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