Cambodia: Khmer Krom monks fearful after abbot disappears

Last Updated 04/07/2007, 20:25:31
ABC Radio Australia

The disappearance of a high-profile abbot in Cambodia, Venerable Tim Sakhorn, has evoked grave concern among ethnic Khmer Krom communities around the world.

The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior says the abbot has voluntarily left Cambodia for southern Vietnam, but his family denies it, saying he has no reason to return as he has been head of his pagoda in Cambodia for years and fears persecution in his Vietnamese homeland.

The abbot of Phnom Den pagoda in Takeo province was defrocked last week by the supreme patriarch of Buddhist monks in Cambodia, Venerable Tep Vong, for an alleged attempt to undermine the relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia.

The Khmer Krom are an ethnic minority group living in the Mekong Delta regions of southern Vietnam and Cambodia which used to belong to Cambodia before Vietnam acquired it under French colonialism.

The head of the Khmer Krom Buddhist Association, Venerable Yin Sin, told Radio Australia's Khmer News that four monks have already fled Vietnam, through Cambodia and now on to Thailand, through fear of persecution, and another 11 have gone into hiding.

"The Khmer Krom have been living in fear, some have left Vietnam for safety reason, and now they are being followed," he said.
The head of the Khmer Krom community in Cambodia, Thach Setha, also expressed concern after the Cambodia Daily newspaper quoted a statement by the Cambodian supreme patriarch saying that defrocking another 11 Khmer Krom monks was possible.

Venerable Tep Vong said the monks could be drefrocked if found to have been involved in a violent brawl with local monks in April this year during a march protesting the Vietnam government's oppression of the ethnic Khmer who live in neighbouring Vietnam.

A spokesperson for the Cambodian Ministry of Interior said the ministry was not aware of the threat to defrock another 11 monks, but said once defrocked, the monks would lose their immunity from prosecution.

They could then be charged for any alleged crime or any activity deemed to be illegal or harming national security.

Cambodia's Khmer community leader Thach Setha told Radio Australia's Khmer News the community is seeking help from international human rights groups, as well diplomats, in citing Cambodia for political oppression.

Vietnam has recently been cited by human rights groups for political oppression of the Khmer Krom.

Vietnam's History of Encroachment on Its Neighbours: Kampuchea(Cambodia) and Lao


by KKM Freedom Writer
July 2, 2007

On June 30, 2007, the chief Buddhist monk--Nuon Nget of Takeo province, Cambodia, under the authorization by Cambodia's Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong and Hanoi's political influence, had illegally defrocked a Khmer-Krom's Bikkhu Tim Sakhorn, an Abbot of Phnom Den temple in Takeo.

The Hanoi's regime and the Phnom Penh's regime are allegedly accusing Bikkhu Tim Sakhorn as a figurehead of Khmer-Krom monks in Cambodia to cause political rip of the good relationship enjoying by Cambodia's communists and Vietnam's commists today.

The 1989 Withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia is fruitful or not one must analyze in detail. To many Khmers' eyes and ears, the Hanoi-regime's influence on the Phnom Penh's communist never relinquish from the start. Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese communist leader, who has seeded in Khmer mainland (Cambodia) as well in Lao, the Vietnamese agents in all levels to carry ou the Vietnamization strategy of Indochina. Today Lao, the Vietnamese sons and daughters have silently occupied the key governments positions, and departments. With Laotian names but his/her blood is biologically Vietnamese. The only obstacle to Vietnamization of Lao is the Hmong's cause for independence from the Viet-Lao government. The Laotian current regime is determined to eradicate the Hmong's resistance at all costs.

In Cambodia today, the situation is no different from Lao. Chief of Cambodia's National Police - Hok Lundy is truely of Vietnamese origin who works closely with PM Hun Sen of Cambodia.

The few Khmer-Kroms in Cambodia who have fled their homeland--the Mekong delta (or Kampuchea Krom)under the Vietnamese' oppressions, are now being rounded-up by the Hanoi-backed Phnom Penh goverment as conducting illegal activities to free "Khmer-Krom".

The Khmer-Krom are truly stateless and nationless and the world still does not understand Khmer-Krom's plight? What is the price and how many more Khmer-Krom's life need to be sacrificed to the inhumane Vietcongs, before the world starts to realize our Khmer-Krom sufferings?