Former Monk Tim Sakhorn seen here during his questioning in jail in Vietnam.
Khmer Krom monk beaten up and injured by the Phnom Penh regime agent provocateurs during the April 20, 2007 peaceful demonstration .28 October 2007
Op-Ed By Ly Diep
Angkor Borey
Khmer Voice Overseas
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click on Khmer text to zoom inThe election period is fast approaching … therefore, important issues affecting the nation are also starting to float back up to the surface as well: the border issue, the illegal immigrants issue, the Kampuchea Krom land issue, the corruption issue, the human rights violations issue, the land-grabbing issue, the illegal logging issue, etc… etc...
We already talked about the border issue and the illegal immigrant issue. This time, we want to talk about the Kampuchea Krom land for a change because, for the 2008 election campaign, this issue could be an important point that could bring large number of votes to any political party interested in it, or to any party that wants to attract the public attention (on this issue), especially among the almost 2 million Khmer Krom compatriots who are currently living in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Even though a large number of these Khmer Krom compatriots do not have the ability to vote (because the state does not issue identity cards and family books to them), some of them can still vote. The Khmer Krom votes could be considered as swing votes, i.e. whichever party they will vote for, that party will have an advantage over the others.
The attempt to hold a demonstration or an insurrection (by Khmer Krom people) may not be as effective as the single vote our compatriots hold in their hand. This single vote could change the national political atmosphere and it could bring back hope and desire to the voters!!
If our Khmer Krom compatriots believe that you are living under the oppression from the regime, such as human rights and religious violations as shown by attacks on Monks (the beating of Khmer Krom monks until some of them sustained head injuries, and the defrocking of a monk in Cambodia and his deportation to Vietnam to be jailed there), you must know by now which party you should vote for!!
You should vote and support political parties which pay attention to your issues, rather than voting for the parties which do not care (about your issues) and which are scorning on your lives.
This is an opportune occasion for our Khmer Krom compatriots to explain to each others, especially, for you to put your utmost effort to register to vote in very large number, as much as you can achieve. Please do not be careless and let the time passes by. Even you are sick, you must go out and drop you vote in the ballot box at all cost!!
If the head of Khmer Krom Monks are beaten and injured, it is also your head that is injured, if they illegally arrest and defrock a Khmer Krom Monk, and they deport him to Vietnam to be jailed, it is you who are suffering as well!!
For all those compatriots who followed the wrong path, and who are currently colluding with those who beat the heads of Khmer Krom Monks, we ask you to reflect again about your action. Please come back to our family, we must unite to survive as an honorable people like all others!!
We already talked about the border issue and the illegal immigrant issue. This time, we want to talk about the Kampuchea Krom land for a change because, for the 2008 election campaign, this issue could be an important point that could bring large number of votes to any political party interested in it, or to any party that wants to attract the public attention (on this issue), especially among the almost 2 million Khmer Krom compatriots who are currently living in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Even though a large number of these Khmer Krom compatriots do not have the ability to vote (because the state does not issue identity cards and family books to them), some of them can still vote. The Khmer Krom votes could be considered as swing votes, i.e. whichever party they will vote for, that party will have an advantage over the others.
The attempt to hold a demonstration or an insurrection (by Khmer Krom people) may not be as effective as the single vote our compatriots hold in their hand. This single vote could change the national political atmosphere and it could bring back hope and desire to the voters!!
If our Khmer Krom compatriots believe that you are living under the oppression from the regime, such as human rights and religious violations as shown by attacks on Monks (the beating of Khmer Krom monks until some of them sustained head injuries, and the defrocking of a monk in Cambodia and his deportation to Vietnam to be jailed there), you must know by now which party you should vote for!!
You should vote and support political parties which pay attention to your issues, rather than voting for the parties which do not care (about your issues) and which are scorning on your lives.
This is an opportune occasion for our Khmer Krom compatriots to explain to each others, especially, for you to put your utmost effort to register to vote in very large number, as much as you can achieve. Please do not be careless and let the time passes by. Even you are sick, you must go out and drop you vote in the ballot box at all cost!!
If the head of Khmer Krom Monks are beaten and injured, it is also your head that is injured, if they illegally arrest and defrock a Khmer Krom Monk, and they deport him to Vietnam to be jailed, it is you who are suffering as well!!
For all those compatriots who followed the wrong path, and who are currently colluding with those who beat the heads of Khmer Krom Monks, we ask you to reflect again about your action. Please come back to our family, we must unite to survive as an honorable people like all others!!
33 comments:
Yeah, and don't call us, let us call you (Ah Tootless Khmer Yuons) instead okay?
shut up your mother fucker Ah kon mee chor marai kinmom youn cpp..
You can't even unite your family! your news staff in LB. fighting like a dog.
How dare you call for United with you? do that yourself, khmer people dont care about Khmer Krom what ever call, and dont start from srok khmer, start at your own indepedence land, get it?
shut the fuck up Ah younvit cong Srok khmer.11:02am.
low life....
11:02am
Yeah, shut the fuck up! let Khmer solve the problem among Khmer. Khmer in LB are not fight like a dog. You fucker eat dog. Just remember that!
