It is a noble deed that all Khmer national and international communities are participating. Such noble actions are motivated by generosity and humanity which all people are contributing to put an end to the suffering of the Khmer Krom People in the former Cochin-China or current South Vietnam. The purpose is, through peaceful measures which have been guaranteed by the international laws, to demand and to save fundamental rights, freedoms and dignities for tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and millions of indigenous Khmer people in Kampuchea-Krom.
Analysis of Historical Suffering
1. The Vietnamese has always held government powers. 2. The Khmer Krom people are allowed no chance to succeed and not being able to foster a trust-worthy relationship with Vietnam. 3. The Khmer Krom have suffered of multiple wholesale massacres to their general population. 4. Many of the Khmer Krom leaders have been assassinated. 5. Their economic resources and farmland have been robbed. 6. Their cultural characters as a people are gradually tempered by the forced of assimilation and population transfer. 7. Their social identities to foreigners who visit in Vietnam are suppressed to zero. 8. There is no future for Khmer Krom children generations after generations. 9. The longevity of the Khmer Krom as a people under Vietnam domination is in question.
International Laws
United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Article 1 1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. 2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 18 Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19 Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. 2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 21 1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. 2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. 3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic or Religious Minorities (1993): Article 1 1. States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity. 2. States shall adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to achieve those ends. Article 2 1. Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (hereinafter referred to as persons belonging to minorities) have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination. 2. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic, and public life. 3. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority to which they belong or the regions in which they live, in a manner not incompatible with national legislation. 4. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain their own associations. 5. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain, without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other members of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, as well as contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties. Article 3 1. Persons belonging to minorities may exercise their rights, including those set forth in the present Declaration, individually as well as in community with other members of their group, without any discrimination. 2. No disadvantage shall result for any person belonging to a minority as the consequence of the exercise or non-exercise of the rights set forth in the present Declaration. Article 4 1. States shall take measures where required to ensure that persons belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law. 2. States shall take measures to create favourable conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs, except where specific practices are in violation of national law and contrary to international standards. 3. States should take appropriate measures so that, wherever possible, persons belonging to minorities may have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue. 4. States should, where appropriate, take measures in the field of education, in order to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of the minorities existing within their territory. Persons belonging to minorities should have adequate opportunities to gain knowledge of the society as a whole. 5. States should consider appropriate measures so that persons belonging to minorities may participate fully in the economic progress and development in their country. Article 5 1. National policies and programmes shall be planned and implemented with due regard for the legitimate interests of persons belonging to minorities. 2. Programmes of cooperation and assistance among States should be planned and implemented with due regard for the legitimate interests of persons belonging to minorities. Article 6 States should cooperate on questions relating to persons belonging to minorities, inter alia, exchanging information and experiences, in order to promote mutual understanding and confidence. Article 7 States should cooperate in order to promote respect for the rights set forth in the present Declaration. Article 8 1. Nothing in the present Declaration shall prevent the fulfilment of international obligations of States in relation to persons belonging to minorities. In particular, States shall fulfil in good faith the obligations and commitments they have assumed under international treaties and agreements to which they are parties. 2. The exercise of the rights set forth in the present Declaration shall not prejudice the enjoyment by all persons of universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. 3. Measures taken by States to ensure the effective enjoyment of the rights set forth in the present Declaration shall not prima facie be considered contrary to the principle of equality contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 4. Nothing in the present Declaration may be construed as permitting any activity contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, including sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of States. Article 9 The specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system shall contribute to the full realization of the rights and principles set forth in the present Declaration, within their respective fields of competence.
