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| Thach Ngoc Thach, left and newly re-ordained monk Tim Sakhorn, middle, drops by VOA Khmer while on a visit in the US, file photo. (Photo: VOA Khmer) |
Friday, 20 April 2012
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC
“The government of Vietnam has always accused us of being a terrorist group, a group to break up the country.”
Members of the Khmer minority in Vietnam recently met with State Department officials and are now looking for ways to unite with other minorities like the Hmong and Montagnards to protect themselves from persecution, a leading advocate says.
Thach Ngoc Thach, president of the US-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, told VOA Khmer the main goals of these minorities are the same.
Khmer groups in Vietnam face persecution for their religion and separate culture, activists say, including land seizures and arbitrary arrest.
“Khmer Krom, Montagnards, and Hmong face similar social and economic issues,” a US State Department official said. “We continue to encourage Vietnam to implement policy that will encourage greater economic and social opportunities for all ethnic minorities.”
The State Deparment “continues to press Vietnam to improve its human rights practices, including in minority regions,” the official said.
“The government of Vietnam has always accused us of being a terrorist group, a group to break up the country,” Thach Ngoc Thach said.
Kok Ksor, president of the Montagnard Foundation, in South Carolina, told VOA Khmer his group too had met with State officials to outline continued rights concerns in Vietnam.
“In our church, they placed a statue of Ho Chi Minh, to worship him before we worship God,” he said. “We have to put the [communist] party above all. But that is not right according to our beliefs in Jesus Christ.”
Large congregational worship is also banned, he said. “If we do, they will arrest us and send us to prison to torture our people.”
Vietnamese officials have in the past denied accusations of human rights abuses and persecution.
Kok Ksor said that as a member of the United Nations, Vietnam should better respect people’s rights.
Joshua Cooper, a senior adviser to the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, said indigenous groups must now come together to push for more rights, especially because Asean is creating its own rights doctrine.
“So that is bringing people together in the Lower Mekong Initiative, to make sure human rights is at the forefront of it,” he said.
8 comments:
Vietnam is a thief nation that stole land from Cambodia and now this hypocrite and evil Vietnam nation/thieves/masters are the most dumbest and childish that we have ever heard of on this planet.
This thief nation stole someone land and then accuse that someone to be a bad person. How uneducated the Vietnamese folks and leaders are. Yes, the Vietnamese folks and leaders are so stupid thinkers and unreliable in the world.
How can the owner or the native of the land accused of being terrorists while the real Terrorist are Yuon?
that's clever, when all the minorities in that country stand together and form one loud noise, the world will see to it that vietnam or youn country and gov't will honor human rights and indigenous people's rights to everything they stood for. keep up the good work, justice will prevail. god bless khmer krom people.
KKK and KKF control monks and Temples to be their biz and political maneuver.
11:53, stop your freaking propaganda. You must work for the Hanoi regime to say those words.
7:15 pm, Well said. Short but straight to the core of the issue. In the short run Viet can lie to the world. In the long run the truth will come out and world will know the trick of the Viet. The one thing for certain Is that the world will not hear us if we remain silence. It is the duty of every khmer to make sure the world hear the truth. Thank you for speaking out!
Las Vegas
9:53 pm
What kind of evidence do you have against KKK and KKF of being using the temple and the monks for business and political maneuver? I'm looking forward hear your evidence.
Las vegas
To09:53pm
KKK and KKF are doing good things for Khmers, while YOU are destroying it.
Put up or shut up !!!
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