Finally, IFPRERLOM wishes to draw attention to discrimination experienced by the Khmer-Krom, an indigenous people who lived in the former Cochin China, occupied by the French colonial Government from 1867 to 1949 and now constituting the southern part of present-day Vietnam. One of the current concerns is the State-supported settlement of Vietnamese in the Khmer-Krom homeland. This was reported in the Concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): Viet Nam of 15 August 2001, which stated that: “The Committee is further concerned about the alleged population transfer to territories inhabited by indigenous groups, disadvantaging them in the exercise of their social, economic and cultural rights.” The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) while considering Viet Nam’s second Periodic Report requested the country “to provide information on minorities in Vietnam, including the Khmer-Krom community”. 9 However, the assurances provided in Vietnam’s response to the HRC dated 23 April 2002,10 contrasted with the then and current reality of Khmer-Krom situation. Whereas the response indicated that the Khmer-Krom community suffered no alleged human rights violations, in actuality this contradicted reports of ethnic, religious and cultural discrimination. Many remain too terrorized to speak out due to fear of oppression and retaliation, as indicated in the report, “Vietnam: The Silencing of Dis sent,” by Human Rights Watch of 1 May 2000. IFPRERLOM urges the Human Rights Council; – to request Vietnam to take measures in response to the CERD observations; – to re-examine the information provided in response to the HRC request; and – to call upon Vietnam to extend invitation to the relevant thematic mandates of the Council. Read the original document (PDF) ———— On 08 February 2007 approximately 200 Khmer Krom Buddhist Monks partook in a peaceful protest in Soc Trang (Kleang) Province to mark their right to practice their own form of their Buddhist religion. The protest for religious freedom was met with a renewed wave of oppression against Khmer Krom Buddhist Monks from the Mekong Delta. Local Vietnamese police responded quickly by surrounding nearby temples, placing 60 Buddhist Monks under effective house arrest at Wat Ta Sek, including the Venerable Kim Ngoun and the Venerable Son Thy Thon, trapped inside. At the time of writing, all four temples involved with the protest, Wat Ta Sek, Wat Peam Boun, Wat Teok Praiy, and Wat Ta Men, remain encircled by heavily armed police and military units, with entry and exit to the Temples severely restricted. Arrested Monks were forcefully disrobed, not only deeply damaging to the individual, but also facilitating Monks to be imprisoned as civilians. Alarmed by the heavy-handed reaction and efforts to punish those responsible for nonviolent act of protest, IFPRERLOM appeals to the Human Rights Council to denounce this attempt to suppress the emerging human rights movement within the Khmer Krom community, and urges the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders and UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to visit, with unrestricted access, the areas of the indigenous peoples concerned. Read the original document (PDF)
