Cambodians in San Jose reject the stay of Hochimonk Long Kim Leang at Wat San Jose Pagoda

Click on the letters in Khmer to zoom in

Sam Rainsy risks being "defrocked" of his parliamentary immunity ... just like Venerable Tim Sakhorn

Sam Rainsy's future fate?

Thursday, November 05, 2009
Opinion posted online by Dy Kareth
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

Because “Sam Rainsy’s acts of destruction of public properties … violate the laws of Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as the conventions, treaties and agreements concluded by the 2 countries…”, the Svay Rieng tribunal has no jurisdiction over this case as international treaties are “above” the constitutions of the countries concluding them. One should also take a look to see if these Yuon/Hun Sen treaties have provisions regarding resolutions of conflicts caused by the contracting parties or caused by a third party.

Sam Rainsy is right to declare on Tuesday to RFA that he will bring this affair to the “adjudication” by the 1991 Paris Peace Conference on Cambodia.

Meanwhile, since he “(undermined) the relationships between Vietnam and Cambodia” – just like in the case of Venerable Tim Sakhorn – soon, Sam Rainsy risks being “defrocked” of his parliamentary immunity, and he could be kidnapped by Hun Sen’s secret police to be sent to stand trial in the Yuon Hanoi’s tribunal...
----------
Puisque "Ces actes de destruction de biens communs par Sam Rainsy... violent les lois du Cambodge et du Vietnam, ainsi que les conventions, traités et accords conclus par les 2 pays...", le tribunal de Svay Rieng n'est pas compétent pour juger l'affaire, les traités internationaux étant "au-dessus" des lois constitutionnelles des pays signataires. Il faudrait voir aussi si ces traités yuon/Hun Sen ont prévu ou non des procédures de règlement en cas de conflit généré par les parties contractantes ou par une tierce partie.

Sam Rainsy a eu raison de déclarer mardi à la RFA qu'il porterait l'affaire au "jugement" de la Conférence de Paix de Paris de 1991 sur le Cambodge.

En attendant, puisqu'il a "(sapé) les relations entre le Vietnam et le Cambodge", comme dans le cas du Vénérable Tim Sakhorn, il risque d'être bientôt "défroqué" de son immunité parlementaire pour être kidnappé par la police secrète de Hun Sen et envoyé au tribunal Yuon de Hanoi...

Tim Sakhorn: From a Khmer Krom rights activist to a historical hero

Click on the article in Khmer to zoom in

The Prey Nokor News
On the web at http://preynokornews.blogspot.com
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn before he was defrocked

Tim Sakhorn is a native of Kampuchea Krom (South Vietnam) from Motr Choukr province, located next to Takeo province in Cambodia.

During his childhood, he lived under constant clashes between the Khmer Rouge soldiers and the Vietnamese (Yuon) army when Cambodia was then known as Democratic Kampuchea (DK) and Kampuchea Krom was and is under the colonialist boot of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Tim Sakhorn’s life was filled with threats, evacuations, housing and land confiscations from both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese armies along the border. He was also a victim of the Khmer Rouge who evacuated him from Motr Chrouk and brought over to Phnom Den village, Takeo province. Later on, while living in Phnom Den, he took the vow and became a Buddhist monk. He always helped and provided refuge to Khmer Krom people who fled their arrest in Kampuchea Krom to come to live in Cambodia. Later on, then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn was defrocked by a group of monk and government officials, and he was sent to be jailed in Kampuchea Krom after he was charged with undermining the friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Tim Sakhorn talking with a RFA reporter after he was released from the Yuon jail

Following his one year jail term, and one year of house arrest, the Yuon authority allowed him to come and visit his family who lives in Phnom Den village, Takeo province, Cambodia. In his village in Cambodia, the Cambodian authority refused to provide him with a Cambodian identity card, and he de-facto lost all his rights as a Cambodian citizen. He subsequently fled to Thailand where he requested asylum from the UNHCR. Following a two-month residence in Thailand, a third country accepted to provide him asylum and he is now living there.

Biography

Mr. Tim Sakhorn (aka TimKhorn, Chau Khorn and Nom Sokhoeun) was born in 1968 in Andong Tor village (An Binh in Vietnamese), Po commune (Ba Truc in Vietnamese), Svay Tong district, Motr Chrouk province.

Evacuation from Motr Chrouk to Takeo province

In 1978, Khmer Rouge soldiers of the DK regime attacked Svay Tong district, Motr Choruk province with the aim of liberating Kampuchea Krom lands.

