HoChiMonk Long Kim Leang Deports Back to Cambodia

According to a trusted source from San Jose, California, HoChiMonk Long Kimleang was deported back to Cambodia on January 12, 2011. By this time, he might already arrive at Cambodia.

HoChiMonk Long Kimleang was secretly sponsored by the President of a Khmer temple, known as Mervyn Temple because it locates on Mervyn road, in San Jose, California. Most of the boards of this temple do not know his background so no one said a word.
HoChiMonk Long Kimleang was one of the monks who went to arrest, defrock, and deport Venerable Tim Sakhorn to imprison him in Vietnam in 2007.

During the Khmer Krom Buddhist monks protested in Phnom Penh to demand the Vietnamese government to release the Khmer Krom Buddhist monks who were imprisoned in Vietnam, HoChiMonk Long Kimleang also led a group of HoChiMonks to beating up the Khmer Krom monks. He took the pictures of the Khmer Krom monks so he could use as evident to arrest and defrock them back to imprison in Vietnam.

On July 4, 2009, Venerable Tim Sakhorn was granted a political asylum status to live in Sweden. After arriving Sweden and without scaring for his safety, Venerable Tim Sakhorn started telling the truth about who were involving arresting, defrocking, and deporting him to Vietnam. By that time, the Khmer around the world, especially in San Jose, California, were totally shocked by that news. Most of the Board Directors of the Mervyn temple agreed to send him back, but only the President and Secretary of that temple had tried to defend and protect for HoChiMonk Long Kimleang.

When Venerable Tim Sakhorn visited San Jose in June 2010, Venerable Tim Sakhorn even forgave HoChiMonk Long Kimleang if he came to meet him and said sorry for what he had done to Venerable Tim Sakhorn. May be HoChiMonk Long Kimleang thought that he has money and under protected by the President and Secretary of that temple, he did not even bother to come to meet Venerable Tim Sakhorn. There were complaints had filed to the US INS and finally the justice came for Venerable Tim Sakhorn.

Thanks to the US INS for standing strong to support Human Rights and to demonstrate that the United States is not a place for the people who committed the crimes against Human Rights like HoChiMonk Long Kimleang to live. It is also a lesson for the Cambodian community in the United States to stop sponsoring the HoChiMonks coming to the United States as religious workers because those monks don’t even have a basic morality as Human Beings. They are Buddhist monks but they work to serve the CPP Party and its master, the Vietnamese Communist government.

PEF Report: "Refugee Protection in ASEAN: National Failures, Regional Responsibilities"

Published by People's Empowerment Foundation



Countries in Southeast Asia act as origins, transit routes, and destinations for an increasing number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other forcibly displaced people from the region and other parts of the world. Fleeing conflict, persecution, and other dire circumstances in their home countries, they are continually left vulnerable to a variety of human rights abuses carried out by both state and non-state actors in multiple countries. Sadly, refugee problems are being severely neglected in the context of mixed migration. While regulating the inflows of migrants, governments of popular destination countries lack mechanisms for identifying refugees in need of protection, instead criminalizing them along with other undocumented migrants.

This report aims to highlight key issues and concerns related to refugee protection, or lack thereof, in Southeast Asia by outlining three refugee case studies –-the Rohingya, Khmer Krom, and Lao Hmong -- that reveal several glaring gaps in refugee protection in multiple ASEAN countries. The report considers ASEAN’s recent responses to refugee problems and urges the bloc to affirm refugee rights and strengthen protection throughout the region. Recommendations for developing a regional refugee protection framework are offered to ASEAN.

Click here to read the report

Right to self determination in international law of KKF 's Video

Please find below a video produced by the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation on the "Right to Self Determination in International law of Khmers Kampuchea Krom Federation in The Hague, Netherlands on 29-30 Jun - 01 July, 2006"

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Khmer Krom Continue Push for Rights in Vietnam

Thach Ngoc Thach, left and newly re-ordained monk Tim Sakhorn, middle, drops by VOA Khmer while on a visit in the US.

