The Khmer Krom Network

Written by NETH PHEAKTRA from The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 22 June 2009

62 refugees arrested by Thai police on June 12 say they are holding discussions with UN officials and Thai authorities in order to avoid deportation .

KHMER Krom detainees languishing in a Thai detention centre since their arrest last week say they have held meetings with officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Thai immigration officials in an attempt to avoid being deported back to Cambodia.

Click here to download the program for the peaceful march!

By Dani Thach
Originally posted on KKFYC website

I felt very fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend both the 3rd World Youth Conference in Philadelphia (May 23, 2009) and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York City (May 26-29, 2009). This trip had a deep personal impact on my outlook in life. The two events dramatically changed my perspective of my Khmer-Krom culture. It was an eye opening experience for me, as an individual and as a young Khmer-Krom woman. As I sat and listened to various speakers, it made me reflect on many significant events in my childhood back home, in Kampuchea-Krom. I was thinking to myself, how can I let these memories go?

Written by ROBBIE COREY-BOULET from The Phnom Penh Post
Friday, 19 June 2009

Though efforts have increased, outreach to Khmer Krom minority remains limited: experts.

WHEN Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav began to cry Tuesday morning while testifying about torture methods used at the detention centre, Uth Em, a farmer who lost both parents, five siblings and 20 other relatives to the Khmer Rouge felt something he was not expecting: pity.

Written by Neth Pheaktra from The Phnom Penh Post
Friday, 19 June 2009

BUDDHIST monk Tim Sakhorn met with officials from the Bangkok office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday, following roundups of Khmer Krom refugees by Thai authorities last week.

Ang Chanrith, executive director of the Khmer Krom Human Rights Association, said that due to the UNHCR's special protection protocols, tightened after the arrests of 61 Khmer Krom in Bangkok last Saturday, it was not possible to reach Tim Sakhorn for comment Thursday.

Written by Holly Pham and Neth Pheaktra
The Phnom Penh Post
Friday, 12 June 2009

AS the June 18 deadline for his asylum application draws near, Buddhist monk and human rights activist Tim Sakhorn says he is confident the United States government will grant him political asylum and allow him to settle in America.

Tim Sakhorn, an advocate for the rights of southern Vietnam's ethnic Khmer minority, popularly known as Khmer Krom, fled from Cambodia in
April and has been living at an undisclosed location in Bangkok awaiting the US government's decision, expected next week.

By Craig Guthrie of Asian Times Online

BANGKOK - As he secretly slipped away from his mother's funeral, donned his familiar saffron robes and fled by motorbike along a potholed road from southeast Cambodia into neighboring Thailand, Tim Sakhorn's status as a Khmer Krom hero was assured. On Thursday, as his ethnic group marked the 60th anniversary of the loss of its lands, the little-known movement for self-determination and improved human rights was desperately in need of one.

The ongoing saga of Sakhorn, a 41-year-old Buddhist monk who in 2007 was defrocked, deported and detained by Vietnamese authorities for alleged separatist activities, has brought the cause of the Khmer Krom - a million-strong community of ethnic Khmer who live in parts of Vietnam's Mekong Delta that was once part of an ancient Cambodian empire - some much-needed global attention.

Written by HOLLY PHAM and VONG SOKHENG of The Phnom Penh Post

Monks, Khmer Krom activists gather to urge the government not to halt future demonstrations

AROUND 600 monks, opposition politicians and rights activists gathered in Phnom Penh on Thursday to mark the loss of Cambodia's southern territories - Kampuchea Krom - to Vietnam.

The rally at Wat Botum park celebrating the 60th anniversary of the handover of Kampuchea Krom also aimed to draw attention to the human rights abuses still reportedly suffered by southern Vietnam's ethnic Khmer residents, known locally as Khmer Krom.

June 4 2009

Mr Son Soubert, the president of the Son Sann Foundation in a press release claim France ceded Cochin-China (Kampuchea-Krom) to Emporer Bao Dai of Annam for political reason and neglect to implement the Gaston Defere Motion for a referendum for the people to decide which country they want to join.