Gathering to Mourn Loss of Kampuchea Krom

Khmer Times
Tin Sokhavuth

Monks hold the Kampuchea Krom flag. KT/Chor Sokunthea

A coalition of Kampuchea Krom community groups will celebrate the 67th anniversary of the loss of land to Vietnam on Saturday at the Bodhiyarama Buddhist Temple, according to a press release issued over the weekend.

According to the press release, the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community (KKC), Khmer Krom civil society coalition and Khmer Youth Alliance for Democracy will celebrate this anniversary to acknowledge the courage of Khmer people who gave their lives for the sake of the nation, the religion and the kings.

“To pay our gratitude toward the spirit of heroic Khmer Buddhist monks, emperors, kings, heroes, heroines, brave veterans of patriotic men and women who sacrificed their lives for our national and sacred cause, religion and motherland,” said the press release.

It added that every year, the coalition of Khmer Krom civil society, the KKC and the KYAD invite Khmer people as well as monks to support the celebration by donating anything they could such as rice, water and/or money.

“A Royal Highest Representative of His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, will preside over this ceremony to be held at the Bodhiyarama Buddhist Temple (also known as Wat Jaas), on the Chroy Changvar peninsula between the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers, across from the Royal Palace,” added the letter.

Phay Siphan, the spokesman for the Council of Ministers, told Khmer Times that the celebration won’t affect diplomatic relations between Cambodia and Vietnam and it is the freedom of belief for all people around the world.

“However, if the celebration is harmful to the security, public order and the political stability of the country, the government has the right to not support it,” said Mr. Siphan.

When asked about the government’s position over the loss of land to Vietnam, Mr. Siphan said his government followed the will of the King Father who wanted to demarcate the border with Vietnam by using the map deposited at the UN.

“For our government, we don’t want to review or do anything about the loss of land to Vietnam. We respect and follow the will of our King Father Norodom Sihanouk. But I don’t know about the other government. They could do whatever they want if they win the election,” added the spokesman.

But Thach Sitha, executive director of the KKC and also a member of the CNRP, said the fact the map deposited at the UN was used did not lead to the conclusion that Cambodia lost the right to review the loss of land to Vietnam.

“According to international law, we still have the right to review that loss of land, because it was the French, not us, who signed an agreement with Vietnam to give that part of Cambodian land to them,” said Mr. Sitha.

Mr. Sitha claimed there are about 12,800,000 Cambodians living in the area known as Kampuchea Krom. The total land surface of Kampuchea Krom is 68,965 square kilometers, he said.

Mr. Sitha also said the main problem for Cambodians living in Kampuchea Krom was human rights, such as their right to freely create associations or any political organization, the freedom of belief as Buddhists and the freedom to preserve their cultural identity as a minority group.

“We, Khmer Krom, don’t want to split from Vietnam to join Cambodia as accused by the Vietnamese government. What we want is the respect for our religious and cultural rights as a minority group living in Vietnam,” added Mr. Sitha.

According to a document entitled History of The Kampuchea Krom on the KKC’s website, 99 percent of Khmer Krom people are Buddhist. Their way of living, tradition and culture is almost the same as in Cambodia. The difference is only they have an accent when speaking the Khmer language.

The document also said there were 560 Buddhist temples and more than 20,000 monks. Those temples also served as schools and information sharing places. But the official language in Kampuchea Krom is Vietnamese.

The document added that the economy in Kampuchea Krom relied heavily on agriculture, but is under the strict control of the Vietnamese government. A lot of plots of land belonging to the Khmer Krom people were confiscated by the Vietnamese government to transform into collective cooperatives, it said.