10 September 2010
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch
Click here to read the article in Khmer
A Khmer Krom farmer is currently in hiding after 4 uniformed Viet cops came looking to arrest him in the evening of 09 September because he led protests to demand back his ancestral farmlands that were confiscated by the Viet authority, and also because he always sent out information on protests and on human rights violations by the Viet authority to the outside world.
The Khmer Krom farmer from An Cu commune, Tinh Bien district, Motr Chrouk province (renamed An Giang in Vietnamese), who declined to provide his name, told RFA over the phone that he now has no safety at all: “They asked me why did I yell to let the International community know about their internal affairs? I will still continue to yell because I lost all my farmlands and the authority did not provide any resolution for me.”
RFA contacted the Viet embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to ask them to clarify whether the living condition for the Khmer Krom families is tense as claimed or not, however the person who answered the phone claimed that the Viet embassy spokesperson was not at his office.
Thach Setha, President of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community association in Cambodia, said: “I am very concerned because this is the habit of the commies, they place under surveillance those who stood up to protest, such action is an indicator for them to conduct their close surveillance, and it will conclude with an arrest. I am very concerned about his safety.”
The same Khmer Krom farmer indicated that he led numerous protests since 2007 to demand the return of the ancestral farmlands. The protests were held in Prey Nokor city (renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the occupying Viet regime) and in Hanoi. Furthermore, he always criticized the Viet authority for its freedom rights violations on Khmer Krom families
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