralach (Tralach Island) Con Dao (Con Son)
22 Koh Trol (Trol Island) Phu Quoc island
Visual History of Kampuchea-Krom
Khmer Krom condemn the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments
Submitted by kkf on Tue, 2007-08-28 00:55.
26 August 2007
By Kim Pov Sottan - Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata of KI-Media
The Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) angrily condemned the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments on the violence and severe human rights violations perpetrated in both Cambodia and Vietnam.
The urgent statement dated 24 August was issued after it was reported that oppression and more arrests and jailing of Khmer Krom people are currently being conducted in South Vietnam, and those arrested are accused of involvement with Monk Tim Skahorn, the former abbot of Phnom Den pagoda. Vietnam accused Monk Tim Sakhorn of paying people to protest and demonstrate against Vietnam.
Thach Ngoc Thach, KKF President, said that his federation could not remain silent in this case. He said that KKF will bring their complaints to the international community next month.
Thach Ngoc Thach said: “Venerable Tim Sakhorn’s case is now turning into an international case, all the countries which we contacted, including the United Nations, as I told you earlier, will take up this case to demand an answer from the Vietnamese government, as in the case of the European Union Parliament which has recently announced its decision to push the Vietnamese government to resolve the case of 5 Khmer Krom monks who were defrocked and jailed until now. Therefore, in the future, the EU Parliament will continue to issue other decisions in the case of Venerable Tim Sakhorn.”
In the same statement, KKF exposed the religious rights and human rights violations perpetrated by the Vietnamese government against the demonstrations held by (Khmer Krom) monks, and the defrocking of 5 Khmer Krom monks who were subsequently sent to jail a few months earlier. KKF also exposed about the killing a Khmer Krom monk in Cambodia, the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn, and the arrest of Khmer Krom people in South Vietnam and their forced coercion to put the blame on Monk Tim Sakhorn.
Mrs. Neang Ye, a 50-year-old teacher from Sangker Duon village, Tinh Bien district, Motr Chrouk province (Chau Doc in Vietnamese) claimed that she was jailed for one day and that she was beaten up and tortured by the Vietnamese police which forced her to confess her involvement with Monk Tim Sakhorn, just because she protested several times in the past with the Vietnamese authority about her farmlands which were confiscated by the Vietnamese authority.
Mrs. Neang Ye said: “They told me: ‘Are you going to answer or not? Will you answer that you took $100 from Monk Khorn (Tim Sakhorn) or not?’ They told me to answer yes then I will be released, they said to answer yes and place the blame on Monk Khorn to prevent Khmer (Krom) people from protesting too much. I told them that in this case, I don’t know about it, it’s a case that involves people in Cambodia and it happened in Cambodia, I live in Vietnam, I only know what’s happening in Vietnam. When I said that, they took a metal bar and squeezed my right thigh until it was all swollen, they threatened me, they held me by my neck collar, at that point, I was really angry, I hold one of the cop by the neck collar back. Then they told me that the lands that Khmer (Krom) people claim as their ancestral lands, they should go and claim with Sihamonineath, they said that do you know that these lands are Vietnamese lands, they said that the Vietnamese lands not only extend to Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh City), at the end, in 2008, Vietnamese lands will extend all the way to the Thai border.”
Neang Ye added that land protesters in Motr Chrouk province are currently faced with daily threats and they are accused of receiving money provided by Monk Tim Sakhorn who financed them to rise up and protest against the Vietnamese regime.
This threat also led another Khmer Krom woman to confess and put the blame on Monk Tim Sakhorn after she was jailed for a period of 3-day.
KKF says that this is a new Vietnamese tactics used to bring in more charges against Monk Tim Sakhorn, because it couldn’t find a single reason to sentence Monk Tim Sakhorn at all.
On 24 August, Khieu Kanharith, who, in the past, promised that he will ask a clarification from the Cambodian consulate in Vietnam regarding Monk Tim Sakhorn’s affair, said again that he is still waiting for an reply (from the Cambodian consulate). “There is no answer from the consulate to me yet, therefore wait, I will contact and ask them.”
The delay and the continued jailing of Monk Tim Sakhorn led Chea Mony, President of the Free Trade Union, to threaten that he will lead a mass demonstration in the near future to express the hurtful feelings in seeing the open interference of Vietnam in Cambodia’s internal affair, and to demand the return of Monk Tim Sakhorn.
Chea Mony said: “This demonstration will take place shortly because we are holding consultations with watchdog groups in the US, Finland, and France, and we are holding a meeting of the executive committee of each union regarding the holding of this mass demonstration with Khmer Krom brothers also. Therefore, if there is no resolution to this case, it will grow into a major issue.”
Thach Setha, President of the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Community, expressed his concerns about Monk Tim Sakhorn after he learned that Monk Tim Sakhorn is currently subjected to intense torture. He added that Khmer Krom community will hook up with the Free Trade Union of Workers to lead a mass demonstration also.
Thach Setha said: “We will join our force together, and make it strong, in order to force the government to bring back Monk Tim Sakhorn, and also to demand for a proper respect of the law in the Kingdom of Cambodia, the government must respect the rights of their own citizens according to the law stipulated in the Constitution in used nowadays.”
Monk Tim Sakhorn was defrocked by force by the Cambodian authority at the end of June, and he was accused of undermining the friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam. After his defrocking, he disappeared until a report indicated that he was jailed in Vietnam.
