| RENCONTRER DIEU |
camboDIATRIBE | MEET WITH GOD |
1. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUMASIA),
a non-governmental organisation in special consultative status, in cooperation
with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and
the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, wish
to draw the attention of the 61st Commission on Human Rights [of March
10, 2005] on the situation of Khmer Krom Peoples in Vietnam.
2. While the human rights situation in Viet Nam has been raised at the
UN Commission on Human Rights, very
little is known about the oppression of the indigenous Khmer Krom people
in this country who lived in the former Cochin China, now in the southern
part of present-day Viet Nam.
3. The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) while considering Viet Nam's second
Periodic Report, requested the country "to provide information on minorities
in Viet Nam, including the Khmer Krom community."
4. The assurances provided, in Viet Nam's response to the HRC dated 23
April, 2002, contrast sharply with the actual reality of Khmer Krom situation.
Having endured immense human rights violations, subjected to ethnic, religious,
and cultural discrimination and grievous oppression, they remain too terrorized
to speak out about their sufferings to the world. Efforts to use domestic
remedies have resulted in increased repression and retaliation,
as indicated in the report, Vietnam: The Silencing
of Dissent, by Human Rights Watch of 1 May 2000.
5. Gross and systematic human rights violations have been inflicted upon
the Khmer Krom people by Vietnamese authorities. This has been the strategy
of Viet Nam after it occupied Khmer Krom homeland. In this strategy countless
Khmer Krom leaders have faced summary executions.
Others faced involuntary disappearance or remain incarcerated for life.
In terms of prison atrocities, unknown substances to impair a Khmer
Krom individual's brain functions were applied with detainees then
being released mentally immobilised.
6. The Khmer Krom people are farmers and as such securing their land rights
becomes a crucial issue. Unfortunately, their lands have been confiscated
by the Vietnamese authorities to build roads and irrigation systems or
handed over to Vietnamese farmers. No compensation
has been provided to the Khmer Krom people. On the contrary, if they wish
to use the water from the irrigation facilities, they must pay for it.
7. Around 95 percent of the Khmers-Krom people practice Hinayana Buddhism,
whereas most Vietnamese practice Mahayana. On this issue, Viet Nam continues
to violate the rights of Hinayana Buddhists. The Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Religion or Belief, in his report to the fifty-fifth session
of the UNCHR said: "The Special Rapporteur went to the place where a
private meeting was to take place with representatives of the Khmers Krom,
but the people he interviewed were unable to communicate any information
whatsoever. After the visit, non-governmental sources indicated that the
Khmers Krom representatives' failure to make statements had apparently
been due to pressure from the security services."
8. Similarly, HRC Concluding Observations of 26 July 2002 noted that Viet
Nam had provided insufficient information for the Committee "to have
a clear view of the situation in Viet Nam with regard to religious freedom.
In the light of information available to the Committee that certain religious
practices are repressed or strongly discouraged in Viet Nam, the Committee
is seriously concerned that the State party's practice in this respect
does not meet the requirements of Article 18 of the Covenant. The Committee
is deeply concerned by allegations of harassment and detention of religious
leaders and regrets that the delegation failed to provide information relating
to such allegations. In this context, the Committee is concerned at the
restrictions placed on outside observers who
wished to investigate the allegations."
9. The Viet Nam's Ordinance of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly
regarding religious belief and religious organizations of 18 June, 2004
assures a degree of religious freedom. However, in practice temples
have been used as prisons. Authorities dictate how Buddhism should
be practiced with police stationed at Buddhist [temple] to enforce the
government's policies. Land owned by Buddhist temples has been seized
to provide housing for Vietnamese settlers. The imposition of restrictions
on the importation of Pitakas (Buddhist
religious texts) from Cambodia for use by the Khmer Krom people remains
a serious concern. Similarly forcing Khmer Krom monks
to join the Vietnamese army is creating a vacuum in the Khmer Krom's
Buddhist clergy strength to serve the religious needs of the Khmer Krom
people.
10. In terms of economic, social and cultural rights, there are no health
care facilities, no doctors or health workers, no prenatal care for expectant
mothers, no vaccinations for children. As a result infant mortality rate
is high. One of the major health crisis, faced by thousands of Khmer Krom
people is blindness of undetermined origin in one or both eyes, for
which no treatment is available.
11. Clinics and hospitals in the urban areas generally refuse to treat
Khmer Krom people because they cannot pay medical bills. Since 2003, the
epidemic of blindness has spread throughout Kleang Provinces. Viet Nam,
however, has failed to address the problem by making no serious effort
to find the causes and remedies.
12. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in its Summary
Record of the 848th Meeting of 22 January 2003, acknowledged that children
in remote areas of Viet Nam had less access to social services than children
in urban settings. This applies generally to Khmer Krom children. Deficiencies
in education for the Khmers Krom children relate closely to religious-cultural
discrimination and socio-economic marginalisation. Instead of promoting
the tradition and culture of Khmer Krom people as an integral part of educating
Khmer Krom children, Viet Nam has looked upon the Khmer Krom language,
culture, and tradition with consistent disdain. As such, there is no
center for Khmer Krom studies or library in the Khmer language anywhere
in Viet Nam. Teaching of the Khmer language in public school is inadequate.