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, D.C
Friday, 21 May 2010

Activists for the Khmer Kampuchea Krom have been asking for more help from US officials in what they say are rights abuses in Vietnam, but in a statement to VOA Khmer this week, the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington said their efforts amounted to “sabotage.”

“The purpose of distorting history and slandering Vietnam’s policy toward the Khmer community is to undermine our national solidarity and to sabotage the fine relationship between the S.R.Vietnam and the Kingdom of Cambodia,” the Vietnamese Embassy said in a statement to VOA Khmer.

The statement referred to a delegation of Khmer Krom to policymakers in Washington in recent weeks that included Tim Sakhorn, a monk who was imprisoned in Vietnam in 2007, and other monks and representatives.

The delegation is seeking a congressional hearing on their rights along with laws to protect ethnic Khmers in southern Vietnam, where they say rights to religion, education, land and other freedoms are limited by Vietnamese authorities.

In its statement, the Vietnamese Embassy said the government does not discriminate against the Khmer in the Mekong Delta, sometimes referred to in Cambodia as Kampuchea Krom, or Lower Cambodia.

“The Vietnamese State pursues a policy that ensures equality, unity and mutual assistance between and among these ethnic groups,” the embassy said. “Ethnic minorities including the Khmers are equally treated and receive due care from the State, which is trying its best to unceasingly improve their material and spiritual life including the needs of cultivation and housing land. Vietnamese laws ensure the right to freedom of beliefs and religions and freedom of non-beliefs or religion of all citizens.”

Thach Ngoc Thach, president of the US-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, who was also a member of the Washington delegation, urged Vietnam to open itself to a fact-finding mission between the UN, US, human rights groups and other diplomats.

“The Khmer Kampuchea Krom delegation also wants to visit Kampuchea Krom with an escort by the media and an international delegation to find out the truth, as we do not want to see mutual accusations,” he said.

Khmer Krom activists want Vietnam to publicly apologize for rights abuses there and to grant more freedom of religion to Khmers in Vietnam, who practice a different form of Buddhism than the Vietnamese.

The issue of the Khmer Krom is highly charged in Cambodia, where many are still rankled by the loss of the Mekong Delta from a former Cambodian empire to the Vietnamese.

Thach Ngoc Thach said the region should be recognized as formerly Cambodian, as evidenced by Khmer Krom temples in the delta.

The Vietnamese Embassy said the area “has been a part of Vietnamese territory for hundreds of years” and called the Khmers living there “an inseparable part of the community of 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam.”

Nevertheless, each year a number of Khmer Krom seek to flee Vietnam, and Human Rights Watch has said their religious freedoms are often restricted in Vietnam, where many Khmer Krom fought alongside the US in the Vietnam War.

Some 100 asylum seekers are currently in Thailand, where they are seeking protection. However, those like Leang Sokha, a 50-year-old monk, say they are living in deteriorating circumstances and are not always able to achieve asylum status with the UN’s refugee office.

“The reason that the UNHCR rejected my refugee status was because they first asked me what nationality I was, and where did I come from,” Leang Sokha told VOA Khmer by phone from Thailand. Without the proper documents, he was unable to answer them convincingly.

Leang Sokha said he had fled Vietnam after the authorities there asked him to watch members of his Khmer Krom community, jailing him when he refused. He declined a second offer and fled, he said.

A UNHCR representative in Washington referred Khmer Krom questions to the office in Bangkok. Officials there could not be reached for comment.

Another 25 Khmer Krom who have fled Vietnam are seeking protection in Cambodia, but they two face hardships, activists say.

Thach Ngoc Thach said Cambodian policies that would allow citizenship for Khmer Krom have many criteria, including a Cambodian residence, birth certificate as Khmer, Khmer parentage and other documents.

He said he was confidence US officials would take a closer look at the Khmer Krom issue.

Venerable monk Kim Moul, who was another member of the Washington delegation, told VOA Khmer in a recent interview that he hoped the US would follow up.

He said he and other monks were defrocked by Vietnamese authorities, imprisoned and monitored after they were freed.

“We all fled to Cambodia and they came to arrest us in Cambodia,” he said. “Until I fled to Thailand, then UNHCR sent me to Sweden.”

