Kampuchea Krom persecution

Human Rights Watch documents the abuses suffered by Kampuchea Krom minorities.

The 125-page report, “On the Margins: Rights Abuses of Ethnic Khmer in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta,” documents ongoing violations of the rights of the Khmer Krom in southern Vietnam and also abuses in Cambodia against Khmer Krom who have fled there for refuge. Wary about possible Khmer Krom nationalist aspirations, Vietnam has suppressed peaceful expressions of dissent and banned Khmer Krom human rights publications. It also tightly controls the Theravada Buddhism practiced by the Khmer Krom, who see this form of Buddhism as the foundation of their distinct culture and ethnic identity.

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The report also examines rights abuses of Khmer Krom who have moved to Cambodia, where they remain among Cambodia’s most disenfranchised groups. Because they are often perceived as ethnic Vietnamese by Cambodians, many Khmer Krom in Cambodia face social and economic discrimination and unnecessary hurdles to legalizing their status.

Hatred and fear of Vietnam are — still – causing Khmers to turn on each other. What a catastrophic failure to understand history.

Journalist murdered

From VOA: The editor of the Voice of Khmer Krom newspaper has been found murdered.

Pov Sam Ath, 29, a journalist who colleagues say was sympathetic toward the Khmer Kampuch Krom ethnic group, was found murdered Wednesday.

Police said they found Pov Sam Ath’s body hidden in the bushes of a field in Treng Trayung commune, Kampong Speu province. He had been beaten with a baton, asphyxiated and put in a trunk, police said.

Pov Sam Ath was the editor of Samleng Khmer Krom, or Voice of Khmer Krom, a newspaper sympathetic to the cause of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom ethnic group, many of whom live in Vietnam but have cultural ties to Cambodia.

Family members who spoke to VOA said Pov Sam Ath’s death may have been related to a personal grudge. And perhaps that is true. But the timing is suspicious, and anything less than a thorough and transparent investigation will only fuel rumors and more suspicion. And probably more violence.

The red menace

In an opinion piece on Oped News, a former defense industry consultant raises the “red flag” on continuing human rights violations by the Vietnamese government. While the piece focuses mainly on the suppression of the Hmong in Laos, it also touches on the Montagnards and Khmer Krom, two groups acutely connected to Cambodia.

The Montagnard Foundation reports that they hold evidence that bounty hunters capture the Montagnard refugees in Cambodia, and sell them back to the Vietnamese for $20 to $100.

Twenty dollars is a month’s pay for a policeman in this part of the world.

“Why does the mainstream media ignore the plight of the Montagnards, the Khmer Krom, and their cousins, the Hmong in Laos for over 30 years, and still continue to do so?” asked Chue Chou Tchang, from the Special Guerrilla Units (SGU) Veterans. SGU Veterans is a U.S.- based Hmong human rights organization organization.

The answer, unfortunately, is this: nobody cares. The history of the world is rife with paranoid, murderous regimes. Virtually none of them have ever been dealt with while it still mattered. And as heartbreaking as it may be, the status quo seems unlikely to take a turn for the better now.

Two Kampuchea Krom men reported missing in Vietnam

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization reports that two Kampuchea Krom men have gone missing at the hands of Vietnamese authorities.

On behalf of the KKF (Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation), the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) would like to highlight and bring to international attention the current arrest, interrogations, torture and disappearances of three Khmer Krom individuals, Mr. Chau Sok Kha, Mr. Chau Siem and Mr. Chau Chien, persecuted on the sole basis of watching at home a VCD showing the KKF members’ participation at the Fourth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Mr. Chau Sok Kha has been released — with broken ribs, arms, and legs — but the other two men are "reported missing, and are thought to be in Vietnamese’ incarceration and their lives in grave peril".