The war that broke up between the KR soldiers and the communist Vietnamese army along the border in Motr Chrouk and Takeo provinces led to many deaths among Khmer Krom people. During that war, a number of Khmer Krom families which the KR considered as being Cambodians were evacuated to live in Kirivong district, Takeo province. Tim Sakhorn’s family was among those Khmer Krom victim families who were evacuated by the KR.

Following the end of the war, the Vietnamese government displayed the heads of Khmer Krom people who were killed in Svay Tong district(1) in a museum, and they told the Vietnamese people and the international community that these were in fact heads of Vietnamese killed by the KR soldiers.

Religious vow in Motr Chrouk province

In 1990, he returned back to Kampuchea Krom and he took the Buddhist religion vow to become a monk in Wat Phnom Pi Pagoda, Svay Tong district, Motr Choruk province. By the end of 1990, he took residence at Wat Phnom Den North Pagoda, Kiriving district, Takeo province, Cambodia.

Abbot of the Wat Phnom Den North Pagoda

In 1993, after a 3-year of residence in Wat Phnom Den North Pagoda, then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn was nominated by the pagoda members and Tep Vong, the Cambodian Buddhis patriarch, as the abbot of that pagoda. He occupied this position until the day he was forced to defrock.

Force-defrocked for undermining the friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam

On 30 June 2007, the Cambodian Buddhist clergy led by Tep Vong, Long Kim Leang, Noy Chreuk, Am Lim Heng and Sao Chanthol, in cooperation with Chies Om, the abbot of Wat Seihak Ratanaram and Buddhist monk chief for the province of Takeo province, forced then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn to defrock and they sent him over to Vietnam to be jailed in Motr Chrouk province after accusing him of undermining the friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Hochimonks (from left to right): Tep Vong, Long Kim Leang and Sao Chanthol

Prior to his defrocking, Buddhist patriarch Non Nget of Cambodia issued a letter both in Vietnamese and in Khmer dated 16 June 2007, asking Tep Vong to arrest then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn and force-defrock him. In this letter, Non Nget accused then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn of “not abiding Buddhist rules, of undermining the national-international solidarity – in particular that between Cambodia and Vietnam – of using the pagoda to serve as a headquarter for propaganda movement, and these actions affected the rule and the decency of Buddhism(2).” After reviewing this letter, Tep Vong of Cambodia agreed to these statements and signed it on 17 June 2007.

After the letter was stamped by the two Cambodian patriarchs above, the Vietnamese government took this letter to announce in public to the Khmer Krom people living in Motr Chrouk province, letting them know in advance about the upcoming event and also to threaten and discourage Khmer Krom people, as well as then-Venerable Tim Sakhorn about their plan to defrock the latter.

3-month-8-day disappearance; Reappearance in the Vietnamese court dock

On 08 November 2007, the Vietnamese people’s court sentenced Tim Sakhorn to 12-month of jail term. He was charged with undermining the Yuon-Khmer friendship, following his force-defrocking in Wat Seihak Ratanaram Pagoda, located in Takeo province, by Cambodian authorities and monk officials. He was subsequently sent to be jailed in the Yuon prison, and he disappeared for 3-month-8-day. During his absence, nobody knew if he was dead or alive.

Former monk Tim Sakhorn during his court hearing in Motr Chrouk province

On 30 June 2008, the Yuon authority in Motr Chrouk province issued Tim Sakhorn a Vietnamese identification card, and they provided him with a Vietnamese-sounding name of Tim Sà Khon, born in 1968 in An Bình village, Ba Chùc commune, Svay Tong (Tri Tôn) district, Motr Chrouk province, a follower of Buddhism of Khmer origin.

On 31 June 2008, he was released from the Vietnamese jail but he was placed under house arrest.

On 31 March 2009, the Yuon authority issued Tim Sakhorn a border crossing pass.

On 04 April 2009, the Cambodian border gate in Takeo province granted Tim Sakhorn a 15-day visa to cross over to Cambodia – between 04 and 17 April – so that he can participate in the religious funeral ceremony for his mother who died in 2001.

On 14 April 2009, Tim Sakhorn fled to Thailand where he requested political asylum from the UNHCR in Bangkok. He was forced to flee Cambodia also because the Cambodian government refused to provide him a Cambodian identification card.

