Khmer Krom: Police collect information from K Krom

Friday, 15 January 2010
Source: UNPO

Khmer Krom refugees in Cambodia suspiciously visited by information collecting police.

Below is an article published by Phnom Penh Daily :

The 24 Khmer Krom refugees deported from Thailand last month were visited Tuesday by district police in Phnom Penh, who gathered information that the group believes may be used to produce identification cards.

The deportees – who have been staying at an unspecified location – had originally planned to visit the chief of Boeung Tumpun commune in a bid to confirm that they were eligible to stay there, but the police officers visited them instead. They have been without identification since being deported from Thailand on December 5 after fleeing Vietnam to escape what they described as persecution and religious repression.

Khmer Krom spokesman Thach Song, 49, said the police requested information including names, birthplaces and ages, as well as details on where the deportees were living and where they came from.

“I think the police came to gather information for identification cards,” he said. “I asked whether the district police will issue the documents, and the police said it was up to the district chief.”

The deputy Boeung Tumpun commune chief confirmed that the police had visited the group in person. “This is a preliminary step,” he said of the visit, during which each member of the group thumbprinted the documents recording the information.

Naly Pilorge, president of the rights group Licadho, said it was somewhat curious that police would be used to collect information for identification cards.

“It’s unusual, and to me the alarm bell rings,” she said. “The normal way does not involve police.”

The deportees – exhausted and poor – have been awaiting official identification of their citizenship since arriving in Cambodia. Without it, they cannot rent a house, go to hospitals or enroll in schools. Five of them have fallen ill, and all are reportedly low on food. On Tuesday they sent a letter to the Red Cross requesting both food and medicine.

Clash between the pro-communist and atheist government underlings and human rights NGOs in Phnom Den pagoda

Takeo authority ended festivities organized by civil society

09 November 2007
By Sophorn
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Kirivong district authority confiscated loudspeakers, and ended the Bon Phka (Flower fundraising) festival organized at the Phnom Den North pagoda which was organized by civil society, during a prayer session and a call for the release to freedom of former Monk Tim Sakhorn.

In the morning of 09 November which coincides with Cambodia’s National Independence Day, during a Bon Phka fundraising festival organized at the Phnom Den North pagoda, a verbal clash started between the authority and the NGOs when the latter reminisced the name of former Monk Tim Sakhorn.

Mam Sonando, director of the Beehive radio station and one of the organizers of the Bon Phka, reacted immediately to the authority telling them that they do not respect Buddhism, the state religion, when they foment empty politicking (pun used by Mam Sonando when he said: “Thveu noyobay khmean bay”, meaning empty politicking): “You trample on Buddhism, you only threaten on everything.”

In response to the issue raised by Mam Sonando, Vong Chhon, the deputy district governor of Kirivong, immediately claimed that Khmer Kampuchea Krom suffered for many generations because of the same types of callings made by Mam Sonando.

Vong Chhon added: “During Sdech Sihanouk, they formed the “white scarf” and the Khmer Serey movements which called Khmer Kampuchea Krom for help, when they came over, a large number of them died because of such calls. We are uniting the monks in order to rebuild Buddhism back at the Phnom Den pagoda, this is done in the name of the local authority. You call us the cheaters, but those who currently are the cheaters, they are convicts who have just been released, you think I don’t known this Mam Sonando?” [KI-Media note: Mam Sonando was jailed by Hun Sen in January 2006 for protesting against the illegal border treaty concluded by Hun Sen and Vietnam, and approved by King Norodom Sihamoni]

Dr. Pung Chiv Kek, President of the Licadho human rights organization and also an organizer of the Bon Pkha Samaki festival, expressed her regrets (to see such behavior from the authority). “Because, you don’t understand our custom, and this is my right … what I said, there is nothing wrong about it, we did not violate any law, we did not raise any banners, we did not do anything, we did not shout, what we did was done according to our Khmer custom … you shut down our loudspeakers … I say you are violating the rights of the people,” Dr. Pung Chiv kek said of the pro-government authority,

Ngoeun Song, the Phnom Den North pagoda committee leader who is newly installed by the pro-government authority after the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn and his deportation to Vietnam, immediately put up an anger scene claiming that recalling the name of Monk Tim Sakhorn’s name is tantamount to destroying his pagoda.

On her part, the younger sister of former Monk Tim Sakhorn spoke out loudly, asking what was her brother’s fault? Why is the Cambodian authority unable to put him on trial in Cambodia?

According to civil society, the reason human rights organizations in Cambodia organized this Bon Phka at Phnom Den pagoda today, because it is the National Independence Day, and it also coincides with a Buddhist holy day as well, therefore, they all want to pray for the freedom of former Monk Tim Sakhorn so that he can lead a normal free life just like other citizens in the kingdom.

Blatant subservience of Hun Sen's regime to Hanoi: Regime henchmen break up religious fundraising following calls for the release of Ven. Tim Sakhorn

Authorities Break Up Fundraiser Turned Rally

By Seng Ratana, VOA Khmer
Original report from Takeo
09 November 2007

"The authorities threatened us not to mention politics, but I want to ask what politics are about" - Mam Sonando

Phnom Penh security forces broke up a religious fund-raising ceremony Friday, following calls from those gathered for the release of Tim Sakhorn, a defrocked monk in jail in Vietnam.

Tim Sakhorn, who has been sentenced to one year in a Vietnam jail, has become a rallying point for advocates of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom ethnic group. Tensions over the treatment of the group have spilled over into violence in past demonstrations, and police say they broke up the fundraiser to ensure public safety.

Friday's gathering was meant as a fund-raiser, organizers said, and turned unruly after some people began calling for the release of Tim Sakhorn. Plainclothes police argued with some of those gathered, witnesses said.

Officials in Phnom Penh's Phnom Den district warned people ahead of the rally not to use the gathering to demand Tim Sakhorn's freedom, organizers said.

"All their forces were deployed, and they kept an eye on the ceremony," Chhim Savuth, an investigator for the Cambodian Human Rights Organization, told VOA Khmer.

"The authorities threatened us not to mention politics, but I want to ask what politics are about," said Mam Sonando, director of the Beehive Radio station.