Vietnam put down Khmer Krom land protest
10 January 2008
By Kim Pov Sottan
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A source from the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) in the world, based in Cambodia, indicated that at least 16 people were seriously injured and several others were slightly injured during the put down of a land protest by Khmer Krom villagers coming from An Giang province, the former land of Kampuchea Krom (South Vietnam), during Wednesday night.
52-year-old Sokhom said: “I want to die there. They were angry at us, and they call in the cops to force us to climb into the car, but my group didn’t want to, so they shocked us (with the electric baton) and some passed out, and they threw us in the car. My head had a gash, and it is bleeding since yesterday.”
Mrs. Neang Ye, the leader of the demonstrators, who passed out, said: “First, they dragged me out of there, and they threw to the ground. Four of them (Vietnamese cops) beat me up and they hit me 5 times with a steel rod, then they hit my right arms 4 more times, then they took the steel rod to beat me on my shin twice more. After that, they shocked me, I passed out, and they took me to the provincial governor place. They said that I am involved in politics. I said that I am not involved in politics, they should look at my complaint letter. They said: your body hurt so much and you are still hotheaded? You want to die or to live? Be careful or else you won’t find wood to cremate yourself on time.”
More than 200 Khmer Krom people have protested on land disputes. They came from various districts of Motr Chrouk province, and they gathered in the morning of Wednesday to demand that the Vietnamese authority returns back their farm lands that the Vietnamese government confiscated from them several years ago.
The protestors do not plan to end their demands, however, at 11:00 PM, the Vietnamese cops were brought in to put them down.
Chau In, one of the protest leaders, added that, on Thursday, 130 Khmer Krom people traveled to the An Su commune office to continue the protest, in spite of the police raid last night. “The people are still angry and hurt, because they came to look for justice, but justice was not rendered to them,” Chau In said.
The An Giang Vietnamese cops recognized that the clash did take place, however, they denied that the clash took place between the cops and Khmer Krom protestors, it was in fact a clash with the Vietnamese Women Association. “The cops did not beat them up, but the (Vietnamese) women association advised the protestors to return back home, then the clash took place.”
Venerable Thach Bin, a KKF representative in Cambodia, condemned that the put down by the Vietnamese authority on Khmer Krom protestors.

Credit to http://ki-media.blogspot.com/

Our land, Cambodia used to be the jewel and was once known as Khmer Empire of Southeast Asia before Thailand, Laos and Vietnam invasion. Thai were Chinese from Nanchoa province which is known as Tai. They invaded west part of Cambodia and became a country in 1350(-3?). Since then,Thais adopted Khmer tradition, food, and language from the 13th century. Laos and Vietnamese people were ethnic minorities of southern China. Vietnam aka Annam gradually pushed downward and illegally took Cambodian ancestral territory(Khmer Krom) in June 1949 and became what is known as South Vietnam today. Below, three maps showing the original territorial size of Cambodia Empire.

First left:  Map of Khmer empire is displaying at the Royal ground, Pnom Penh Cambodia. The “greatest extent, from the 12th-13th centuries. To the left is Burma, with Arakan at its border (far left). To the right are North Vietnam (Dai Viet) and South Vietnam (Champa); China at the top (appropriately colored red); and a slice of Malaysia (green) at the very bottom of the map. Laos and Thai are not shown on this map, because the country did not exist at that time.”

Middle: Animated time map of Khmer empire 100 CE- 1550 CE

Last third:  Khmer empire, c. 1200

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Original map of Cambodia
The yellow highlighted areas indicate Cambodia’s ancestral land in 1150 A.D.
Again, Thailand, Laos and south Vietnam did not exist as countries at that time. Cambodia bordered Myanmar, China, Champa(“central Vietnam”).

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Dark purple highlighted is Cambodia in 1400 A.D.
Over many disastrous years of invasion, our ancestral land size reduced after
being sacked by Chinese of southern China; Tai(Thai-Siam), Annam(Vietnam), and the establishment of Laos(Lan Xang or Lan Chang) by a Cambodian king. The Khmer empire started to weaken gradually as wars and invasion continued.

