T. Thach continued: "If our Khmer Krom Buddhist monks teach the sacred Buddhist language Pali - they are ordered by Hanoi to include Communist doctrines, if not, they get disrobed and are not allowed to be monks anymore, and are imprisoned as traitors and enemies of Communism . This is not right: our religion has nothing to do with Communism, or any form of politics, it is our religion, and sacred to us. It is the teaching of peace and rightful conduct in life.
But we are not allowed to maintain our religion, we are not even allowed to maintain our Khmer Krom culture, way of life, actually, they want to Vietnamize us in a manner, that nothing would be left from us, as Khmer Krom peoples, or Montagnards peoples - and we object to that."
"One can always tell when a group of Montagnards escapes into Mondulkiri Province. Vietnamese army and police officials chase after them and cross the border as if they owned western Cambodia," said journalist The Co Van, from the Montagnard Foundation.
"The Cambodian provincial police are alerted, and the guesthouses in the capital of Sen Monorum quickly fill with Cambodian police and army officials from neighboring provinces," The Co Van added.
"What a tragedy that America has abandoned our former allies in the Vietnam War a second time. Now the U.S. has the leverage to force the Vietnamese government to treat the Montagnards better but it remains silent when Hanoi glosses over their draconian human rights record in their bid for entrance into the WTO."
The Montagnard Foundation reports that they hold evidence that bounty hunters capture the Montagnard refugees in Cambodia, and sell them back to the Vietnamese for $20 to $100.
Twenty dollars is a month's pay for a policeman in this part of the world.
"Why does the mainstream media ignore the plight of the Montagnards, the Khmer Krom, and their cousins, the Hmong in Laos for over 30 years, and still continue to do so?" asked Chue Chou Tchang, from the Special Guerrilla Units (SGU) Veterans. SGU Veterans is a U.S.- based Hmong human rights organization organization.
"One has to wonder why the Vietnamese Communist Party is so paranoid and ruthless in their treatment of a few Montagnards and Khmer Krom - escaping their clutches in the middle of the night," said Van.
"Why Laos, under the advice of Hanoi pressures Thailand to force thousands of Hmong Lao refugees back to Laos? That's because they know they can get away with it and that the mainstream media in the West really isn't interested in the human rights abuses of Communist police states" said Van.
EDITOR's NOTE: The South Vietnamese called American military advisors "Co Van" during the war in Vietnam. But the word translates more exactly as "consultant." Mr. Carey is former president of International ("Quoc Te") Defense Consultants Inc., a company of Co Van thast has operated since 1997.
the above does not prevent prof. Negrponte from MIT to oofer his rubber computers to 'Cambodian chidren' and also does not prevent Angelina from traveling there as a promoter of peace and tranquility.
On the other hand, it would be interesting to know more: like how were the Montagnars used by the USA and why? Also, killing fields were not the Vietnamese inventions but rather the Vietnamese stopped that when they invaded Cambodia. And while the killing fields were happening, the US or anyone else did nothing, sorry.
Red Alert, huh? Do the Montagnars and others persecuted in Asia enjoy the refugee status in the US?
by
Mark Sashine (44 articles, 19 quicklinks, 228 diaries, 3268 comments)
on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 2:10:26 PM
This time I rather used the 'apparently' on my side. The genuine interest, though, is still there: Do the Montagnars enjoy the same status, as, say Cubans( that is, of course, if they reach the US soil)? And you cannot really say that the whole ethnic group decided to 'follow the US'. There was something else: someone in their leadership did it or more...
Otherwise, it is good to have a dialogue...
by
Mark Sashine (44 articles, 19 quicklinks, 228 diaries, 3268 comments)
on Monday, February 26, 2007 at 7:21:22 AM
