MAY 2007 (part1) - Khmer Krom Recipes

YEAR.2_No.17 May 2007 www.khmerkromrecipes.com KU SRAH SREY Magazine
"And we're particularly concerned about the renewed pressures—the renewed pressures—and the
renewed restrictions being placed on ethnic minority Khmer Buddhists and Hmong Protestants,"
Richard Land, of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Vietnam's rights abuses
increased after it gained entrance into the World Trade Organization, the experts said.
The country was admitted to the world trade body in January.
But the good faith shown by the US and other countries was a betrayal, said T. Kumar, a rights advocate
for Amnesty International. Recent arrests and trials of dissidents have increased, in what Kumar said
caste a gloomy future for the country.
"I hope I'm wrong, but all the examples that's coming up today, tomorrow and in the near future, I think
it's extremely gloomy," Kumar said. "So what can the US do? Basically I think the US was taken for a
ride by the Vietnamese authorities, behaving very well before PNTR (Permanent Normal Trade
Relations) and WTO, and changing its habits, once it gets it. So I would say it's a betrayal to the US's
good intentions."
Among those being persecuted are members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom minority. The Khmer
Kampuchea Krom Federation, who had North American representatives attend the hearing, wants to see
Vietnam placed back on the Countries of Particular Concern, or CPC, list, in order to force greater
adherence to international human rights norms.
"Because to put Vietnam back to the CPC list, that sends a signal to the government of Vietnam that
what they did is not welcome by the United States and also by the world," said Tran Mannrinh, a
spokesman for the group.
A return to the list would censure Vietnamese authorities and take some rights pressures off the Khmer
Kampuchea Krom, who have at least 13 monks and 67 laymen currently in jail, according to the
Federation, citing reports from members of the group living in Vietnam. The reports have not been
independently verified.
By allowing Vietnam to trade under WTO rules and keeping the country off the list of countries of
concern, the US sends a message of acceptance to Vietnam, and ultimately undermines its own
reputation in the country, Tran Mannrinh said.
"They send the wrong signal," he said. "The Vietnamese government thinks that, oh, the United States
or the world doesn't care about what they do, [they] just care about the economy, just care about trade,
just, white people want to go there and make money."
Rumors of rights abuses of Khmer Kampuchea Krom have trickled out of Vietnam in recent months, but
many times those accusations are filtered through factionalized groups who claim to support the
minorities, but are also politicized.
Tran Mannrinh said the Federation did not condone politicization of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom
among Cambodians.
His colleague, Chan Kosal Vong, a monk who attended the Congressional meeting in his saffron robes,
put it this way: "Our Khmer Kampuchea Krom groups, even though they are many, but in total there is
only one group, the Khmer Kampuchea Krom people."
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