KKF Urges Vietnam to "Open Constructive Dialogue as Proof of their Commitment to Human Rights"

Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Item 7: Future Work
Joint Statement of Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation and Montagnard Foundation
Speaker: Chantria Tram

Chairman and Distinguished members of the Forum

We are saddened to hear about the common conditions indigenous peoples face regarding boarding schools. Yet, we are pleased to participate in seeking solutions for a new future for our children.

We recommend that Vietnam:

1. Ensures that the standards of these specialist boarding schools be equal to those of mainstream public schools.
2. Permits arts and literature to be taught in our languages to safeguard and protect our cultures.
3. Permits our histories to be taught in both mainstream public schools and boarding schools.
4. Increases the number of places in all boarding schools and ensures unbiased geographical dispersion of new schools to ensure education for all is not a dream dependent on ethnic background.

Chairman and Distinguished members of the Forum

It is a great honor for me to speak at the 9th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and provide suggestions to be incorporated into its future work. We cannot change the past but we can and most definitely should collaborate to work for a better future. We are the youth of the Khmer-Krom people.

We have great recommendations for the UNPFII, but a few key questions that we pose each and every year remain unanswered. We once again request clarification from the UNPFII in the hope that a heavy burden be lifted from our hearts.

Still today the Vietnamese government refuses to recognize us as indigenous people of Vietnam. Are our temples in Preah Trapeang (Tra Vinh), Kleang (Soc Trang) and Moth Chrouk (Chau Doc) which are over 2000 years old, many years older than the existence of Vietnam itself not proof of a longstanding connection to our land? Is there a separate rule for Vietnam which states that our long history and distinct culture and tradition are worthless when designating indigenous status?

Unfortunately, this is the 6th year that we raise these concerns. We therefore recommend:

1. That the Permanent Forum set up a half-day discussion on mechanisms for the representation of unrecognised and marginalised peoples who are not respected by their governments.
2. That the Permanent Forum set up a Commission on the Definition of Indigenous People which then seeks an invitation from the Vietnamese Government.
3. And that Vietnam accept our request to have open and constructive dialogue with the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation and the Montagnard Foundation as proof of their commitment to protecting and promoting the rights of their own peoples..

We thank you Mr Chairman for allowing us to voice our concerns and offer our recommendations. We extend the hand of friendship and respect to those willing to enter into dialogue with us. We hope that 2010 marks the year that fruitful collaboration commences so that we find ourselves in a different position at the historic 10th Session next year.

We come here for the past 6 years to learn and try to understand ways to help our youth at home, where they are silenced and living in fear due to the human rights violations. During this time, NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and governments recognize the human rights violations in international law. I humbly ask again, If we are not here to represent our youth today at the UNPFII, who will? Vietnam has wanted to silence us; however we sincerely will continue speaking the truth. It is sad and awkward that the Vietnamese government keeps on denying our very existence and trying to make us invisible yet we are invincible just like our brothers and sisters attending the UNPFII.

The Nonviolent Movement toward Khmer-Krom Self-Determination is an Affirmative Hope

THE PREYNOKOR NEWS
Year II Volume 101

The Nonviolent Movement toward Khmer-Krom Self-Determination is an Affirmative Hope

At the year-end meeting of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) from 12-13 December 2009 in San Jose, California, Mr. To Kim Thong, KKF Chairman, had an interview with the Preynokor News regarding to the roadmap that the KKF has been advocating to seek for the right to self-determination for the indigenous Khmer-Krom people as follows:

Son Socheat: What are the main reasons of the KKF’s annual year-end meeting?

To Kim Thong: The KKF has its members all over the world. It is necessary to have a year-end meeting to discuss about the activities that KKF had done for a year. The year-end meeting provides the opportunity for the KKF leaders around the world to share ideas and experiences. It is also a chance for KKF leaders to re-evaluate its objectives and plans to execute them more effectively in the coming years.

Son Socheat: Do you think that the Khmer-Krom could achieve the right to self-determination or not? And why so?

To Kim Thong: This is a good question and I believe that there are many other people asking the same. My answer to the first part of your question is simply: Yes. As to the question why, it takes a little more time for reasoning.