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Cambodia in 1946 in dark purple shade.
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Having been heavily bombed and persistently invaded,
this is what Cambodia is today. ON THE VERGE OF ANNIHILATION. 
As they expand, we shrink.

sources:

http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/seasia/ppenh/khmer01.html

http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art-3395/Khmer-empire-1200

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Carte_Empire-Khmer.png

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SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS CONTINUE:

The Khmer Krom (south Cambodia):
After invasions by Thai, Vietnam ,Champa(central Vietnam) and the establishment of Laos by Khmer king, the french arrived around year 1800’s (1863-1941). Cambodia became French colony. The ethnocentric French renamed Cambodia to “French Indochine(French Indochina) meaning French, India and China, I found this name to be VERY insulting because we are NOT  FRENCH nor Indian and neither Chinese.”  The Khmer empire did have contacts with the Indian through religion, some arts and perhaps a slight influence on Indian spice. We had contacts with Chinese through trade and economic in the ancient days.The French were very ignorance, they came, they conquered and left Cambodia in great a mess. A great mess which Cambodia still struggle to solve. After years of fighting for  independence from the French, Cambodia gained her  Independence in 1953. The French arrogantly  left Cambodia and  illegally transferred southern Cambodia to north Vietnam in 1949 without any permission from rightful land owner. Since Vietnam confiscated Cambodia’s ancestral land, our struggles and suffering have been beyond human imagination… ethnic cleansing and land encroachment, genocide still continue today.

Early Killing Field
-Kampuchea Krom land now known as “South Vietnam.”
On June 04 1949, just before their complete withdrawal from Indochina which included Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam for more than a hundred years; the French government illegally gave the lower part of Cambodia’s land (Kampuchea Krom) to Vietnam.

Shortly thereafter the Vietnamese government took over all Kampuchea Krom land including our homes. They renamed our land to Vietnamese names. All the streets and anything that had a Khmer name were changed to Vietnamese.

They forced all Khmer in Kampuchea Krom to change or convert their Khmer name to Vietnamese. If we can’t convert our Khmer name to Vietnamese then we must choose one of these Vietnamese last names assigned for us, and it didn’t matter if we were blood relatives or not. For example, Khmer Krom from Khleang (Soc Trang),Trapeang ( Tra Vinh), Pov Lieu (Bac Lieu) and Tirk Khmao ( Ca Mau) provinces had their last names changed to either Son,Thach or Kim. Khmer Krom from Karmourn Sor (Kien Giang), Prek Reussey (Can Tho), Long Ho (Vinh Long) and Mott Chrouk (Chau Doc) last names were changed to Danh, Chau or Ly. The same was ordered for Khmer Krom from other provinces. Those Vietnamese last names were for them to easily identify Khmer Krom, and which province we came from.

Vietnam also shut down all Khmer public schools. Any Khmer Krom wanting an education must go to a Vietnamese school. It was difficult adjusting to sudden language changes for the majority of Khmer Krom students who spoke only Khmer. At first, there were large groups Khmer Krom students enrolled in Vietnamese schools, but only a handful hung on, the majority being bi-lingual. The reasons many Khmer Krom students dropped out was because their parents were too poor to buy school supplies and school uniforms, didn’t speak Vietnamese, also because they were not able to cope with the unfair treatment, mental and physical abuse from Vietnamese teachers and Vietnamese students. Instead of helping our students over come language barriers, and treating all students equally, many Vietnamese teachers made the situation worse and unbearable for our students to continue their studies. It did not matter how well Khmer Krom students studied it was never good enough. They often insulted the students “ tu.i ba^y ngu ho*n bo`” (you people are dumber than a cow.)

Struggling to preserve our Khmer language on our land, most Khmer Krom parents would send the children, mostly boys, to local temples for study Khmer language from Buddhist monks. The boys usually stayed at the local temple for several months up to years.

June 1949, after the Vietnamese government shut down Khmer schools, they drove Khmer Krom out of homes and businesses from big cities (such as Prey Norko (now know as Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City), to undeveloped land in the countryside. Once our Khmer Krom people moved out the cities, Vietnamese people moved in. Vietnamese took over our homes; our businesses, while our people struggled to survive, starting all over, with only clothes on back and empty hands. During that time, a large group of Khmer Krom villagers fled to Cambodia, hoping for peaceful life on the upper part of our land.

