Comrade Heng Xamrin on kowtow visit to Vietcong-occupied Prey Nokor

Cambodian legislator starts official VN visit

July, 21 2012
VNS

HCM CITY — President of the Cambodian National Assembly, Samdech Akka Moha Phonhea Chakrei Heng Samrin, arrived in HCM City yesterday, starting an official six-day visit to Viet Nam at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Sinh Hung. 

The Cambodian legislator is accompanied by Cheam Yeap, chairman of the Commission of Economy, Finance, Banking and Audit and the president of the Cambodian Group at the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA); and Chheang Vun, chairman of the Commission for External Relations and International Co-operation.

Heng Samrin was received by the Secretary of the city's Party Committee, Le Thanh Hai.

Drug addiction on the rise in HCMC

Police search drug suspects after arresting them for buying illegal substances on Hoai Thanh Street in District 8

3/23/2010
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

Ho Chi Minh City admitted 3,424 drug addicts into rehabilitation programs during the 14-month period ending March 15, an increase of 18.4 percent year-on-year, police said Monday.

Deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Colonel Phan Anh Minh, said around 2,400 former addicts had relapsed into drug use after being discharged from rehabilitation center so far. The figure makes for a 20 percent loss rate.

But on the other hand, more than 7,000 others had found jobs, according to figures from the city’s Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The city also provided business loans worth VND9.8 billion (US$513,000) to 1,692 recovered addicts, authorities said.

Minh said drugs were brought into the city mainly from the northern region and some Mekong Delta provinces that border Cambodia.

Maiden flight of Prey Nokor News

The Prey Nokor News has published its first number
Click here to read this web-based newspaper in Khmer

Khmer Krom people protest about land disputes in Prey Nokor (HCMC)

15 December 2007
By Mayarith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A source from Kampuchea Krom (South Vietnam) indicated that numerous Khmer Krom people are facing the stopping and the arrest by the Vietnamese authority, as they were gathering to demand their lands back in front of the office of Vietnamese MPs in Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh City).

Last night’s land protest demonstration by Khmer Krom people is considered as a renewal of demonstration activities in this month of December, in spite of the fact that numerous Khmer Krom monks were sent to jail by the Vietnamese authority.

“…right now, the police are pushing people in my group into a truck. These people are resisting and they are refusing to climb into the truck. They all want to die together in Prey Nokor…” this call for help by Khmer Krom people took place last night, when a group of about 150 Khmer Krom demonstrators were prevented by the Vietnamese police (from holding their demonstration) in front of the MPs office in Prey Nokor.

There is no report indicating how many Khmer Krom people were arrested or faced oppression because of their demands to get their farmlands back.

The protesters claimed that the Vietnamese authority refused to return several hectares of their farmlands after displacing these Khmer Krom people out of their villages and their lands in 1979.

The displacements of Khmer Krom people took place during the war between former Khmer Rouge soldiers and Vietnamese soldiers in Motr Chrouk province, Kampuchea Krom, and at that time, the Vietnamese army forced the population to move out. However, several years after the Khmer Krom people returned to their lands, the Vietnamese still refuse to return their lands back.

Chau In, the leader of last night demonstrators, yelled out his demand: “Right now, our Khmer Krom brothers and sisters have no freedom rights at all, look at it, they (the Vietnamese) do anything they want on us, they oppress us anyway they like. Therefore, I am calling to international organizations in the world to help resolve the problem for Khmer Krom people who are losing their lands, we demand that our lands be returned back to us, the rightful owners.”

Phy Ny, a Khmer Krom woman, yelled out: “Please help us, the Vietnamese police is squeezing us, they oppress us very strongly, they have electric baton, knives, guns, they threaten us and force us to enter the truck (for arrest). We refuse to go, my group would rather die, we’d rather die than leave if the communist cadres do not resolve our farmlands issue for us. If I leave, I won’t have anything to eat, everyday, I have to work as a laborer for others, and a large plot of my rice field land was lost…”

The Vietnamese authority could not be reached last night.

Khmer Krom people demand that Vietnam resolve the land dispute issue

03 September 2007
By Kim Pov Sottan
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) claimed that at least 200 Khmer Krom people have traveled on Monday to the office of the Vietnamese Assembly located in Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnamese) in order to demand for a resolution in the land dispute issue.

Monk Thach Binh, a KKF representative, said that these Khmer Krom people came from Motr Chrouk province (Chau Doc in Vietnamese), and they had split up in numerous small groups led by three Khmer Krom leaders: Chau Heng, Chau In, and Chau Uk. “There are 210 people altogether, but when we left, we split up into three groups: the first group arrived last night at midnight, when they arrived there (Prey Nokor) … their side (the Vietnamese authority) arrested them, they were prevented from leaving, they were threatened and suffered hardships. There is no break, so our (Khmer Krom) brothers are continuing the struggle until tomorrow, we will see how many more will arrive,” Monk Thach Binh said.