First of all, we should know what self-determination means. This phrase has become a topic inspiring the writers to write poems and motivating the nationalists to sacrifice their lives in exchange for the rights of their people. Originally, the word self-determination had been initiated by American President Woodrow Wilson and Soviet Union leader Vladimir llyich Lenin and others in Versailles after World War I. Mr. Ho Chi Minh used the principle of this theory to demand the independence from French colonizer. East Timor and Kosovo that recently gained independence also followed the principle of the self-determination. On Thursday, September 13, 2007, the General Assembly, by a majority of 144 states including Vietnam, adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The third article of this declaration clearly states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

The possible result of an exercise of self-determination would be in three different options:

1. Indigenous peoples live peacefully under the governing of the colonial authorities, but the colonial authorities have to respect the human rights, justice and dignity of the indigenous peoples. The model of this form is similar status of the Native American in the United States.
2. Indigenous peoples have their own autonomy government, but it is under the umbrella of the Federation or Union states. The model of this form is similar to the status of Nunavut in Northern Canada.
3. Indigenous peoples have their own independent country. The model of this form is similar to the situation of Kosovo in Yugoslavia and East Timor in Indonesia.

The KKF’s vision on self-determination is to focus on the sovereignty. To simply put, Khmer-Krom must have freedom to build their own society on their territory without being forced, ordered, or pressured from Vietnam. The history has clearly proved that the Khmer-Krom is the owner of this land for thousand years. It was not as the Vietnamese wants us to believe that the land was theirs since their ancestors started encroaching and gradually controlling the wilderness in the 17th century. As rightful owner of our home, we must have the rights to maintain or arrange things around our home the way we wish. As for how to do that, it depends on situations.

We strongly believe that our peaceful movement will succeed because the truths are on our side. These truths are: (a) the tradition of relentless struggle of the Khmer-Krom people, (b) our entitlement to the land of the Kampuchea-Krom,(c) the advocacy of the International Laws and Conventions, especially the UNDRIP, and (d) it is the best interest of the Vietnamese people to have a peaceful, developed, mutual respect, and true friendship with the Khmer-Krom people.

Son Socheat: What are the achievements of the KKF’s nonviolent movement for the Khmer- Krom who currently live in our homeland and abroad?

To Kim Thong: The KKF’s nonviolent movement has gained many benefits for the Khmer- Krom people who live in our homeland and overseas, such as:

1. We have reminded the Vietnamese government that regardless what tactics it has used to eliminate our Khmer race from our ancestral land, the Khmer-Krom who is the children of the Angkor builders, will never stop fighting to keep our identity alive. Therefore, the Vietnamese government has to soften its ethnic policies toward Khmer-Krom.
2. We have brought awareness to the international community about who the Khmer-Krom is, and we have gained the support from many foreigners. Now, the Vietnamese government cannot arrest or imprison Khmer-Krom without a legitimate reason or to arbitrarily kill them as they did in the past. We have the international community to help defending our people all the time.
3. We have successfully made the Vietnamese government to face the truth and forced it to reluctantly pay attention to the well-being of the Khmer-Krom people; for example building houses and giving some money to the poor.

Looking back, we would clearly see the good outcomes for what we have done. The Vietnamese government hoped that their plan for eliminating the Khmer-Krom race would be completed by 1975. They hoped that Khmer-Krom identity would become “Dong Bao Dan Toc” and Angkor Watt temple to become “De Thien De Thich”. What the Vietnamese government could not imagine was that the falling of international communist regimes and the formidable resistances of Khmer-Krom people to keep their identity that make Hanoi government fail to implement its ethnic cleansing policy.

Son Socheat: Does KKF have any support from other governments, countries or international organizations?

To Kim Thong: The UN DRIP and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights are indications that the demanding of the right to self-determination of the indigenous peoples has enough legitimate support from the signatory countries. Last year, the declaration of European parliamentary and the reports of Human Right Watch condemned the Vietnamese government committed human right violations against Khmer-Krom. KKF has also made close relationship with the donors and investment countries in Vietnam. Moreover, KKF also has the international law experts, the historians, the researchers, and the volunteers as the consultants and the advisors. Many people from Italy, England, Singapore and the United States of America, etc have collaborated with us to publish a book for more than 300 pages that confirm the sovereignty of the Khmer-Krom people in Kampuchea-Krom.