Travel to a third country

After receiving the refugee status from the UNHCR in Bangkok, Thailand, on 04 July 2009, Tim Sakhorn was safely sent by the UNHCR to live in Sweden.

“I now live in safety in Sweden because of the help and interventions provided national and international organizations all over the world, in particular, the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) allowed me to have a second life. I was subjected to hardship, I was arrested and there was no hope for me to stay alive back then. I believe that my fate would not be different from that of Venerable Eang Sok Thoeun. I would be killed in extreme atrocity [like Eang Sok Thoeun],” Tim Sakhorn said form Sweden.
-------
Notes:

(1) Svay Tong in Motr Chrouk province is a district where numerous Khmer Krom people live. That was why during the clashes between the KR and Yuon army, the majority of the people killed were Khmer Krom people.
(2) Tim Sakhorn’s defrocking request letter by patriarch Non Nget.

Vietnam's Hegemony over Cambodia: Case of Tim Sakhorn

Supreme Patriarch Non Ngeth is just their tool and very uneducated monk who cannot comprehend the procedure of national constitution and international laws. But Cambodian government including Ministry of Foreign Affair and Ministry of Interior have to take this case into their consideration seriously.

It is not about breaching individual rights of Cambodian citizenship but it is about breaching the government's integrity in protecting its sovereign bureaucrats and administration.

The central accusation led to the defrocking of ex-Monk Tim Sakhorn is baseless. The accuse of creating division between Cambodia and Vietnam is groundless. Individual Tim Sakhorn cannot cause the division, but Vietnam chose this play to perform well to dominate Cambodia.

This is truly political agenda set up by Vietnam to complicate the situation of Khmer Kampuchea Krom living in Cambodia, and the independent government of Hun Sen administration.

Supreme Patriarch Non Ngeth with his both unknowing the real story of ex-Monk Tim Sakorn and the obligation to protect the CPP Communist Party, he can defrock Tim Sakhorn or express no sympathy to Tim Sakorn.

In reality, case of Tim Sakhorn is not a normal case, it is not considerable individual case. Legal specialists will see the negligence and implementation of Cambodian government is the breaching of the Universal Rights Cambodia co-signed with the UN, and breaching the Cambodian Constitution of protecting its citizens from being extraditing or deporting. Cambodian people in the whole country have seen the case of Tim Sakhorn as intimidating to their safety, rights of citizenship, and the independence of their nation.

More than this, as one of the independent state, Cambodia has obligation to protect its citizens from being accused or detained by foreigner though sometime they both have an agreement of exchange criminals, but it must be in the legal procedure. However, Tim Sakhorn was not relating to any crime. Accusation upon him is just a pity act Vietnam used as a tool to claim its domination and hegemony over Cambodia.

Supreme Patriarch Non Ngeth is just their tool and very uneducated monk who cannot comprehend the procedure of national constitution and international laws. But Cambodian government including Ministry of Foreign Affair and Ministry of Interior have to take this case into their consideration seriously.

It is not about breaching individual rights of Cambodian citizenship but it is about breaching the government's integrity in protecting its sovereign bureaucrats and administration.

KY

Concern mounts for missing monk

Friday, 11 July 2008
Written by Kay Kimsong
The Phnom Penh Post

"I don’t believe any news from Vietnam saying that Tim Sakhorn has been released; I think it was a trick..."

Cambodia urged to clear path for return of Khmer Krom activist Tim Sakhorn

The Khmer Krom Buddhist Monks’ Association and US-based Human Rights Watch have called on the Vietnamese authorities to lift any restrictions on the liberty of a monk who disappeared after being released from prison in Vietnam late last month.

Tim Sakhorn, 40, a member of the Khmer Krom minority that lives in southern Vietnam and Cambodia, was released from prison on June 28 after serving nearly nine months of a year-long sentence for “undermining national unity.”

Sakhorn had allegedly distributed bulletins about Khmer Krom history and politics and sheltered monks fleeing from Vietnam.

He was sentenced by a criminal court in An Giang province on November 8 last year, more than four months after being arrested and defrocked by the authorities in Cambodia, where he had been a monk at a Takeo province monastery for 17 years, and sent to Vietnam.

Following his release from prison, Sakhorn was taken by Vietnamese officials to his home village in An Giang province, where residents said he was presented with a plot of land and a big house in what was seen as an attempt to persuade him to remain in Vietnam. But after only a few hours at the village, residents said he was taken away and has not been seen since.