The Khmer Krom Buddhist clergy are forced to study new books and materials
that are devoid of their cultural values.
13. The Vietnamese population generally enjoy far better educational opportunities
and programs than the Khmer Krom people. In a Khmer Krom population estimated
by some international sources as 8 million (1.3
million, according to the Government of Viet Nam), no one
holds a Ph. D. and only 6 individuals hold Masters Degrees. Many Khmer
Krom who hold undergraduate degrees remain unemployed.
14. Khmers Krom people are forced to adopt Vietnamese culture, forced to
use only the Vietnamese language in official business, forced to subordinate
their traditions to the economic interests of the State (as in conducting
the traditionally-annual boat-racing festivals more than once a year, so
as to provide more tourist-generated income for the government). Social
and cultural activities of the Khmer Krom people are controlled and managed
by Vietnamese authorities. The Khmer Krom people
are denied the right to wear traditional clothing and the right to
build cultural museums.
15. Another serious problem faced by the Khmer Krom people is the State-supported
settlement of Vietnamese in the Khmer Krom homeland. This brought about
grave consequences upon our culture. The Concluding observations Viet Nam
of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD), of 15 August, 2001, included the following expression of concern:
"The Committee is further concerned about the alleged population transfer
to territories inhabited by indigenous groups, disadvantaging them in the
exercise of their social, economic and cultural rights."
16. In conclusion, our organisations calls upon the Government of Viet
Nam
i. To invite the World Health Organization (WHO) and relevant thematic
mandates of the UN Commission on Human Rights, in particular the Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Health and the Special Rapporteur on human rights
of indigenous peoples, on official missions, including to the homeland
of the Khmer Krom people.
ii. To take effective measures in implementing the recommendations of the
following treaties bodies
a. Concluding observations of the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination:
Vietnam 15/08/2001 especially
i. Paragraph 424: "The Committee recommends that State party strengthen
the education of the society in a spirit of respect for human rights and
in particular the rights of members of ethnic minorities."
b. Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Vietnam
26/07/2002 especially
i. Paragraph 19 "The State party should take immediate measures to ensure
the rights of members of indigenous people communities are respected. Non-governmental
organizations and other human rights monitors should be granted access…"
c. Concluding observation of the Committee on Rights of the Child:
Vietnam 18/03/2003 especially
i. Paragraph 14 "The Committee recommends that the State party pay particular
attention to the full implementation of article 4 of the Convention by
prioritizing budgetary allocations to ensure implementation of the economic,
social and cultural rights of children, in particular those belonging to
economically disadvantaged groups and living in rural or mountainous areas,…"
18. We call on the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples of the Sub-Commission
to take into consideration the plight of Khmer Krom people in their continuous
study on lands rights and Indigenous peoples.
19. We call on the Permanent Forum of the Indigenous Peoples to pay attention
in their discourse to this highly marginalized Khmer
Krom Peoples in Vietnam.
Le député khmer poursuivra-t-il
l'hebdomadaire français ? (2005-Mar-26)
L’Express exposes Ranariddh’s corruption
Khmerintelligence.org : In its latest edition dated 28 March
2005, the French magazine L’Express publishes a detailed report on corruption
in Cambodia titled “Pots-de-vin à Phnom Penh” [Kickbacks in Phnom
Penh]. In particular, the report exposes Prince Norodom Ranariddh’s
corruption in the signing of a $26.7 million contract for the construction
of the National Assembly’s new building whereas the real construction cost
doesn’t exceed $13 million. The dubious deal and its subsequent denunciation
by opposition parliamentarians have led to what might be the murder of
a key witness in order to protect Ranariddh from a scandal.
UN demands
probe into Cambodian land dispute deaths
AFP : The UN's human rights agency has demanded an investigation
into the shooting deaths of as many as six villagers during a land dispute
in north-western Cambodia. The villagers were protesting their removal
from a disputed piece of land when they were shot by military police. A
spokesman for the UN Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights said the killings is unacceptable. "A thorough
and public inquiry should be conducted and those responsible should be
held to account."
The shootings occurred as a stand-off between hundreds of security forces
and villagers armed with farm tools erupted in violence in Banteay Meanchey
province. More than 100 military police and police had been trying to clear
an area in Kbal Spean village where 218 families lived after a court ordered
the land be handed over to a village chief,
officials and rights activists said. Four villagers were immediately shot
dead while another died in hospital. "Another injured villager died
late Monday in a local hospital bringing the number of dead to six,"
Nhem Sarath from local rights group ADHOC said, though officials have denied
the sixth death. "Only five were killed," said Sok Sareth, the deputy governor
overseeing security in the province. He said the killers would be found
and punished. "We will investigate the incident urgently," Sok Sareth said.
"Many people were involved and they are just blaming
each other." Sixteen people arrested during the clash have been
released, Sok Sareth said. Nhem Sarath said that the remaining families
had been cleared from their homes by Monday night.
M Preuk : Only five were killed, declared Sok Sareth! Only five! They are five too many, Mr Sok Sareth, these people are not animals that were slaughtered, please have some human decency! Maybe the power of the government cronies who want these lands for building a casino might grease the "iron fist" and make it slippery enough so that it can never catch the killers.
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( PRÉCÉDENT ) |
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