Oh! Cpt. Ly Diep, Diep in vietnam pronounce "Yiep" you haven't learned vietnamese tatics yet didn't you? no, problem, we will teach you another lesson!huh?
Vietnamese fighting forces today are much, much stronger than vietnamese fought with Khmer Rouge and some khmer broken factions.
Vietnamese forces today are in actives about 4M personnels.
Reserved 2.8M personnels.
New training 3M. personnels.
Do you dare to have your land back?
I need to call the MRT (Medical Respond Team) to bring my patient (@ 10:21 AM) in for psychiatric reevaluation.
For the record, this is what happen when a patient does not take psychotropic medications as prescribed. My treatment plan for this time is to admit him as inpatient and possibly 5150 him. He is beyond hallucination, delusional, and psychotic.
I will make clinical recommendation to the psychiatrist to tighten his nuts with a wrench so that his testerone will not secret too much to the brain.
I understand my professional code of ethics, confidentiality, and psychotherapist-client privilege. But as a psychoterapist, I am also bound by the rule of "duty to warn" to the individuals and to the public. My patient (@ 10:21 AM) was diagnosis of having Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, and Delusional Disorder. He is also having medical problem - Single Testicle. He can't tell the different between male or female. He seems to enjoy them all with his little weeney.
Eh, anon. @ 11:48 AM! Thanks for the inside scoop.
However, you sound like you are already giving up even before the battle get started. What are you? A coward or one of those cronies with two hands praying for more donations?
Ah Lop! Ah Nis Ni Yeay You You Tov, Kan Teh Pleu Tov!
You are one of those ran across the border!
12:03, We don't like to pull people legs and raise up their false hope. If you don't want vote for us (CPP) for that, don't vote for us. And if you enjoy to get your legs pull by scammers, go to your local SRP office. I am sure they will be happy to tell you whatever you want to hear, but don't call us because we don't want to know about it. Get it?
12:03PM
Thank you for catching up the retarded one in the forum faster and better, in my district this dog eater took all my dogs and my neighbors to kill and eat them all,no more pet to protect our distrit ,now you get that dog eaters,please send them back where he or she belong if he or she doesn't leave fast enough ,I would like to handle this dog eaters like Lon Nol stylist my self common babies there free grass to feel in their puos and send them back by mekong river ,that what I can help them.
Vote NO to Hun Sen and yes to Others.
No wonder why most of the LonNolians went to hell afterward, in the most painful way, of course.
all Ah youn's slave Cpp,...low life go to hell.not Mr. lon nol supporters. 12:43pm....low life...
Lon Nolianism go to hell, all will die if you are all step in srok khmer, I got all your list members.
damn, piece of junk shit stay where you at, cambodia are not well Lon Nolianism at all our current government operating the country just fine ok? we got all your shit already, you are shit.
Historical context!
Khmer Krom insurrection demand arms and blood must be spilled for freedom! This is the issue of Khmer Krom nationalist and the historical Khmer Kampuchea Krom land which was given illegally to Vietname by the French in 1949!
Peace without blood is no peace!
Yugoslavia!
East Timor!
Northern Ireland!
Eritrea!
Taiwan!
1:37PM we are big shit compare to the group called Viet 's slave,and ignorant blind man leader, keep that list whipping your dirty asre it better ,and are your sure that you do not need the tourist to fat your greed pockets? You sound so ignorance to hate people that better than you,keep hate and divide your ignorant 's head we gonna use our Moola ,or green paper in your master country,china,thailand,singapore or where else that no dumb hatred exist what is t the deal fool??
Stop blaming the French, 1:46. You're the one fought the war against the Vietcong and lost everything you got, alright. There will be no refund for that. You got that?
To 1:54pm!
Shut the fuck up fool! How can you say that Khmer Krom people fight war when the Russia and China were supplying the Vietcong with all weapons to fight Uncle SAM? How can anybody fight a war without weapon! Ahahahahahh!
There is no time to play blame game here and the Vietcong will get what they deserve and the French has the power to undo their mistake!
1:37pm u got mother fucker my assshhhhole...OK?...comarade youn's slave.U 2 need 2b careful when u come 2 my country 4 visiting.u don't know where i'm?O..K
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Indochinese Confederation and Its Changes to Hold Its Original Attempt
The origin of the war and killing field in Cambodia is somehow just the by-product of Vietcong war, especially the perpetuated attempt of Indochina Confederation maneuvered by Vietnam.
Indochinese Confederation primarily found and recognized by French colony or it was called French Union. In that time, French recognized Vietnam leadership to guide this union (read Vietnam Join the World for more detailed).
After that, when the war fought against America which were tremendously backed by China and Russia; Indochinese Community Party is created and it is officially recognized by China. Ho Chi Minh is the founder and also the leader of ICP to lead Lao and Cambodia. But when Lao and Cambodia felt not comfortable with this union/federation, Vietnam allowed to have Lao communist party and Cambodian communist party. However, Vietnam suggested to have mix committees within each party.
