Monday, November 09, 2009

Sam Rainsy's Message Of Gratitude To All The Generous People All Over The World Who Have Donated To The Recent SRP Kathen

November 8, 2009
Source: SRP

MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE TO ALL THE GENEROUS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD WHO HAVE DONATED TO THE RECENT SRP KATHEN

The SRP Kathen organized on October 24-25, 2009, was a big success. We have collected some US$ 12,000 to help a dilapidated pagoda and countless indigent people in a remote area. A more detailed report of the Kathen is presented below under the form of three short video clips.

On behalf of all the Kathen organizers and ultimate beneficiaries, monks and laymen, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to all the generous persons, especially SRP members and supporters all over the world, who have sent big and small contributions and helped make the last SRP Kathen a significant religious, social and political event serving Cambodia’s interest.

May all the donors fully receive the traditional Buddhist blessings.

Sam Rainsy
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Kathen ceremony


Kathen is a Buddhist traditional procession and ceremony organized each year, towards the end of the rainy season, in order for the faithful to collect donations to make offerings to the monks at a chosen pagoda among thousands of them throughout the whole country. The 2009 SRP Kathen took place at Sam Rainsy’s house in Phnom Penh on October 24 and at Ang Romdenh pagoda (Koh Kban Kandal village, Samraong commune, Chantrea district) in Svay Rieng province on the following day. The Ang Romdenh pagoda was chosen because it is a most dilapidated pagoda in a most remote area on the border with Vietnam.

Villagers' grievances


During the Kathen religious ceremony at the above-mentioned pagoda on October 25, villagers living along the border with Vietnam complained to Sam Rainsy about the Vietnamese authorities grabbing their rice fields.

Uprooting of controversially planted wooden poles


Immediately after the Kathen ceremony at the pagoda, villagers who are victims of land confiscation led Sam Rainsy and other SRP National Assembly Members to visit nearby rice fields that had been recently grabbed from them. They showed the Kathen participants from Phnom Penh a number of wooden poles that had been recently, forcibly and controversially planted on their rice fields by the Vietnamese authorities assisted by their complacent Cambodian counterparts. Those wooden poles had been planted there to allegedly help delineate, through a very complex process that nobody understands, a “white zone” or no man's land which, in turn, would determine a new border line that would run deep inside Cambodia’s territory. With the moral support of their elected parliamentarians, the villagers uprooted and threw away six wooden poles to symbolically show their refusal to give up ancestral rice fields they had been cultivating since 1979 and to be deprived of their livelihoods.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

HO Chi Minh hasn't KATHEN

KHMER SONG


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoCzx1rsDnY&feature=related

Anonymous said...

Don't let communist vietcong destroy our Buddha again!

World's Tallest Statue (BBC

http://www.youtube.com/user/maitreyaproject#p/u/2/Uh07CBCL7jA

Anonymous said...

ECCC please hurry up,people have suffered since 1970,especialy ChanTrea village,when I was young -10 year old,I read a magazine(book) being entitled "Dam-Nork Chheam Phum Chantrea"Always Vietcong who killed khmers.

Anonymous said...

There need an uprising in demand for justice and international attention through unity, and protesting.


Through unity and utilazation of the 1991 paris peace accord. Khmer are free and democratic only through demand and encouraging each other.

Anonymous said...

srp if you want to work for siem go ahead no body caring you and we should give kim sokha,too.but you follow your dad ok!

Anonymous said...

If you were doing these to the Viet Namese's rice fields, they will cut off your head right there and still show to the world they are the rightful owner.
For you Khmers just another sad stories.First you must get the name of the people, who are did these to your rice fields and report to who ever can help you right away.You are the rightful owners.there are thousand of ways to get to the thieves.

Anonymous said...

Go Rambo...LOL.