{"id":49723,"date":"2024-04-09T23:12:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T06:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/khmer-krom-group-petitions-for-vietnam-to-be-removed-from-un-body\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T23:12:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T06:12:21","slug":"khmer-krom-group-petitions-for-vietnam-to-be-removed-from-un-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/khmer-krom-group-petitions-for-vietnam-to-be-removed-from-un-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Khmer Krom group petitions for Vietnam to be removed from UN body"},"content":{"rendered":"
A group representing Vietnam\u2019s Khmer Krom ethnic minority has sent a petition to the Secretary General of the United Nations requesting the suspension of Vietnam’s membership of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and calling for the release of imprisoned activists.<\/span><\/p>\n The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, or KKF, posted an <\/span>open letter<\/span><\/a> on the website change.org on April 4 to collect signatures. The letter said, ” Vietnam’s recent crackdown on the indigenous Khmer-Krom community has reached alarming levels, with widespread reports of arbitrary arrests, unjust imprisonment, and religious persecution.”<\/span><\/p>\n Around 1.3 million Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They face discrimination in Vietnam and suspicion in Cambodia, where they are often perceived not as Cambodians but as Vietnamese.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) pointed out that courts in several southern provinces sentenced four Khmer activists, Thach Cuong, To Hoang Chuong, Danh Minh Quang, and Dinh Thi Huynh, to prison different terms \u2013 there for the crime of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the criminal code.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to KKF, they were imprisoned simply for promoting rights by disseminating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and organizing people to celebrate International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) and International Women’s Day (March 8).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIndeed, those books and documents should have been distributed by the Communist Government of Vietnam in ethnic minority areas and indigenous ethnic areas, but they did not do it. They hid it. They didn\u2019t apply it. They just signed with the UN,” Tran Xa Rong, Second Vice President of KKF, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) by phone from Italy on April 9:<\/span><\/p>\n The petition said that in addition to targeting activists, the Vietnamese government also arrested and defrocked Khmer Krom Buddhist monks at the end of March.<\/span><\/p>\n In this case, monk Thach Chanh Da Ra, abbot of Dai Tho pagoda, along with follower Kim Khiem, were arrested<\/a> for \u201cabusing democratic freedoms\u201d under Article 331 while four monks<\/a> Duong Khai, Thach Qui Lay, Kim Sa Ruong, Thach Chop, and two followers Thach Ve Sanal and Thach Nha were detained under Article 157 of the criminal code.<\/span><\/p>\n