The Federation has been investigated and interrogated by international watchers, so that Vietnam changed it to be "Association" that stand on ideology of "mutual relationship". The objectives are "to preserve the special relationship between the Vietnamese people and the people of Laos and Cambodia; and to strengthen military solidarity, mutual trust, long term corporation and mutual assistance in all fields..."
Vietnam has no problem with Lao because Lao has never had any international agreement to recognize its border sovereignty. But Vietnam has some obstacles with Cambodia. Those obstacles happened with Cambodia during the signature of Geneva Agreement led by Somdach Ta N.Sihanouk and especially the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991.
However, the continuity of Association and Vietnam affiliation or interference inside Cambodia is still smoothly continuing in with an unopen manner. This manner is lighter than if we compare with Lao.
Influences of Vietnam inside Cambodia is being altered during Songkum Reastr Niyum of Somdach Ta N.Sihanouk, Lon Nol and Pol Pot. But Vietnam still had influences and organizing Cambodian insurgents such as Khmer Issarak who fought against N.Sihanouk, Pol Pot who once joined Vietnam to fight against America; and finally Khmer Vietminh group that once led by Achar Mien and their younger generation is present CPP's leaders.
Clearly, the federation that changed to association is still alive and operational inside Cambodia. It is dead during the Khmer Rouge, but re-survive again during the Vietnamese invasion in January 7, 1979. And it is nearly dead during the UNTAC in Cambodia, but it is re-survive again by the supplemental border treaty in 2005.
Legally, it has full status as mutual relationship with Cambodia and secretly it is potentially and possibly spreading spies and staffs inside Cambodia.
We need to study more about this, but the influence of Indochinese Association is still tight inside CPP. Only CPP who knows this better than us.
KY
My article is not about correct or incorrect, it is about the survival of Cambodia. And it is not about anybody's propaganda; but it is about truth that CPP has to clarify in front of Cambodian populace that through the help of installing to power in January 7, 1997; how CPP can escape from such huge gratitude/repayment and what is CPP's future vision to free Cambodia from such Vietnam's trap?
CPP would have better vision for future of Cambodia; not to keep such rotten association with Vietnam, but they must keep modern legal diplomatic relation with every nation under the international standard of law, in order to survive the nation and build bright future of younger Cambodians.
http://cambodianbrightfuture.blogspot.com/
Interesting Links:
Link I
Link II
http://www.khmerkrom.net/?
Vietnam’s Tay Tién expansion into Laos and Cambodia
By kkneditor - October 28th, 2007
Tagged: features
It is common belief that the Vietnam War was a civil war when in fact it wasn’t; it was a war of conquest of Southeast Asia, for Ho Chi Minh was not a Vietnamese nationalist rather he was an international communist. Ho Chi Minh, cofounder of the French communist party, held a position of leadership in the international communist movement – the Comintern. Ho was sent by the Comintern to Siam (Thailand), Malaya and Singapore to preside over the creation of communist parties in these countries. Moscow also put him in charge of creating communist parties in Cambodia and Laos. All were encouraged to contribute to the international proletarian revolution, and all of them reported to the Comintern’s Far Eastern Bureau headed by Ho.1
As part of the “Communist Internationale funded by the Soviet Union, Ho Chi Minh founded the "Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. Aping his mentor — the butcher Joseph Stalin – Ho’s ultimate plan was to establish a greater Vietnam by gobbling up his neighbors, Laos, Vietnam, and later other S.E. Asian countries as Stalin and Russia did to it's neighbors in establishing the Soviet Union.
After the Geneva Agreements in 1954, Ho Chi Minh saw to it that several hundred young Cambodians were taken north, indoctrinated in communism and given military training. They were later armed and sent back, where they became the basis of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia’s Eastern Zone. Knowing of Ho’s close ties to Moscow and his intent to emulate his hero, the butcher Joseph Stalin, by creating a Soviet-style Union of South East Asia, China began training and arming the Pol Pot faction of the Khmer Rouge as a counterbalance to Soviet influence. China believed that revolution should come from within. North Vietnam enabled the Khmer Rouge to take over Phnom Penh in 1975 by providing logistics, ammunition, artillery and backup by Vietnamese troops making them complicit in the genocide of at least one and one half million Cambodians.
Viewing the U.S. as a paper tiger after its abandonment of South Vietnam, the Vietnamese communist party sent its mighty military force into Cambodia, not to liberate it from Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, but to colonize that country to fulfill Ho Chi Minh’s dream of hegemony over Indochina. They never dreamed that the U.S. would ally with communist China to drive them out. Unfortunately, the Hanoi’s Khmer Rouge remained intact and now controls Cambodia.
From the onset of the Indochina communist party, Ho Chi Minh began neo-colonizing Laos. He, as the majority of the Vietnamese, considered the Laotians, and even more so the Hmong, who had not been cultured by China as being Nha que qua [very backward], therefore they were not to be trusted. That attitude persists among the Vietnamese communists leaders today.