Global Tendencies:
Former UN- Secretary : Javier Perez De Cuellar – September 6, 1991 The encouragement of respect for human rights becomes a vacuous claim if human wrongs committed on a major scale are met with lack of timely and commensurate action by the United Nations. To promote human rights means little if it does not mean to defend them when they are most under attack. March 31, 1999 – Sovereignty Does it Matter? By Phillis Schlalty of Eagle Forum: Clinton’s chief foreign policy adviser, Strobe Talbott, was frighteningly forthright during his 22 years as a writer for Time Magazine. Talbott enthusiastically wrote, “National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea,” predicted that “nationhood as we know it will be obsolete,” and rejoiced in the coming “birth of the Global Nation.” Saturday, November 13, 1999 By Jeremy Page ,BEIJING (Reuters): “Annan warned in September that countries cannot assume national sovereignty will protect them from international intervention to stop flagrant human rights abuses.”
Self Determination Lessons
Palestine – PLO The history of the proposed modern Palestinian state, which is expected to be formed from the territories of the West Bank and Gaza strip, began with the British Mandate of Palestine. From Sept. 29, 1923, until May 14, 1948, Britain controlled the region, but by 1947 Britain appealed to the U.N. to solve the complex problem of competing Palestinian and Jewish claims to the land. In Aug. 1947, the U.N. proposed dividing Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a small international zone. Arabs rejected the idea. As soon as Britain pulled out of Palestine in 1948, neighboring Arab nations invaded, intent on crushing the newly declared State of Israel. Israel emerged victorious, affirming its sovereignty. The remaining areas of Palestine were divided by Transjordan (now Jordan), which annexed the West Bank, and Egypt, which gained control of the Gaza Strip. In the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, Israel, over a period of six days, defeated the military forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and annexed the territories of East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and all of the Sinai peninsula. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), formed in 1964, was a terrorist organization bent on Israel’s annihilation. Palestinian rioting, demonstrations, and terrorist acts against Israelis became chronic. In 1974, PLO leader Yasir Arafat addressed the U.N. general assembly, the first stateless government to do so. Violence again escalated in 1987 during the intifada (“shaking off”), a new era in Palestinian mass mobilization. In 1988, PLO leader Yasir Arafat proclaimed the independence of the Palestinian State (including the West Bank and Gaza Strip), as a government-in-exile, and publicly eschewed terrorism. In 1993, highly secretive talks in Norway between the PLO and the Israeli government resulted in the Oslo agreement. The accord stipulated a five-year plan in which Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would gradually become self-governing. On Sept. 13, 1993, Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzak Rabin signed the historic “Declaration of Principles.” As part of the agreement, Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip and Jericho in the West Bank in 1994. The Palestinian Authority (PA), with Arafat its elected leader, took control of the newly non-Israeli-occupied areas, assuming all governmental duties. Permanent peace talks and implementation of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are still ongoing, after six years. The election in 1999 of Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak was viewed by moderate Palestinians as a positive step toward resolving the remaining differences between Israel and the PA. Area: West Bank: 2,263 sq. mi. (5,860 sq. km); Gaza Strip: 139 sq. mi. (360 sq. km) Population (July 1998 est.): West Bank: 1,555,919, in addition: 155,000 Israeli settlers in West Bank, 164,000 in East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip: 1,054,173 (in addition: 6,000 Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip [Aug. 1996 est.]) (average annual rate of natural increase: West Bank: 3.7%, Gaza Strip: 6.4%); birth rate: West Bank: 36.7/1000, Gaza Strip: 49.1/1000; infant mortality rate: West Bank: 26.4/1,000, Gaza Strip: 24.5/1000; density per sq. mi.: West Bank: 828.5, Gaza Strip: 7,627 Kosovo – KLA Kosova is situated in the southern territory of former Yugoslavia and borders with Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The capital is Pristina. Area: 10,887 km2. The population is around 2 million of whom about 90% are Albanians. The remaining 10% include Serb and Muslims, Montenegrins, Turks, Croats and Gypsies. The Albanians in Kosova are descendants of the ancient Illyrian tribe of the Dardanians, who lived in Kosova from ancient times. Serbian attachment