Cochin China or Kampuchea-Krom was the South-Eastern part of Cambodia when France colonised it in 1862. It was transferred to Vietnam on the 4th of June 1949. Kampuchea-Krom covers an area of 67,700 km2 with approximately 8 million Khmer-Krom people living throughout 21 provinces in the Mekong Delta. Approximately 95% of these people practice Theravada Buddhism, which translates to “Little Vehicle”. Khmer-Krom are the indigenous people of the land possessing their own civilisation and ancestral culture. Following the transfer of Kampuchea-Krom to Vietnam, successive Vietnamese governments have enforced a systematic policy of Vietnamisation on the Khmer-Krom people. This has placed the indigenous culture, religion, and language of the Khmer-Krom people in jeopardy. The Khmer-Krom people from several provinces are progressively assimilated and departed from their original root including their language and culture. Before World War II, more than 700 Khmer-Krom Buddhist temples existed; due to political-motivated and premeditated destruction under the policy of Vietnamisation, only 560 Khmer-Krom Buddhist temples remain. In spite of their suffering and political assassinations perpetrated by the Vietnamese, the Khmer-Krom people are completely ignored and unknown to the world. Their social and cultural structures are being gradually destroyed and their history is being skewed. These are the reasons why the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) appeals the international community for help, in order to protect the rights of the Khmer-Krom people so that they may exist with their own language and cultural identity. The actions of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation are based on the principle of non-violence. One of its actions is to collect all testimonies and academic research on Kampuchea-Krom in order to reconstitute its identity and history. The KKF had asked Mr. Chhean Vam, a fellow Cambodian intellectual, to write an article on his knowledge of Kampuchea-Krom. Mr. Chhean was educated in France and became Prime Minister of Cambodia in 1948. His writing deals with what he called the “Cochin China Affair”, the conditions in which Kampuchea-Krom was transferred to Vietnam by France. The Cochin China Affair is unique and unprecedented in colonisation history; it is the first case of a colony being transferred by its original coloniser to another. What follows is the text that Mr. Chhean Vam had written just before his death on the 16th of January, 2000. The KKF and all of the Khmer-Krom people would like to express their deepest sadness and sincere condolences to Mr. Chhean family. Please read the testimony with the understanding that certain dates and details are approximated. Mr. Chhean Vam wrote his text in April 1999, 50 years after the Cochin China Affair, which occurred in April 1949. Thank you very much for your precious support in favour of the protection of Khmer Kampuchea-Krom rights. Vien Thach KKF Representative for Europe Affairs > Read the testimony text in PDF