Since the Vietnamese had better access to French education, the French colonial government used Vietnamese as lower-echelon civil servants throughout the region, thus playing right into the hands of Ho Chi Minh. Ho began implementing his plan to dominate Indochina by infiltrating educated communist Vietnamese agents into Lao villages with money to set themselves up as scribes, and moneylenders. Acting as liaisons with the French colonial government through the lower-echelon Vietnamese civil servants, they gained considerable influence throughout the countryside. To cement their stature and gain total trust of the villagers, the Vietnamese communist agents took Lao wives and raised families. Now the sons and a few daughters of these Vietnamese make up a fair portion of the Lao communist party leadership.
In Laos, the U.S. waged a "secret war" against Hanoi to interdict communist North Vietnamese troops infiltrating into South Vietnam. The backbone of this secret war was the Hmong ethnic minorities who lost over 40,000 killed while fighting for the United States. It has been over 30 years since the Vietnam War ended; yet a second ”secret war” continues in Laos. However, this secrete war is being waged jointly by Vietnamese and Laotian communist forces, this time without American involvement. The war is against the Laotian people, especially the Hmong and other ethnic minorities, such as the Khmu, Mien and Chao Fa.
Hanoi maintains large numbers of troops in Laos to assist the communist Pathet Lao in hunting down and exterminating their joint enemy -- the Hmong. In 1988, the Lao Communist Party proclaimed it would hunt down the “American collaborators” and their families, “to the last root.” They will be “butchered like wild animals. Those they are hunting are mostly the children, grand children and great-grandchildren of the fighters who sided with the U.S.
Although Ho Chi Minh is dead, the repressive and genocidal regime in Hanoi continues to implement Ho’s 1930 Indochinese Communist Party’s strategy by neo-colonizing Laos and Cambodia; a strategy reaffirmed in successive Vietnamese communist party congresses.2 Today, the Vietnamese communists have extended their hegemony over Laos and Cambodia and have de facto annexed Laos, which in many ways is now a province of North Vietnam. The Lao party leaders are anointed by Hanoi and receive their marching orders in a Sub Rosa fashion through a Vietnamese shadow government.
In Cambodia, Hanoi maintains a contingent of 3,000 troops, a mixture of special-forces and intelligence agents, with tanks and helicopters, in a huge compound 2½ kilometers outside Phnom Penh right next to Hun Sen's Tuol Krassaing fortress near Takhmau. They are there to ensure that Hanoi's puppet, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, doesn't stray far from Hanoi's policy of neo-colonization of Cambodia. The Vietnamese compound bristles with electronic surveillance equipment that would make any group’s electronic ease-dropping outstation proud. When Vietnamese troops were forced to withdraw from Vietnam, as a compromise, Vietnam installed its Hanoi trained Khmer Rouge marionette Hun Sen as Prime Minister.
Amoeba-like, communist Vietnam began neo-colonizing Laos and Cambodia by the traditional Vietnamese expansionism termed "Don Dien", first by occupying territory with troops, then having their families come in to settle the new territory, then putting the troops into civilian clothes to become "ready reservists" and replacing them with new troops for further expansion. After their defeat in Cambodia, in order to quell a budding revolt within the Vietnamese army, Hanoi compelled their willing partner, Hun Sen, to grant land in Eastern Cambodia and citizenship to over 500,000 Vietnamese army personnel. Thus, the “Vietnamization” of Cambodia began, forcing the puppet regime in Phnom Penh to issue in 1982 Circular No. 240 SR/MC/HH and successive decree-laws appealing to all Cambodians to consider the expansion of solidarity with the fraternal Vietnamese peoples their duty by helping Vietnamese nationals to settle in Cambodia. By 1989, the number of Vietnamese “settlers” in Cambodia had reached 1,250,000. Simultaneously, Vietnam developed new maps depicting their new borders expanding up to 40 kilometers inside Laos and Cambodia. Hun Sen formally conceded these borders to Hanoi in violation of international law through a series of treaties, the latest in October 10, 2005. Reportedly, Vietnamese people form the majority in Cambodia eastern provinces, such as Svay Rieng and Prey Veng.3
Today, the communist party of Vietnam is faced with a burgeoning population, a lack natural resources to fuel its economy and enough fertile land on which to grow food to adequately feed its people. In a desperate move to keep its grasp on power and in an attempt to pacify a restless young population, Hanoi is exporting “guest workers” and by further excursion into neighboring countries in order to expand its control over those territories. In 2005, the communist regime exported 500,000 Vietnamese workers overseas to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, and now they are being exported to Cambodia and Laos.
Vietnamese communists continue their policy of neocolonization, nibbling away at Cambodia by annexing sizable portions of its borders, coastlines and islands (e.g., Koh Tral and Krachak Ses) through illegitimate treaties with their puppet regime in Phnom Penh in violation of the1991 Paris Peace Agreement on Cambodia. Their latest scheme is involves flooding three northeastern provinces of Cambodia and the three southeastern provinces of Laos with Vietnamese settlers and exploiting the natural resources there.