Regarding this issue, International and national human rights organizations, civil society, MPs, Khmer Krom organizations and associations, and the king himself, asked Hun Sen and the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene and return Monk Tim Sakhorn back to Cambodia. However, up until now, Hun Sen and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remain silent to the requests made.
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http://kkfyc.org
PREFACE
The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation Youth Committee (KKFYC) is proud to release the second
edition of our Youth Voices! publication.
The second edition has illustrated all Khmer-Krom community events from our homeland and from
oversea communities, and related international news that most matter to Khmer-Krom sufferings in the
Mekong Delta.
The dying issues of the past few months have been the continued oppressions in our homeland such as the
daylight kidnapping of our Venerable Tim Sakhorn in Cambodia by the Vietnamese secret agents to
Vietnam. Khmer-Kroms and Khmer general public around the world have so far expressed outrage and
have called for the immediate release of our innocent monk.
The second key item of the day is the UN’s adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, which fundamentally provides hope to our people as the Indigenous Peoples of the Mekong
delta—our rights to our native lands, our nationhood, and to self-determination.
And last but not least is the passing Smith’s bill, the “Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2007” (H.R. 3096), to
promote Human Rights reform in Vietnam. This Bill is to prohibit increased U.S. non-humanitarian
assistance to the Government of Vietnam if it continues to violate the human rights of its citizens.
We, KKFYC team, once again thank all our young writers, readers, supporting elders, and our friends for
offering your hands to this publication.
Upon the arrival of our Bonn Dounta (Bonn Pjum Bonn) ceremony, we wish every Khmer-Krom and
Khmer youths have a joyous celebration!
If you are interested in contributing any of your articles or comments, please do not hesitate to send them
to us at kkyouthmagazine@kkfyc.org
O-khun! (Thank You!)
"We sent her to study in the U.S., but she did a bad job. She returned home and took a wife." -- PM Hun Sen.
Do you see what I am saying now, folk?
I agree with PM HUN SEN on this case.It get to be something wrong with their brain when the girl or the boy love to have sex with the same gender..
They are human being they have their own right ,on their bed,have sexes with dogs,cats,same sexes ,plastic ,machines bottles bananas egg plant what ever leave them alone as long as they are not against the country laws, stupid if you are in the States you'll be not find your seat as prime minister or laws suite will find against you as sexual discrimination because she is n or he is gay.
The Viet can't find enough food for it own citizen,but want to be Cambodian 's Master ,you hun sen thinks it is small problems or don't think at all,and some thing in your adopt 's daughter pant you are think that is big, Hun sen you must be crazy and out of your mind by Viet's dog rabies bit you up?
Wrong 3:10, just as a drunk has no right to harass people, so does the sick and the gays/lesbian. Both must be cured from their sickness.
4:04am you are right,gay and lesbian are sick.Have you seen gay parade in SAN FRANCISCO oh! it 's just outrageous.
No, I have not been to San Francisco, but a while back, some evil people from Canada came here and organized gays and lesbians parade. However, most participants are Thaicongs.
son of bitch!
This how other seeing as a culture lag. So if they are gay and so if they are lesbian. Respect other people right that is what everyone should do. All you have to do is not to do what they did and go on your way. No two trees is the same and so deos people.
Gentleman
Can you please leave our PM alone for a change.In fact this is his family affais only, he can tell the world all about it and no one cares.It is grown up affairs.Everyone always have different opinion about things,and we should respect to that as long as no abuse initiated.No one will ask a woman to live with agressive, abusive, untrustworthy husband and praised as a champion.It is absolutely not.
Simply we have to learn to try to differentiate public life and private life if I may ask.
In fact there is mount of corruption that he is blind to see and national benefits he has to focus as heroic cambodian PM.
Neang SA
That is on the bed problems,in the closet problem there are not concern to the State officers to mention that,but anyways Hun Sen just knows how to worship and kill the others for his own gain politic but it turn to be respectful leader he is BS filthy mouth and ignorance that what I can see,discrimination again his adopt 's daughter in the public, HOW A BOUT IT CITIZEN OR CAMBODIAN PEOPLE?
Wrong, 8:29, PM Hun Sen see plenty of corruptions, but our jail is too small to contain them. So what he did is instead is to keep the country moving forward and allow the corruption to fade away naturally as we go. Isn't that better?
Go home Viet Troller!
Go home Vietcong!
I am not in Ah Toothless Khmer-Yuon's land, fool.
That call sexes, genders discrimination against minorities.
What a stupid PM Cambodia
No, that is called discrimination against the sicko.
Are you one of khmer rouge that still practice racist and discriminate policy and rule of laws against against your own people ,will your get alive and look at your neighbors and the world monkey?
Noope, that will be Ah Toothless Khmer Yuons. There are full of evil, hatred, and racism.
This animal Viet troller @11:23 52 AMpretending to be Khmer speaking for Khmer must be stopped at all cost. WE know who this animal is! Go home Viet troller! Go home Vietcong!
LOL, pretending to be Ah Toothless Khmer-Yuon, hahaha, LOL, hahaha ...
12:05 PM telling to the world throughout this net by saying himself and his CPP gangs are the real AH KHMER-YUON of Hanoi.
They sent him to sabotage khmer everywhere. So, all khmer please be aware of Ah KHMER-YUON's Hanoi dog servants.
Well, hanoi dog servant is better than Ah toothless Khmer-Yuon Servant whose thinking backward and upside-down and has accomplished nothing, but destruction.
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