“I don’t believe any news from Vietnam saying that Tim Sakhorn has been released; I think it was a trick by the Vietnamese authorities,” the head of the Phnom Penh-based Khmer Krom Buddhist Monks’ Association, the Venerable Yoeun Sin, told the Post on July 9.

“It makes no sense that the Vietnamese authorities released a prisoner and then took him on a tour of Hanoi,” said Youen Sin, referring to reports that Sakhorn had been seen being escorted around the Vietnamese capital by officials.

In a statement released from its New York headquarters on July 3, Human Rights Watch said Sakhorn should be free to travel without restrictions “but it is not clear that he is able to do so.”

“While his release from prison is welcome ... Tim Sakhorn should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” Brad Adams, the Asia director of HRW, said in the statement, which called on the Vietnamese government to “fully restore” the monk’s freedom.

“And the Cambodian government should publicly confirm that he is free to return to Cambodia, where he is a citizen,” Adams said.

The HRW statement said the “politically motivated” prosecution of Sakhorn by the Vietnamese court was a thinly veiled attempt by the Vietnamese and Cambodian authorities to stop peaceful dissent by the Khmer Krom minority in both countries.

Khmer Krom monks protesting outside the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh clashed violently with police several times last year, drawing criticism from international rights groups who accused Cambodian authorities of using electric batons and clubs to beat the monks and dissuade future demonstrations.

Vietnamese embassy spokesperson Trinh Ba Cam, who told the Post on July 9 that he had no information on Sakhorn, said NGOs that released statements about his case did not understand the real situation in Vietnam.

Political Cartoon: Tim Sakhorn's Mistery Tour

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Defrocked Monk Released in Vietnam

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
03 July 2008

Tim Sakhorn, the Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk who was defrocked in Cambodia last year and subsequently detained in Vietnam, has been released, officials said Thursday.

Tim Sakhorn, who was accused of provoking unrest between the two countries, was jailed June 30, 2007, and released June 28.

Tim Sakhorn's father said he sent the defrocked monk's brother to Vietnam, to check on him, but Vietnamese authorities are taking him on a tour of the country, and he cannot be found.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement Thursday Tim Sakhorn should be allowed to move freely from Vietnam to Cambodia.

Vietnamese and Cambodian officials, meanwhile, say he can travel.

Rights group urges Vietnam to free Buddhist monk

Buddhist monks, seen here in August 2007, pray in Phnom Penh to demand the release of fellow monk Tim Sakhorn

HANOI (AFP) — Human Rights Watch called on communist Vietnam Thursday to lift any restrictions on the liberty of an activist Buddhist monk who disappeared on the day he was released from prison last week.

Tim Sakhorn, an activist for the Khmer Krom ethnic Cambodian minority of southern Vietnam, was freed Saturday, but his whereabouts were unknown since he was last seen together with government officials, the rights group said.

"While his release from prison is welcome, as a peaceful activist and human rights defender, Tim Sakhorn should never have been imprisoned in the first place," said Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based group.

The rights group said it feared Sakhorn may be under house arrest and police surveillance, like other dissident monks in Vietnam.

Vietnam-born Sakhorn, 40, had lived in Cambodia since 1978, when his family fled border fighting between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces, and became a Cambodian citizen and, 17 years ago, a Buddhist monk.

He had sheltered Khmer Krom asylum seekers from Vietnam at his pagoda and was a member for the US-based Khmers Kampuchea Krom Federation, which campaigns for the minority's religious freedoms and land rights.

In February 2007, Buddhist monks and farmers in Cambodia noisily protested against a visit by Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet, claiming Hanoi was repressing ethnic Cambodians in southern Mekong delta areas.

The region, home to about 10 million ethnic Cambodians, was made part of Vietnam during the French colonial reign but remains a source of tension between Hanoi and Khmer nationalists who want it returned to Cambodia.

On June 30 last year Cambodian authorities defrocked Sakhorn for "harming the solidarity" between Cambodia and Vietnam and arrested and deported him.

Vietnam jailed him in November for "undermining national unity."

Sakhorn was released on June 28 and, dressed in civilian clothes, escorted to his An Giang province birthplace, where officials reportedly offered him land and a house as an incentive to remain in Vietnam, HRW said.

However, hours later, according to villagers, government officials escorted Sakhorn away, reportedly to Ho Chi Minh City, said the group.

"He should be able to travel freely and to meet his friends and family members in private," Adams said. "And the Cambodian government should publicly confirm that he is free to return to Cambodia, where he is a citizen."