Chapters of the Cambodian-Vietnam friendship organizations (United Front for National Construction and defense of Cambodia –UFCDK), a “front” for the Vietnam Fatherland Front, have now been established in all of Cambodia’s cities and provinces4 The UFCDK is comparable to Hanoi’s creation of the National Liberation Front (NLF) during the Vietnam War. The NLF was touted as being the political arm of South Vietnam’s Viet Cong, when in fact it was no more than a façade created for propaganda purposes and owned and operated by Hanoi. “The Vietnam fatherland front and its member organizations constitute the political base of people's power. The front promotes the tradition of national solidarity, strengthens the people's unity of mind in political and spiritual matters….”5
In November 2004, Vietnam cajoled the puppet communist regimes of Laos and Cambodia into signing the “,b>Development Triangle agreement.”6 This agreement allows the Vietnamese to now formalize their expansion through what is historically termed Tay Tién (Westward movement) into the three North Eastern provinces of Stung Trèng, Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri in Cambodia, and into the three South Eastern provinces of Attapeu, Sékong and Saravan in Laos.
The “Development Triangle” is a vast area of high plateaus and virgin forests covering approximately 120,400 square kilometers. With the exception of the provinces in Vietnam where the communist regime have already confiscated the ancestral lands of the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, deforested the area, and relocated several million people there; those provinces in Laos and Cambodia are sparsely populated, mainly with ethnic minorities, but were occupied by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.
This “so called development” of these provinces starts with building a “security” road network with the intent to deprive Montagnards fleeing repression in the Central Highlands of Vietnam of sanctuary among their distant relatives in Laos and Cambodia and in the UNHCR camps in Phnom Penh. Although claiming that the roads would increase tourism and commerce in these areas, the real reason is to create easy access for the growing Vietnamese population to migrate to and neo-colonize these provinces in Laos and Cambodia. Already, Vietnamese settlers are flooding Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces in Cambodia occupying lands belonging to the local populations.
The Triangle occupies “an eminently strategic position on the political, economical, social, environmental and ecological levels” for the control of Laos, Cambodia by Hanoi. Japan and China are leading supporters of Vietnam’s expansionism.
Already in Laos, the Vietnamese army’s Military Corps No. 15 has completed an irrigation complex in Sekong for plantation crops , established a coffee plantation in Salavan, and developed plans for setting up coffee, rubber and cashew plantations, and building a 10,000 tonne-per-year rubber processing plant in Attopeu. Atopeu’s new rubber plantation covers and area of over 7,000 hectares.7 The ‘Triangle’ area is only one of many places that the Vietnamese expansionists have moved into in order to the natural resources of Laos; e.g., there are six hydroelectric dams that were constructed and are owned and operated by the Vietnamese to power Vietnam’s booming economy.
In Cambodia, China is competing with Vietnam and constructing roads in Stung Treng, exploiting forests in Mondulkiri, and developing mining exploration units in Ratanakkiri. Vietnam views the Triangle area for its potential for growing cash crops and establishing vast plantations fast-growing trees, coffee, tea and rubber to earn export dollars. Both the Vietnamese and Laotian regimes have voiced policies of using ethnic minorities in these regions for cheap labor for plantations established on their ancestral lands.
Vietnam’s parastatal company EVN (Electricity of Viet Nam) is planning to build five hydroelectric dams on the Sesan River in Stung Treng Province. The dams will have a total production capacity of 818 megawatts. The estimated production capacities and costs of the five dams are: 1) 420 MW, costing $611 million; 2) 180 MW, costing $387 million; 3) 90 MW at $164 million; and 4&5) 64 MW each, costing $114 million each.
Construction on these dams is expected to begin in 2012 upon the completion of the Japanese-funded highway connecting the port of Da Nang in Vietnam with the northeastern provinces of Cambodia, and the southeastern provinces of Laos.8
Corruption and a lack of progress in combating it remain a major blight on Asia's restructuring efforts following the 1997 crisis. Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam also lost ground in 2007, according to Transparency International. The strong correlation between corruption and poverty means that the benefits of growth are concentrated among the politically connected and bypass many who most need it.9
Given the level of corruption among officials in Vietnam and Cambodia, it is expected that several Cambodian and Vietnamese officials will become very, very wealthy from these projects. The dams would be constructed, owned and operated by Vietnamese, and the electricity generated from these hydroelectric plants will be forwarded and sold to Vietnamese power plants. Purportedly, electricity would be resold to Cambodia at a “cheap price.” One has to be very naive to believe that Vietnam will sell any electricity to Cambodia at a cheaper price than in Vietnam, given that county’s level of corruption, rate of economic growth and the need for cheap energy to fuel its economy; its needs are increasing by 10-15% annually.
Another reason for its expansion in Laos and Cambodia is Vietnam’s conflict between food production, industrialization and building dams to power its economic growth. In the last five years, Vietnam has lost 300,000 hectares of irrigated rice due to industrial development, including a vast amount lost through the construction of dams. This is creating a looming shortage of rice needed to feed it burgeoning population.
The construction of dams results in the displacement of large numbers of indigenous populations that farm the fertile soils in the river basins. These people are then either relocated to marginally productive lands, or receive no land at all; thus they fall victim to abject poverty. Vietnam has a history of doing this as well as corrupt officials absconding with relocation funds, leaving the victims with little or nothing; e.g., the Muong Lay Dam in North Vietnam.10 Those who choose to remain behind to farm the basins below the dams find that two or three times a year,uncontrolled spillage from the dams will flood their fields, destroy their crops and drown their livestock.
