Cambodian police beating up Khmer Krom monks ...
... to please Hun Sen's Vietnamese mastersHanoi and Phnom Penh cooperate with each other to oppose Khmer Krom
04 January 2008
By Kim Pov Sottan
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Report of the Vietnamese police for the past 8 months revealed that Vietnam and Cambodia cooperated with each other to block activities by Khmer Kampuchea Krom associations.
The Vietnamese ethnic minority commission website (www.cema.gov.vn) posted a report signed by General Liv Phuoc Luong, a high-ranking Vietnamese police officer, who wrote that Vietnam must maintain a tight friendly cooperation with Cambodia to block reactionary organizations, in particular, Khmer Krom associations which are standing to undertake actions to oppose Vietnam from inside Cambodia.
General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), denied that the Hun Sen regime considers Khmer Krom associations as being reactionary organizations.
He recognized that there is cooperation between Cambodia and Vietnam on a number of issues, and that this cooperation is not different from those between Cambodia and other countries.
Khieu Sopheak said: “However, there is no need for any cooperation to exist because Cambodia has a law prescribed for use in Cambodia stating that nobody, no political party, no group, no foreign countries can use Cambodia to set up an army base to oppose another country. Therefore, our cooperation is based on the 8 types of trans-border crimes.”
The Vietnamese police report was issued after Khmer Krom monks were disrobed, and the Phnom Penh police force violently put down a recent demonstration led by Khmer Krom monks.
Khieu Sopheak said that the latest police violence against Khmer Krom monks was not due to Khmer Krom issues, but that the police had to maintain security, following the experience on the burning of the Thai embassy in the past [which was, in fact, instigated by Hun Sen himself].
At the same time, Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouthpiece in Phnom Penh, recognized that this website indeed belongs to the Hanoi communist government, however, he rejected the report posted on this website, saying that it does not reflect the viewpoint of the Vietnamese government: “… on this website, things can change, it does not reflect the government viewpoint at all.”
In spite of denials from the Vietnamese embassy mouthpiece and the MoI mouthpiece, Venerable Yoeung Sin, the elder Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk, said that Khmer Krom associations are usually accused of being reactionary groups by the Vietnamese authority, in order to threaten and prevent them from protesting.
Demonstrations and several attempts made to deliver a petition to the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh by Khmer Krom monks were met by police violence. Recently, a serious clash took place between the monks and the police, causing several injuries among Khmer Krom monks.
The Vietnamese ethnic minority commission website (www.cema.gov.vn) posted a report signed by General Liv Phuoc Luong, a high-ranking Vietnamese police officer, who wrote that Vietnam must maintain a tight friendly cooperation with Cambodia to block reactionary organizations, in particular, Khmer Krom associations which are standing to undertake actions to oppose Vietnam from inside Cambodia.
General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), denied that the Hun Sen regime considers Khmer Krom associations as being reactionary organizations.
He recognized that there is cooperation between Cambodia and Vietnam on a number of issues, and that this cooperation is not different from those between Cambodia and other countries.
Khieu Sopheak said: “However, there is no need for any cooperation to exist because Cambodia has a law prescribed for use in Cambodia stating that nobody, no political party, no group, no foreign countries can use Cambodia to set up an army base to oppose another country. Therefore, our cooperation is based on the 8 types of trans-border crimes.”
The Vietnamese police report was issued after Khmer Krom monks were disrobed, and the Phnom Penh police force violently put down a recent demonstration led by Khmer Krom monks.
Khieu Sopheak said that the latest police violence against Khmer Krom monks was not due to Khmer Krom issues, but that the police had to maintain security, following the experience on the burning of the Thai embassy in the past [which was, in fact, instigated by Hun Sen himself].
At the same time, Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouthpiece in Phnom Penh, recognized that this website indeed belongs to the Hanoi communist government, however, he rejected the report posted on this website, saying that it does not reflect the viewpoint of the Vietnamese government: “… on this website, things can change, it does not reflect the government viewpoint at all.”
In spite of denials from the Vietnamese embassy mouthpiece and the MoI mouthpiece, Venerable Yoeung Sin, the elder Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk, said that Khmer Krom associations are usually accused of being reactionary groups by the Vietnamese authority, in order to threaten and prevent them from protesting.
Demonstrations and several attempts made to deliver a petition to the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh by Khmer Krom monks were met by police violence. Recently, a serious clash took place between the monks and the police, causing several injuries among Khmer Krom monks.