Anti-Vietnamese sentiment remains strong in Cambodia, fuelled by resentment over Vietnam's past territorial expansions and Vietnam's 1978 invasion that ousted Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime and started a decade-long occupation.

Released, immediately "disappeared": Buddhist monk and "rights defender" Sakhorn

07/03/2008
AsiaNews

VIETNAM - Freed after a year in prison following a controversial sentence, he is being sequestered by authorities, Human Rights Watch accuses. Of Khmer Krom ethnicity, he has fought for the rights of his people, who are persecuted in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Hanoi (AsiaNews/HRW) - The Buddhist monk Tim Sakhorn has "disappeared", after the " pacifist activist and defender of human rights" was released in Vietnam on June 28, after spending a year in prison. The non-governmental group Human Rights Watch accuses the Vietnamese authorities and asks them to "immediately lift any restrictions on [his] liberty".

After he was released, public officials brought him to his home town in the province of An Giang, where they had organised a welcome party. Local sources report that they offered him land and a spacious home if he would remain in the village, then took him away again and now - HRW charges - it is not known where he is. Article 38 of the penal code permits the authorities to place released prisoners under house arrest or "probationary detention" for 1 to 5 years, for "re-education", depriving them of the right to travel, vote, or lead religious groups.

Born in Vietnam, Sakhorn has lived in Cambodia since 1978, and has become a citizen of that country. In 2002, the supreme Cambodian Buddhist patriarch Tap Vong appointed him abbot of the Northern Phnom Den pagoda in the province of Takeo. He has always fought for the rights of the Khmer Krom, and has sheltered migrants and exiles from Vietnam in his pagoda.

Sakhorn was arrested in Cambodia on June 30, 2007, for having "compromised relations between Cambodia and Vietnam", and was immediately extradited to Vietnam, in spite of the fact that he is a Cambodian citizen. On November 8, the tribunal of the province of An Giang sentenced him to year in prison for "harming national unity", in a trial in which he was allowed no legal assistance.

HRW charges that this was an attempt by Vietnam and Cambodia to interfere with the non-violent dissent of the Khmer Krom minority: in the months leading up to the arrest, there were numerous peaceful protests in both countries by Khmer Krom farmers and monks, against the confiscation of their land and for the release of five Buddhist monks arrested in Vietnam in February of 2007, after a demonstration in Soc Trang.

More refugees calling Cambodia home [... Yet Khmer Krom in Cambodia are called VN by Hun Sen and Tep Vong]

By Cat Barton
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 16 / 20, October 5 - 18, 2007

"There are thousands of Vietnamese spies here" - Pastor Au, Vietnamese refugee in Cambodia

The recent high profile case of the alleged abduction of monk Tim Sakhorn seems evidence that abductions [by Vietnamese spies] do happen...

In a calm, matter-of-fact way, Dia describes his unexpected arrival in Cambodia the day after New Year's 2007.

The impetus to move started in 2001 in Mogadishu, Somalia, when local warlord militia dragged his father from their home and shot him. Dia, then 12, tried to stop them, but someone wacked him across the face with the butt of a gun, badly breaking his nose. Six years later, Islamic rebels shot his brother and burned the family's recording studio to the ground.

"I ran away when I saw them kill my brother," he said quietly, his dark eyes alert above his still-crooked nose. "That was when my mother decided I had to go out of the country."

Dia's mother gave the family savings to a businessman to get her son to Europe. The two travelled to Kenya and Sudan, on to Bangkok, and arrived in Cambodia, where the trip ended last January 2.

"I had never even heard of Cambodia," Dia said. "The man stole my bags and left me with nothing - the clothes I was wearing and $9."

Dia has joined the 295 refugees and asylum seekers on record at the end of 2006, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Phnom Penh.

In recent years as the Kingdom's neighbours, such as Thailand and Malaysia, have tightened their entry requirements and imposed harsh penalties on illegal immigrants, Cambodia has become the region's haven for refugees. Comparatively lax visa requirements and humane treatment of refugees means that the nation is now playing host to some of the world's most vulnerable.

"The purpose of the convention on refugees is not to resettle but to provide safety," said Thamrongsak Meechubot, UNHCR country representative. "People can't stay in their own country, so they leave and seek asylum elsewhere."

For refugees like Dia, there are three recognized solutions, said Meechubot. First, they can go back to their own country when it is safe for them to do so. Second, they can integrate locally. Third, if neither of the first two options are viable, they can be resettled in a third country.

