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A bunch representing Vietnam’s Khmer Krom ethnic minority has despatched a petition to the Secretary Normal of the United Nations requesting the suspension of Vietnam’s membership of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and calling for the discharge of imprisoned activists.
The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, or KKF, posted an open letter on the web site change.org on April 4 to gather signatures. The letter stated, ” Vietnam’s latest crackdown on the indigenous Khmer-Krom neighborhood has reached alarming ranges, with widespread studies of arbitrary arrests, unjust imprisonment, and non secular persecution.”
Round 1.3 million Khmer Krom reside in part of Vietnam that was as soon as southeastern Cambodia. They face discrimination in Vietnam and suspicion in Cambodia, the place they’re typically perceived not as Cambodians however as Vietnamese.
The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) identified that courts in a number of southern provinces sentenced 4 Khmer activists, Thach Cuong, To Hoang Chuong, Danh Minh Quang, and Dinh Thi Huynh, to jail totally different phrases – three for the crime of “abusing democratic freedoms” beneath Article 331 of the felony code.
Based on KKF, they had been imprisoned merely for selling rights by disseminating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and organizing individuals to have a good time Worldwide Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) and Worldwide Girls’s Day (March 8).
“Certainly, these books and paperwork ought to have been distributed by the Communist Authorities of Vietnam in ethnic minority areas and indigenous ethnic areas, however they didn’t do it. They hid it. They didn’t apply it. They only signed with the U.N.,” Tran Xa Rong, Second Vice President of KKF, informed Radio Free Asia by telephone from Italy on April 9:
The petition stated that along with focusing on activists, the Vietnamese authorities additionally arrested and defrocked Khmer Krom Buddhist monks on the finish of March.
Monk Thach Chanh Da Ra, abbot of Dai Tho pagoda, together with follower Kim Khiem, had been arrested for “abusing democratic freedoms” beneath Article 331 whereas 4 monks Duong Khai, Thach Qui Lay, Kim Sa Ruong, Thach Chop, and two followers Thach Ve Sanal and Thach Nha had been detained beneath Article 157 of the felony code.
The native authorities additionally despatched excavators to destroy the lecture corridor that was constructed by monk Thach Chanh Da Ra three years in the past as a spot of research for monks and followers.
“This act of cultural and non secular desecration not solely deprives the Khmer-Krom individuals of their locations of worship but additionally constitutes a grave violation of their cultural heritage and id,” stated KKF in its open letter.
“These human rights violations are clear proof of Vietnam’s failure to uphold its obligations as a member of the UNHRC.
“By condoning and perpetrating such abuses, Vietnam has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the rules of the Common Declaration of Human Rights and the core values of the United Nations,” the letter stated.
Vietnam is a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 time period and is lobbying its supporters for reelection.
RFA despatched emails to Vietnam’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs and the Workplace of the UN Secretary Normal with a request for feedback on KKF’s allegations however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.
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