Meanwhile South Vietnamese drafted young Khmer Krom men into military services to fight the North Vietnamese. American’s requested many Khmer Krom soldiers to transfer in their Special Force because not only were Khmer Krom men much taller and stronger than Vietnamese men, Khmer Krom men were also known for being brave warriors, trustworthy and honest. Many Khmer Krom men fought for the American and South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. Many Khmer Krom lives were lost on our land. Many unsung heroes died silent in Kampuchea Krom. Till today, no sympathy, no monument, no special treatment, and no word ever mention from either American or South Vietnamese that many Khmer Krom soldiers has fought and died for our land in Vietnam War.

On April 1975, in Kampuchea Krom the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam. Vietnamese communists did the same to Khmer Krom; they forced Khmer Krom to “relocated”, abandon homes and businesses, again. “Move or die!” They ordered. Again, our people packed up, again we left our homes, again we abandoned our businesses so the Vietnamese communists officials and their families could move in, took over our properties, our land that we work so hard over pass twenty years to rebuilt. Many Khmer Krom who used to work with South Vietnamese were captured and imprisoned. Some Khmer Krom were lucky to be alive, free to walk out prison after many years in re-education camp, but many Khmer Krom died in prison from torture, illness and hunger. Some Khmer Krom are still missing since captured by Vietnamese communists back in 1975.

Ironically, on April 1975, in Cambodia, our Khmer Krom people life turned from bad to worst when Khmer Rouge show up. Khmer Rouge also evicted everyone out of the cities, just like Vietnamese government did to Khmer Krom on our land. When Khmer Rouge murdered millions of innocents people, amongst the deaths were mostly Khmer and Khmer Krom.

When Vietnam shut down all Khmer public schools on June 1949 they destroyed all Khmer textbooks in Kampuchea Krom.
When Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia on April 1975, before murders millions Khmer/Khmer Krom, they also destroyed all Khmer textbooks. As result our real Khmer history has been deliberately erased. Not only that the Vietnamese don’t like to tell the world, especially the younger Khmer/Khmer Krom generations, that South Vietnam was Kampuchea Krom, but most newer Khmer history books also failed to mention how Cambodia lost our Kampuchea Krom land to Vietnam on 6-4-1949.

1978, when Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, still fear of Khmer Rouge, many Khmer Krom villagers tried to return to Kampuchea Krom, but were shot by Vietnamese communist soldiers. Thousands of innocent Khmer Krom children and women died on our land. Vietnamese communists denied murdering these innocent Khmer Krom villagers and they blamed it on the Khmer Rouge.

Seeing that return to Kampuchea Krom was too risky, some Khmer Krom have no other choice but trying to build another new life on our upper land, Cambodia. Until, recently some top Cambodian officials decided that Khmer Krom do not have the right to be in Cambodia but real Vietnamese do. They welcome millions Vietnamese come and live freely on our upper land but not Khmer Krom. They said Khmer Krom belong to Kampuchea Krom and all Khmer people in Kampuchea Krom should be considered as Vietnamese, and deported back to South Vietnam. Those sent back went straight to prison and some were never heard from, or seen again.

No word could describe the Khmer Krom pain when seeing people from other countries could get permission to build private schools, homes or businesses on our land, but the rightful landowners, Khmer Krom, we couldn’t even get permission to build a single Khmer public school on our land. More than fifty years went by, still, there is no Khmer public school on Kampuchea Krom since 1949 when Vietnam shut down all Khmer schools.

However, if you go to Cambodia, you will see many Vietnamese businesses, schools and even Vietnamese hospital in Cambodia for millions of Vietnamese who came and stay, since Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978. You will see many Khmer children couldn’t afford to go to school, many poor Khmer children begging on the streets or scavengers on dump sites struggling to survive. Along the rivers there are so many Khmer people living on boats, dreaming for a piece of our land to call home.

For millions Khmer people in Kampuchea Krom daily life is struggling for survive. Many Khmer Krom live under plastic tents with no windows, doors, running water or electric, many poor Khmer Krom families wonder when the Vietnamese government is going to order them to move again. Wondering when the oppression and hardship will end, a good life seems only to come in dreams; a dream that some day, the Khmer Krom people will be free to live peacefully on our land.

Today, the world is getting to know more about us. Buddha said, “Nothing could be hidden from the truth.” So it is up to you, my Khmer/ Khmer Krom brothers and sisters to learn more of our real history and tell the world the truth that these were our lands.

Map above:The lost cities and islands of of southern Cambodia to Vietnam are highlighted in colors. And renamed it to Vietnamese. See table below.

Sources:http://www.khmerkromrecipes.com/