to Kosova originates in the Middle Ages, when Kosova was the “cradle” of the Serb and of its Serbian-Orthodox Church East Timor – CNRM East Timor is the eastern part of the Island of Timor, situated 640 km north-west of Australia and south-east of the Indonesian archipelago, bordered by the Sawu Sea in the north and the Timor Sea in the south. The capital is Dili. Area: 19,000 km2. According to Indonesian statistics in 1994, there were approximately 650,000 people including 200,000 Indonesian immigrants in East Timor. East Timor is represented in the UNPO by the National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM), founded in 1987. The CNRM is non-partisan, non-ideological body, equivalent to a coalition government including the resistance movements of The Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor (FRETELIN), the East Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor. Checkchen The Chechen Republic Ichkeria is situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus. In the west it borders North Ossetia and Ingushetia, in the north to Stavropol Kray, in the east to Dagestan (of the Russian Federation), and to the south Georgia. Area: 17,000 km2. Capital: Grozny. The population of Chechnia is more than 1,2 million, of which one million are Chechen. The remainder consists mainly of Russians, Ingush and other North Caucasians. More than 1000,000 live in other areas of the Caucasus, Central Asia and part of the Russian Federation. Acheh Located in the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Bordered on the North by the Malacca Strait, on the South by the Indian Ocean. Area: 236,803 km2. Capital: Bandar Ahcheh (Kuta Radja). In the whole of Sumatra there are 25 million Achenese, 5 million of them live in Acheh. Achenese (Malay/Polynesian) are homogeneous. Free Acheh Movement (ASNLF), not surrendered to the regime. Acheh /Sumatra Nation Liberation Front.
Internationalization
Khmer Krom – individuals and organizations 1) Khmer Krom at any country around the globe, have to join our samakum, our Kanakamaka Watt, our federation and to join hand with each other to save our unfortunate people. Without organizing ourself into an effective organization, we will not be able to save our people. 2) Continue to organize Khmer Krom into samakum, sahakum where there are no KK organization existing. 3) Organize our people into professional groups or trade in order to effectively save our people at home. When we appeal for our friends to help us, we must know exactly what we want for our people, we must be the experts of each of our own problems. Only such we will be able to help our friends to help us save our own compatriots. 4) Each of us Khmer Krom has a sacred duty to contribute whatever we can, times and/or other resources to dedicate for millions of our unfortunate people at home who desperately need our helps. Khmer Krom and host countries – states Each country that has the presence of Khmer Krom, we ought to use the democratic strength of that country. We must organize our people to approach the members of congress or senate or parliament of that country to educate them our problems in Vietnam and appeal for their help, similarly to what we are doing currently in the USA. Khmer Krom and Cambodian people Khmer National in Cambodia are the only siblings of Khmer Krom. Khmer Krom always appeal for their sympathy and generosity. Khmer Krom and Vietnamese people The Vietnamese people are peace lovers, respect the international laws, and respect the equality of all people including the Khmer Krom people are our friends. Khmer Krom and International Organizations and governments around the world Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation have the duty to work with the United Nations-UN, the Unrepresented Nations and People Organization-UNPO, other international agencies and governments, corporations around the world to pursue legitimate rights for the Khmer Krom people in Vietnam in peaceful manners according to international laws.
Conclusion
1) Khmer Krom around the world have tirelessly continued dedicated their times, resources and do whatever they can to save the Khmer Krom people. Khmer Krom has to save our own people before we ask someone else to help us. 2) The KKF bases its believes in international laws, Charter of the United Nations, Universal Declarations of Human Rights, Minorities Rights, and other legal instruments. 3) The KKF will utilize strictly the principles of non-violent to lead the struggle for the rights of Khmer Krom in Vietnam, where Khmer Krom are the indigenous people who originally own that land. 4) The world today is the world rule of laws and the international laws of Human Rights will take precedent over the national sovereignty. 5) Khmer Krom will play by the world rule of laws, therefore we will have a lot of world-wide friends on our side, who will be sympathetic to our sacred cause. That is the cause for KK self-determination.