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YEAR.2_No.17 May <strong>2007</strong> www.khmerkromrecipes.com KU SRAH SREY Magazine<br />
Bt_manepSg ²<br />
12 May <strong>2007</strong><br />
The US will send human rights activists to Kampuchea <strong>Krom</strong><br />
By Kim Pov Sottan<br />
Radio Free Asia<br />
Translated from <strong>Khmer</strong> by Socheata<br />
The USA plans to send human rights activists to Kheang province (Soc Trang in Vietnamese),<br />
Kampuchea <strong>Krom</strong> (South Vietnam), in the near future after it was reported that recent jail sentences<br />
were handed down to <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks.<br />
Following his meeting with US Senate and the US Committee in charge of Human Rights,<br />
Thach Ngoc Thach, the leader of the <strong>Khmer</strong> Kampuchea-<strong>Krom</strong> Federation (KKF), said: “We met with<br />
the committee, it will send another delegation committee to Khleang province within 6 months, in order<br />
to meet with our monks and <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> people one more time, in order to obtain factual information<br />
on the sentence and the oppression perpetrated on <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks and population in Khleang<br />
province.”<br />
The meeting was urgently set up following the 2 to 4-year jail sentences handed down by the<br />
Vietnamese authority in Khleang province on <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks on 10 May. <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks<br />
were demanding for their religious freedom.<br />
Thach Ngoc Thach added that the US human rights office, and the US religious affair have<br />
supported the activities of <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks, and that KKF in the world is also pursuing this case<br />
with the European Union Parliament in order to obtain pressure on Vietnam.<br />
On the same day, about 10 associations of <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> people in Cambodia have issued a joint<br />
statement condemning the Vietnamese authority and called on the international community to review<br />
this case.<br />
Monk Yoeung Sin, President of the <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks Association, said: “Does the<br />
[Vietnamese] authority have the right to take such action against religious belief? Any country<br />
respecting human rights, and Vietnam, in particular, who adheres to the UN convention on human<br />
rights, and in whose constitution stipulates in Section 67-68, the respect of individual rights to religious<br />
freedom, and activities normally conducted by any human in the world, as a citizen of Vietnam.”<br />
At the beginning of February, several hundreds of <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> student-monks at the superior<br />
Pali school in Khleang province, held a demonstration against the Vietnamese authority which<br />
prevented them from leaving the pagoda to go beg for their daily alms. Later on, the Vietnamese<br />
authority arrested and defrocked several of the monks. Recently, 5 monks were sentenced to 2 to 4-year<br />
jail for creating disorder.<br />
In the upcoming 14-25 May <strong>2007</strong>, a UN meeting for native people will also be organized.<br />
<strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> leaders in the world claimed that they will raised during this meeting the issues of land<br />
grabbing from <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> people in Vietnam, and the oppression of <strong>Khmer</strong> <strong>Krom</strong> monks.<br />
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