The Se San River originates in the Central Highlands of Vietnam and flows into Cambodia where it meets the Mekong River. In 1993, the Vietnamese government started construction on the first dam on the river -- Yali Falls Dam -- which was completed in 2000.
While the dam was under construction from 1996-2000, erratic releases of water resulted in flash flooding downstream, causing deaths to people and livestock and destruction of rice fields and vegetable gardens. Since 2000, operation of the dam has resulted in rapid and daily fluctuations in the river’s flow downstream in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces. It is estimated that at least 36 people have drowned due to erratic releases of water from the dam, and at least 55,000 people have been adversely affected -- suffering millions of dollars in damages due to lost rice production, drowned livestock, lost fishing income, and damages to rice reserves, boats, fishing gear and houses. Over 3,500 people have relocated to other areas without compensation.11
In addition, more than 6,700 people were resettled to make way for Yali Falls Dam (in Vietnam, ed.). According to a 2001 study by Vietnam’s Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, people displaced by the dam have suffered from severe shortages of food and other hardships since the dam flooded their homes and land in 1999.
Affected communities (in Vietnam, ed.) have not received compensation for their losses, and there are no plans to provide them with compensation for past or future impacts. In Cambodia, communities have formed the Se San Protection Network to press for compensation and changes to the dam’s operating regime to minimize downstream damages. Despite the unresolved issues, the government of Vietnam has embarked on an ambitious plan to build up to five more dams on the Sesan River. The International Rivers Network is working to support the Se San Protection Network in their request for reparations and a halt to future dam construction on the Se San River.12
Although he’s dead, Hanoi is well on its way in the implementation of Ho Chi Minh’s 1930 aspirations of creating a Soviet-style Indochina.
Cambodia is presently ruled by Hanoi’s marionette Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese communist-backed corrupt cabal. In terms of “real politick”, Hun Sen’s Premiership -- albeit obtained illegally, first by a coup d'eatat *d’etat in 1997 and then appointed by bought-and-paid-for National Assemblies in 1998 and 2003 -- continues to receive de facto international recognition as the “legitimate” representative government of Cambodia. Therefore, the Paris Peace Agreement of October 23rd, 1991, or any other accord/agreement, is at present moot. Thus, nothing can be done at this time about violations of Cambodia’s territorial integrity until a democratic or another form of government representing the true aspirations of the Cambodian people is elected. At that time, the new Cambodian government can take these matters to the international court for abrogation of these unfair and illegal treaties and agreements made by the illegitimate, corrupt and immoral regime of Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
________
Paper presented by Michael Benge at the National Conference 2007 to commemorate and assess “The Paris Peace Agreement” of October 23rd, 1991 (with attached “Final Act of the Paris Conference on Cambodia”). Mr. Benge is a retired Foreign Service Officer who spent over 16 years in South East Asia, 11 years in Viet Nam, and five years as a Prisoner of the North Vietnamese -- ‘68-73 – in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. Mr. Benge is a student of South East Asian politics, is very active in advocating for human rights and religious freedom for the people there, and has written extensively on these subjects. He resides in Falls Church, VA, and can be contacted through email at: Bengemike@aol.com
,b>Literature cited
1Hoang Van Hoan as cited by Moyar, Mark. “Triumph Forsaken.” Cambridge University Press. 2006.
2RSAMH, Fund 89, list 54, document 10. About VWP policy in determination of Indochinese problems and our goals implying from the decisions of the ??IV Congress of the C.P.S.U. (political letter). May 21, 1971, p. 14. as cited in “The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists.” http://www.wccpd.org/news/news69.html
3Cambodia’s Border Committee. “Cambodia is becoming more and more Vietnamized.”
October 23, 2007. Paris.
4Vietnam News Agency (organ of the communist party). 2004.
5http://park.org/Thailand/MoreAboutAsia/vninfo/vff.html
6Dy Kareth. “The expansionist ‘Development Triangle.’” Published by CFC-CBC, Paris, August 22, 2005.
7NHAN DAN (newspaper organ of the Vietnamese communist party). June 30, 2007.
8Agence Kampuchea Presse. 07/09/06.
9William Pesek. “Corruption in Asia keeps poor from rising.” International Herald Tribune. 30/10/07
10http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Vietnam_Dam_Project_Dooms_Remote_Mountain_Town_999.html
11http://www.ngoforum.org.kh/Environment/Docs/mekong/Abandoned%20Village%20Report%20August%202007.pdf
12http://www.irn.org/programs/vietnam/index.php?id=yalifalls.html
http://www.usip.org/library/pa/cambodia/final_act_10231991.html
Final Act of the Paris Conference on Cambodia
1. Concerned by the tragic conflict and continuing bloodshed in Cambodia, the Paris Conference on Cambodia was convened, at the invitation of the Government of the French Republic, in order to achieve an internationally guaranteed comprehensive settlement which would restore peace to that country. The Conference was held in two sessions, the first from 30 July to 30 August 1989, and the second from 21 to 23 October 1991.