"It is not safe to go back to Somalia now," said Dia, who wants to go to Canada. "They have accepted me but now I am waiting."

In the middle of the interview with the Post on October 2, Dia received a call telling him Canada had approved his asylum application, Overjoyed, he said he will never forget UNHCR for helping him.

"It will be better in Canada than in Cambodia, there I can study and work. I promised my father I would study. I have to find my mother and my younger brothers and sisters - I think they are on the Somali/Kenyan border," he pauses, rubbing his scarred nose self-consciously. "I will fix it later if I can but I want to help my mother first, when I was leaving she was crying - I must help her."

But for other UNHCR-supported refugees in Cambodia, being resettled in a third country is a distant dream.

"If you're considered high risk - an unaccompanied minor, a family with young children - [UNHCR] will resettle you," said a representative from the Jesuit Relief Services (JRS), an organisation that works with UNHCR providing services to refugees. "If not, you have to settle in here."

Settling in has proved impossible for Mr Luong and Pastor Au, two Vietnamese refugees who have lived in Cambodia for 15 and three years, respectively. UNHCR has granted both refugee status but both said they live in constant fear of their lives. "I don't feel safe here. Even during the day, I lock my doors," said Pastor Au, formerly a lecturer at a university in southern Vietnam until his decision to convert to Christianity brought him into conflict with the Vietnamese authorities. In 2004 he was arrested in Vietnam, but escaped prison and fled to Cambodia where, after five months on the streets, he was granted refugee status in January 2005.

"The Vietnamese and Chinese refugees are never safe here," he said. "They know they could be kidnapped and taken back at any time. I think UNHCR should try and get more refugees to third countries."

"There are thousands of Vietnamese spies here," he said. "UNHCR thinks as there are one million Vietnamese here that it is easy to integrate, but the Vietnamese secret agents kidnap us."

In 1975, Luong was a captain in an ARVN unit that worked with US Special Forces. After the war ended in 1975 he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. After 15 years in shackles that left big scars on his legs, he escaped and fled to Cambodia in 1992.

"UNHCR have helped me as I have had a series of operations; both legs have been operated on four times. I have been a refugee for 17 years and I am still scared they will come and get me. I don't know why UNHCR won't resettle me."

Au said the Vietnamese government hates having Vietnamese dissidents flee to Cambodia and sends agents to hunt them down. "If we stay out after 6pm we are at risk of being kidnapped," he said.

A representative from JRS confirmed that there is risk of "neighbouring countries swiping them [political or religious refugees] back."

The recent high profile case of the alleged abduction of monk Tim Sakhorn seems evidence that abductions do happen. But when UNHCR wrote to the government to demand an official explanation of what had happened to Sakhorn, the government denied any wrongdoing.

"They said he had chosen to return to Vietnam," said Meechubot. "This is the government version and if anyone has any evidence to disprove they should do so."

Soon after Sakhorn's alleged abduction, Au, the pastor, began receiving warnings from Vietnamese immigrants and refugees that he was an abduction target because he - like Sakhorn - helps new political and religious refugees from Vietnam to adapt to life in Cambodia.

"Now, I sleep in a different place every night," said Au. "At first, my faith helped me to deal with the fear, but now it doesn't help so much. I am always afraid, I live in fear."

For Yla Lhay, a Burmese refugee who has been in Cambodia for a year, the problem is not so much a fear of abduction, but frustration. The democracy activist fled Burma in 1996 after being threatened with arrest for participating in a student uprising. He lived in Thailand until last year when Thai authorities refused to give him a new visa. He crossed over to Cambodia, obtained UNHCR refugee status, and began studying.

"If I go back to Thailand I can reduce my loneliness and depression but it is difficult to get a chance to be educated," he said. "I would rather be in a Thai refugee camp with my people than on my own in Cambodia. But I don't have a passport - if I go back I have to cross the border illegally so there is a 50 to 70 percent chance I will be arrested."

He has applied for resettlement in a third country. He hopes to return eventually to Burma but in the meantime believes resettlement in the West would allow him to advocate for democracy in his homeland.

"I have the right to stay here, but I don't have the right to do anything - I can't speak, I can't have freedom of expression. UNHCR tell me not to speak as it will create problems for me and for UNHCR. I don't want to live forever in a secret, quiet way."

The names of the refugees whose experiences are included in this article have been changed to protect their personal safety.