From Kampuchea Krom, Chau Heng, a leader of the demonstrators from Motr Chrouk who is currently standing in front of the office of the Vietnamese Assembly in Prey Nokor, said over the phone that Khmer Krom villagers reached here in secret. He said that his group counts 11 people, but two of them were arrested by the police. He indicated that many more are yet to arrive.

Chau Heng indicated: “They will come, there are some more still coming, a few at a time. Even if we are arrested, we will resist and fight on because we lost our ancestral lands, anybody would regret (this kind of lost). Also, the number of people who are suffering hunger is growing daily, they have no work. Like me for example, I had to swim across several water streams and rivers, it was flooding water level in these rivers, I swam across them all to reach here.”

The same source indicated that, for some groups, their leaders had been arrested by the Vietnamese cops, while other groups are ordered by the Vietnamese cops to return back to their villages, and wait for a resolution.

RFA could not reach the Vietnamese government yet. However, Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouthpiece in Phnom Penh, indicated that he did not receive this information yet, but he said Hanoi’s prime minister ordered a resolution of land disputes at the local levels.

This is the second time that Khmer Krom people from Motr Chrouk province are protesting to demand back their lands and their farmlands in Prey Nokor. In June 2007, a group of more than 1,000 protesters, including both Khmer Krom and Vietnamese people, sustained severe repression from their public protest.

The Khmer Krom protesters said that they will maintain their demands because they have waited for a resolution, but so far none has come.

Prey Nokor donates Koki trees to Phnom Penh city

Thursday, August 30, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Prey Nokor City (renamed Ho Chi Minh City by Hanoi) in Vietnam provided 110 fully grown “Koki” trees to Phnom Penh city, to be planted in Phnom Penh. Sam Samuth, an official from the Phnom Penh department of parks and vegetations, indicated that these Koki trees were planted by his department since 27 August around Wat Phnom monument, in front of the French embassy, in the park located in front of the Bun Rany Hun Sen-Wat Phnom high school, along Street No. 178 located next to the northern fence wall of the royal palace, and in front of the Ministry of Justice next to the royal palace. Sam Samuth said that this is the second time that Prey Nokor donates Koki trees to Phnom Penh city. A fist donation was made in 2006, when Prey Nokor provided 156 Koki trees which were planted around Wat Phnom and the park located near the Bun Rany Hun Sen-Wat Phnom high school.

After joining hands to arrest and jail Monk Tim Sakhorn, the next logical step is to join hands to boost tourism in the Indochinese Federation

A Cambodia’s display booth in the International Tourism Exhibition in Prey Nokor last year. (Photo: SGGP)

17/08/2007
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to join hands to boost tourism

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia will join hands to launch a program themed “Three Countries – One Destination” aimed at boosting international tourism, said an official of the Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnamese) Department of Tourism.

The participation by the three nations’ tourism agencies will promote a circle of tourist destinations and attract tourists from far across the world.

The ministries of tourism of the three countries will take part in a discussion of long-term development strategies and tourist products at the 2007 International Tourism Exhibition in Prey Nokor, which will run from October 5-7.

The expo is regarded as an opportunity for the countries to showcase their products and to boost cooperation with international travel agencies. Over 100 tourism businesses from 21 countries and territories are expected to attend.

Source: SGGP

Khieu Kanharith personally asks the Cambodian consulate in VN to investigate the case of Monk Tim Sakhorn

Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Following the panic caused by the disappearance of the former abbot of the Phnom Den pagoda, located in Kirivong district, Takeo province, for more than 1-month after his defrocking, the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia recently indicated that Monk Tim Sakhorn is currently jailed in Vietnam. Regarding this issue, Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman, said on Monday that he personally asked the Cambodian consulate in Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnamese) to investigate the case of the jailing of Monk Tim Sakhorn. Khieu Kanharith who is also minister of information, told The Cambodia Daily that he contacted the Cambodian consulate to inquire about the charge against Monk Tim Sakhorn. He said that he is waiting for the consulate to contact him back following its investigation of the case. Khieu Kanharith is also pushing NGOs to visit Monk Tim Sakhorn in jail if they can, but he also told the NGOs that if they are denied access to Monk Tim Sakhorn, they should remain quiet and not protest about this case, in order not to impede the consulate’s work.
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KI-Media Note: The Cambodia Daily also reported that Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouth piece at its embassy in Phnom Penh, said that these was no reason to return Monk Tim Sakhorn back to Cambodia, because he is a Vietnamese citizen and he committed anti-Vietnamese crimes in both Vietnam and Cambodia. Khieu Kanharith claimed that Monk Tim Sakhorn hold dual citizenships: Cambodian and Vietnamese.