2. The co-Presidents of the Conference were H. E. Mr. Roland Dumas, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, and H. E. Mr. Ali Alatas, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.
3. The following States participated in the Conference: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, the People's Republic of China, the French Republic, the Republic of India, the Republic of Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom.of *Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
In addition, the Non-Aligned Movement was represented at the Conference by its current Chairman at each session, namely Zimbabwe at the first session and Yugoslavia at the second session.
4. At the first session of the Conference, Cambodia was represented by the four Cambodian Parties. The Supreme National Council of Cambodia, under the leadership of its President, H.R.H. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, represented Cambodia at the second session of the Conference.
5. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, H.E. Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, and his Special Representative, Mr. Rafeeuddin Ahmed, also participated in the Conference.
6. The Conference organized itself into three working committees of the whole, which met throughout the first session of the Conference. The First Committee dealt with military matters, the Second Committee dealt with the question of international guarantees, and the Third Committee with the repatriation of refugees and displaced persons and the eventual reconstruction of Cambodia.
The officers of each committee were as follows:
First Committee
Co-Chairmen:
Mr. C.R. Gharekhan (India)
Mr. Allan Sullivan (Canada)
Rapporteur: Ms. Victoria Sisante-Bataclan (Philippines)
Second Committee
Co-Chairmen:
Mr. Soulivong Phrasithideth (Laos)
Dato' Zainal Abidin Ibrahim (Malaysia)
Rapporteur: Mr. Herve Dejean de la Batie (France)
Third Committee
Co-Chairmen:
Mr. Yukio Imagawa (Japan)
Mr. Robert Merrillees (Australia)
Rapporteur: Colonel Ronachuck Swasdikiat (Thailand)
The Conference also established an Ad Hoc Committee, composed of the representatives of the four Cambodian Parties and chaired by the representatives of the two co-Presidents of the Conference, whose mandate involved matters related to national reconciliation among the Cambodian Parties. The Ad Hoc Committee held several meetings during the first session of the Conference.
The Coordination Committee of the Conference, chaired by the representatives of the two co-Presidents, was established and given responsibility for general coordination of the work of the other four committees. The Coordination Committee met at both the first and second sessions of the Conference. An informal meeting of the Coordination Committee was also held in New York on 21 September 1991.
7. At the conclusion of the first session, the Conference had achieved progress in elaborating a wide variety of elements necessary for the achievement of a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in Cambodia. The Conference noted, however, that it was not yet possible to achieve a comprehensive settlement. It was therefore decided to suspend the Conference on 30 August 1989. However, in doing so, the Conference urged all parties concerned to intensify their efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement, and asked the co-Presidents to lend their good offices to facilitate these efforts.
8. Following the suspension of the first session of the Conference, the co-Presidents and the Secretary-General of the United Nations undertook extensive consultations, in particular with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, with the Supreme National Council of Cambodia, and with other participants in the Paris Conference. The object of these consultations was to forge agreement on all aspects of a settlement, to ensure that all initiatives to this end were compatible and to enhance the prospects of ending the bloodshed in Cambodia at the earliest possible date. The efforts of the co-Presidents and the Secretary-General paved the way for the reconvening of the Paris Conference on Cambodia.
9. At the inaugural portion of the final meeting of the Paris Conference, on 23 October 1991, the Conference was addressed by H.E. Mr. Francois Mitterrand, President of the French Republic, H.R.H. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, President of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia, and H.E. Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
10. At the second session, the Conference adopted the following instruments:
1. Agreement on a comprehensive political settlement of the Cambodia conflict, with annexes on the mandate for UNTAC, military matters, elections, repatriation of Cambodian refugees and displaced persons, and the principles for a new Cambodian constitution;
2. Agreement concerning the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability, neutrality and national unity of Cambodia; and
3. Declaration on the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Cambodia
These instruments represent an elaboration of the "Framework for a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict" adopted by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council on 28 August 1990, and of elements of the work accomplished at the first session of the Conference. They entail a continuing process of national reconciliation and an enhanced role for the United Nations, thus enabling the Cambodian people to determine their own political future through free and fair elections organized and conducted by the United Nations in a neutral political environment with full respect for the national sovereignty of Cambodia.
11. These instruments, which together form the comprehensive settlement the achievement of which was the objective of the Paris Conference, are being presented for signature to the States participating in the Paris Conference. On behalf of Cambodia, the instruments will be signed by the twelve members of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia, which is the unique legitimate body and source of authority enshrining the sovereignty, independence and unity of Cambodia.
12. The States participating in the Conference call upon the co-Presidents of the Conference to transmit an authentic copy of the comprehensive political settlement instruments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The States participating in the Conference request the Secretary General to take the appropriate steps in order to enable consideration of the comprehensive settlement by the United Nations Security Council at the earliest opportunity. They pledge their full cooperation in the fulfilment *fulfillment of this comprehensive settlement and their assistance in its implementation.