Son Socheat: What are the plans of the KKF in 2010?

To Kim Thong: The plans for 2010 focus on the visions called “Long March forward to the Motherland”. It outlines the things we would do on the international stage, in Cambodia, and in Kampuchea-Krom.

Son Socheat: On behalf of the Preynokor News, I would like to thank for your valuable time to have an interview with us today and clearly explain the KKF’s vision regarding the right to self-determination of the Indigenous Khmer-Krom Peoples in Kampuchea-Krom.

Khmer Krom Conference Report

Friday, 14 August 2009
UNPO

Conference Report: Liberation from the Legacy of Colonialism: An Indigenous Voice for Self-Determination in Asia-Pacific

In May 2009, the KKF held a demonstration in the Place des Nations in Geneva, attended by over 400 people that sought to increase international attention about the repressive policies of Vietnam. The event coincided with the 5th Meeting of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council, during which Vietnam was up for examination for the very first time. This conference, in Paris on 13 June 2009, the first in a series planned for the next four years, was intended to capitalize on that momentum and initiate a scholarly discussion on the Khmer Krom as a community. The Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation was assisted in the implementation of this conference by the UNPO and the Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights.

The series of conferences intend to address the topic of self-determination in Asia-Pacific, and the plight of the Khmer Krom in particular. This first conference, also the first such event to be held in a Francophone country, focussed on the historical legacy left by colonialism and how modern actions can help overcome that legacy. The interplay between the colonial legacy and human rights was discussed as well as potential steps towards reconciliation and equality. Within this framework, the conference analyzed potential proposals for a path towards peaceful self-determination, with inspiration from the fields of nonviolence, economic justice, political emancipation and international human rights law.

These topics were discussed vividly by speakers, who included Mme. Nelly Roland Iriberry, the Mayor of Villepinte, Mr. Joshua Cooper of the Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights, Mr. To Kim Thong, the Chairman of the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation, Mr. Romy Thach, the President of KKF Youth Council, Ms. Lea Chumchay, Mr. Jerome Bouquet-Elkaim, a prominent human-rights lawyer, and Mr. Keyvan Sayar, former UNPO staff member and human rights activist. A statement from the UNPO was also read out on behalf of Mr. Marino Busdachin.

Over 200 Khmer-Krom attended the event, as well as representatives from partner NGOs. The event was covered by Radio Free Asia.

For a copy of the report, please click here.

Khmer Krom to Mark Loss of Land

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
10 June 2009

Calls for freedom and more unity among Khmer Kampuchea Krom have become the main demand during gatherings worldwide to mark the 60th anniversary of the loss of Kampuchea Krom (lower Cambodia now part of Southern Vietnam).

Sunday’s meeting in New Jersey is another call to reiterate Khmer Kampuchea Krom’s commitment to fight for self-determination.

“Today is a historical day to commemorate bitter experience and to try to stop colony on Khmer Krom. This is our primary call,” Ven. Thach Berong, head monk in charge of Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation’s inter-religious affairs and one of the organizers of the gathering, told VOA Khmer by phone.

Ven. Thach Berong added that more than 100 activists coming from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Washington D.C. will get together to show their “unity to the national and international community that Khmer Krom are committed to stop any ambition to annex more Cambodian land by foreign forces”.

“We are devoted to protecting our national soul, safeguarding Khmer culture and civilization, and ensuring that Khmer Krom people have rights to self-determination,” said Ven. Thach Berong.

The commemoration is also attended by a visiting president of the Human Rights Party from Cambodia.

“The difficulty of the Khmer Krom people is those of mine because I am also Khmer,” Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party told VOA Khmer for his decision to attend the gathering.

French colonist awarded Kampuchea Krom to Vietnam on 4 June 1949. Currently many Khmer Krom people are living in sheer poverty.