July 7,2006
source: VOKK
News released from our homeland, Kampuchea Krom (south Vietnam), said that there is a new case of the state of Vietnam has committed another deceitful act on the innocent and defenseless Khmer Krom residents.
The scheme has involved State's project funded by the foreign funds, whereby the authorities are building houses for the Khmer Krom poor. Deceitfully, the houses the Vietnamese authorities are building for Khmer Krom poor families were structured by wooden and or bamboo support mixed with cements and gravels, instead of the normal engineered way with metal materials.
Many Khmer Krom recipients of these housing projects are afraid to live in these houses for fear of collapsing, but accepted it anyway in concern of State's reprisal for not accepting.
Defenseless Khmer-Kroms tortured by Vietnamese Authorities
July 07,2006
Source: KKF
The local Vietnamese authority led by Nguyen Van Hieu has involved in the interrogations, tortures, and disappearance of the Khmer Krom people in An Giang province, south Vietnam.
The three victim names are as follow:
- Mr. Chau Sok Kha born in1978, Phothi village, An Cu commune, Tinh Bien district, An Giang province.
- Mr. Chau Siem born in 1971, Phothi village, An Cu commune, Tinh Bien district, An Giang province.
- Mr. Chau Chien born in 1985, Phothi village, An Cu commune, Tinh Bien district, An Giang province.
On May 15, 2006, the above three Khmer-Krom individuals were watching at home the VCD materials produced by Khmers Kampuchea Federation (KKF). The VCD showed the KKF members’ participation at the Fourth Session United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) at the United Nations Headquarters, New York from 16 to 27 May 2005. The three Khmer-Krom individuals were delighted and overjoyed to see the materials with hope. The three had planned to share the VCD materials with their fellow neighbors about the recent successes of the Khmer Krom overseas who have made great strides to be part of the UNPFII forum and represented the million Khmer-Kroms’ suffering voice in their homeland at the United Nations’ forum. At the forum, KKF’s representatives seeked for the respect Khmer Krom human rights in south Vietnam, and presented our Khmer Krom’s views on issues of Khmer Krom poverty, religious oppression, and cultural issues in south Vietnam.
The local Vietnamese authority later found out the case and summoned the three Khmer Krom individuals who had possessed and had seen the VCD materials, to the local Vietnamese police station for question. The interrogation began with torture, beaten to unconsciousness and forced confessions to no longer possess any publicized KKF materials, neither listening to the Voice of America Radio in Khmer, Radio Free Asia Radio in Khmer, Voice of Khmer Krom (VOKK) radio in Khmer in the future . After hours of interrogation the three Khmer Kroms were dismissed to go home.
On May 30, 2006, Mr. Chau Sok Kha was summoned once again and the interrogation led by the same local policeman Nguyen Van Hieu. Mr. Chau Sok Kha was detained for a day without foods or water, and was tortured to broken rips, arms, and legs. On May 31, 2006, with his family’s assistance, he escaped to Cambodia in search for protection, and is currently seeking refuge from the UNHCR headquarters in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. On June 01, 2006, Mr. Chau Sok Kha first approached the ADHOC, an NGO of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Next day he approached the UNHCR in Phnom Penh to seek the protection.
The other two Khmer-Krom individuals are still reported missing. Perhaps, the two men are currently in the Vietnamese’ detention, facing the same form of torture and their lives are still in grave danger.
We, Khmer Krom, desperately seek your immediate intervention on this matter and call for the state of Vietnam to stop their atrocious acts of violating Khmer Krom’s rights to freedom of information, and freedom of expression and association.
We work in accordance to the international law and the promotion of human rights and peace in the region. We demand the same respect from the government of Vietnam when it comes to dealing with our Khmer Krom people in south Vietnam, our homeland. Only this current case, there are many other cases on the rights violations of our Khmer Krom people, such as the land-grabs cases of many Khmer Krom farmlands and the mistreatments of thousands of Khmer Krom blindness case in provinces of Soc Trang and Bac Lieu
Majority of the Khmer Krom people practice Theravada Buddhism and in particular the Khmer Krom venerable monks have dedicated their whole lives to Buddhism. On contrary the state of Vietnam have forced our every Khmer Krom Buddhist monk to register as "none religion" status on their social identification card.
Khmer Krom worldwide would like to request for all governments and NGOs to put pressure on the current government of Vietnam to immediately cease any rights violation against our defenseless Khmer Krom in our homeland and respect the United Nations’ Universal Human Rights Charter where Vietnam is signatory of.
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