Above all, in view of the recent tragic history of Cambodia, the States participating in the Conference commit themselves to promote and encourage respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia, as embodied in the relevant international instruments to which they are party.
13. The States participating in the Conference request the International Committee of the Red Cross to facilitate, in accordance with its principles, the release of prisoners of war and civilian internees. They express their readiness to assist the ICRC in this task.
14. The States participating in the Conference invite other States to accede to the Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict and to the Agreement concerning the Sovereignty, Independen.e, *Independence, Territorial Integrity and Inviolability, Neutrality and National Unity of Cambodia.
15. Further recognizing the need for a concerted international effort to assist Cambodia in the tasks of rehabilitation and reconstruction, the States participating in the Conference urge the international community to provide generous economic and financial support for the measures set forth in the Declaration on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia.
In witness whereof the representatives have signed this Final Act.
Done at Paris this twenty-third day of October one thousand nine hundred and ninety-one, in two copies in the Chinese, English, French, Khmer and Russian languages, each text being equally authentic. The originals of this Final Act shall be deposited with the Governments of the French Republic and of the Republic of Indonesia.
Reprinted with permission from Mike Benge
Yehh 2:19, the Vietcong got what they deserved fairly: that is all the lands they won against Ah Tootless Khmer-Yuons. Everyone got weapons, and Ah Toothless Khmer Yuons had the advantage of Uncle Sam hitech gears, but they still lost the war. Therefore, there is no one to blame but themselves. Isn't that right?
1:25AM you sound so funny and ignorance let me clfuck-enarify for you the North and the South Viet nam they all one Vietnam to Cheat Uncle Sam and to win that War called crappy war and now your stupid mother fucker go to kiss ass uncle Sam to get relation ship then your fuck-en yiekcong can get some food to eat,because of fucking yiekcong had no face to cheat Russia,China now your Hooker Viet asking For gentle man Sam ,sound so funny,win the war and now acting like doggy face for USA to go back.Why you hate Khmer krom so much? Oh yeah you are guilty of stealing some thing belong to khmer krom now the owner want it back ,you are turning thing upside down,what is a manipulator ,liar ,cheater,stealer,oppressor and Vietnamization go to hell no return skinny liar.
Time out, 4:40. The Vietnam war was the war to take the south region so that country can be reunified instead of split. It is not the China war, USSR war, or even US war per se. These super power are only there to lend a hand. Without them, they will be fighting with bows and arrows, spears and swords, ...Thus, you can't say that the Vietcong cheated the US, or Ah Khmer-Yuon cheated China... . Everyone was armed nearly equally, but with Ah khmer-Yuon got the niche from the US hitech, and they still lost the war and their land. I just don't see how anyone can blame China or USSR who hardly step foot on Vietnam soil.
We will be stronger if we can unite Khmers in Cambodia and Khmers in Khmer-Krom.
We will unite all khmers like Jayavarman VII :-))
Nope, to unite with Ah Toothless Khmer-Yuon is to commit suicide.
Ah CPP Suporters, Ah Kon Mi chor!!!
Ah Choy Mray!!!
Ah Roleay!!!!
Puork Ah Cha-nganh Kdet yuon!!!
......
Who care? At least we are alive an healthy, which is not the same as Ah Toothless Khmer-Yuon who's crying shamefully non-stop for their mistake after mistake for the last 600 years or so.
yeah because ah pure youn has never return their land back,when will ah youn return it?
I call on all Khmers and Khmer-Kroms to rally behind Sam Rainsy's camp to resist the Vietcongs' domination in Cambodia. Only Sam Rainsy who will prevail and regain Khmer's independence from the Vietcongs. Cambodia belongs to Khmer, and certainly not to the Vietcongs and their agents: CPPs.
A Khmer Angkorian
CPP will " ROLEAY " soon!
Ok, Sam Rain Sy if you can get only 1mm. from Yuon Hanoi right now, we will rally to support you 100%.
Otherwise, you, and your party full
of Sh*..........t.
Don't use Khmer Krom as your political tool.
Sorry, 9:59, but you are talking about Sam Rainsy who is serious hunger and thirst for power. If we go as far as deceiving innocent children, do you really think he'll made an exception for Ah Khmer-Yuon?
This is to all the Khmer people, regardless of your political view:
Khmer Krom has been part of Vietnam for decades now, just like how Khmer Surin has been part of Thailand. There is no way to get it back. The only way out of Thai or Vietnamese rule is the people that live there have to fight it but it doesn't look like majority of the population of Khmer Krom or Khmer Surin wants to fight.
I don't know why Khmer Krom come to Cambodia to ask for help with Khmer Krom issues. Cambodia is just rebuilding itself. We don't have power or anything to have a say in Khmer Krom struggle.
The only reason why I see Khmer Krom coming to Cambodia for help is for political reasons. I think Sam Rainsy is using Khmer Krom issue to his political advantages. But I am just assuming, so it is not fact but just a mere observation.
Let's assume, if Khmer Krom wants independence from Vietnam and it manages to gain it, what will Khmer Krom do?
Be its own country or part of Cambodia?
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