From Left to Right: Khieu Sopheak, Hochimonk "7 January" Tep Vong, Khmer Krom Monk Tim Sakhorn, Khieu Kanarith
Sralanh Khmer newspaperTranslated from Khmer by Heng SoyMom Mony, the director of the Khmer Krom Human Rights Defense Organization (KKHRO), fled to a safe place because, yesterday, the Takeo criminal police was looking for you. The police said Mom Mony was involved in the case of Monk Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den pagoda who was defrocked by the group of 07 January monks (07 January 1989: Date of Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia), and who was handed over the Vietnamese by the Hun Sen regime on 30 June 2007.
Earlier, Mom Mony reported to a number of local news agencies that Moto Doop (Motorcycle Taxi) drivers and people told him that they saw Monk Tim Sakhorn wearing blue street clothes, and whisked away across the border to Vietnam in a car belonging to the authority, at 4:30 PM on 30 june.
Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, initially said that he did not know anything about the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn, but later on he changed his tune and told local news agencies that Monk Tim Sakhorn requested the Cambodian authority to send him to Vietnam (Kampuchea Krom). Therefore, Khieu Sopheak said that the authority did not force him, but that it only acted according the monk’s request.
Supremo patriarch Tep Vong told RFA yesterday morning that: ‘he (Tim Sakhorn) asked me to defrock him…’ Tep Vong’s claim is contrary to what he declared to the press the day before when he said that ‘their (Khmer Krom monk) group beat my monks, and they accused my monks of beating them…” Tep Vong’s controversial claims is in total contradiction to patriarch Non Nget’s declaration dated 16 June 2007, and authorized by Tep Vong on 17 June 2007, which accused Monk Tim Sakhorn of undermining the friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam, and also of opening a headquarters to oppose Vietnam.
Subsequently, TVK, the CPP subservient station, broadcasted a travesty concocted by those who arrested Monk Tim Sakhorn, in which they showed that Monk Tim Sakhorn allegedly had affairs with women, and that was the cause of the defrocking.
Khieu Kanharith, the government spokesman and Minister of Information, gave yet another claim which is different from the ones presented by Tep Vong. Khieu Kanharith said this monk (Monk Tim Sakhorn) could be a Christian sent over to be ordained as a Buddhist monk, and for him to have sex with women in order to look down on Buddhism and thereby push Cambodian people to join Christianity instead. He said that Monk Tim Sakhorn did not undermine the friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Sralanh Khmer directly interviewed with monks and Bhuddist followers in the Phnom Den pagoda during three consecutive days, following the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn and his subsequent disappearance. Some of the witnesses said that they saw a blue Toyota Camry belonging to the authority transporting Monk Tim Sakhorn, dressed in blue street clothes, and took him across the border to Vietnam in the late afternoon, early evening of 30 June 2007.
At the Seyhak Ratanaram pagoda, the residence of the provincial monk chief and the location where Monk Tim Sakhorn was defrocked, the provincial monk chief said that he did not know anything about the defrocking, but some monks (coming from Phnom Penh) borrowed his pagoda to perform the defrocking ritual. When the provincial monk chief was asked of the whereabouts of Monk Tim Sakhorn, he said that he did not know.
Witnesses at the Seyhak Ratanaram pagoda, told Sralanh Khmer that, immediately after his defrocking, Monk Tim Sakhorn handed the keys to his room to one of his acolytes to take them back to the pagoda, but the group of bodyguards, who were holding him on both sides, immediately grabbed the keys, and pushed Monk Tim Sakhorn inside the car, before it sped off to an unknown destination.
This is a summary of the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn. Subsequently various different sources noted his disappearance, and until now, there is no clear nor true information on his whereabouts.
Even though later on, Tep Vong proudly declared that he ordered that the authority to search and arrest 11 other people and deport them back to Vietnam, the country of Tep Vong’s brothers and sisters, the authority has not made any arrest yet as of 05 July. Nevertheless, on 05 July, the Takeo criminal police descended on Mom Mony’s office in Takeo province. A source indicated that the police claimed that Mom Mony is involved in Monk Tim Sakhorn’s defrocking affair, therefore, the police wants to meet him to obtain further information.
Sralanh Khmer made several attempts yesterday to reach Mom Mony, but we were not successful as the line keeps being cut off.
If Mom Mony is involved on the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakorn, it is clear that the plan to arrest 11 Khmer Krom people, ordered by Tep Vong, is indeed taking place.
