Khmer Krom need Food or Freedom?

Question of Food

“Who provides food for you to eat? Us or them?” are the words coming from the mouths of Vietnamese authorities when reminding the Khmer-Krom people of Mekong Delta of who they think really provides their [Khmer-Krom] ticket to life.

The term ‘Us’ refers to the Vietnamese authorities and government officials working under the One Party motto currently promoted and practiced from the offices of Hanoi.

Them’ refers to the Khmer-Krom organisations aboard such as the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation who has been actively campaigning for their rights.

For the many hungry and desolated Khmer-Krom people, the question holds great weight for consideration. Poor and defenceless and living in a world governed by communist laws, the Khmer-Krom has been forced to agree to such questions in order to survive.

Indeed at first glance it appears that Vietnam is feeding them but little do they know that it is the international donors who are feeding VN. The majority of funds are for its ethnic Vietnamese people and only a tickle flows to its indigenous Khmer-Krom people. Funds are just enough for them to survive and to satisfy international donors. Even such little funds have strings attached to ensure their [Khmer-Krom] full cooperation to its One Party ideology.

In 2000, Vietnam started to help the Khmer-Krom people out by providing health care cards to the very poor but to this day, many are left out. The same is true in its so called housing initiatives for the poor. Many of the houses, with walls were built but the very roofs over their heads were not. Initiatives are a great start but half completed project is a bad investment for the economy and dashes the hopes of millions of Khmer-Krom people.

In a concrete effort to abolish any interests or links with organisations aboard, the Vietnamese authorities have tried everything in their power to persuade the Khmer-Krom from taking part. Loyalty through bribery, job security, land redistribution and housing projects are just some of the tantalising offers from VN authorities.

If bribery does not work, interrogation tactics are used to enforce their so called One Party policies. Khmer Buddhist monks are harassed, monitored and questioned. Civilians have and continue to be beaten for possessing human rights materials. Others have been jailed for untold years and others have been murdered or would disappear mysteriously.

Food or no food, no individual should be subjected to human rights abuses in order to survive. VN authorities should not be allowed to use blackmail as a means to get the Khmer-Krom people to cooperate. Only through the use of peaceful means can Vietnam begin to heal the pains and horrors that they have inflicted on the Khmer-Krom people for the past five centuries.