IV. Other Rights Problems Faced by Ethnic Khmer in Vietnam

Suppression of land rights protests

Nowadays in An Giang and Soc Trang the people are protesting about land. All Khmers from there have land problems. And any Khmer who hears about others protesting wants to join.

--Khmer Krom activist, December 2007

We want our land back. Promises were made, but they lied to us. Month after month, year after year, there was no result. When we raised our land problem with the authorities they made promises but never delivered. We said if there were no results, we would demonstrate.

--Khmer Krom protest leader from An Giang Province, June 2008

During 2007 and 2008, Khmer Krom farmers increasingly conducted land rights protests in the Mekong Delta provinces, with some traveling as many as 300 kilometers to Ho Chi Minh City to voice their complaints.[117] In Ho Chi Minh City, they joined peasants and farmers from all over Vietnam, who periodically conduct public rallies to protest land confiscation and local corruption in front of government buildings there.

The nationwide farmers' movement in Vietnam, known as dan oan, or "Victims of Injustice," began to attract international headlines in mid-2007. In one of the longest-running public protests in Vietnam in decades, thousands of landless farmers from 18 provinces--including every province in the Mekong Delta--camped out for almost a month in front of the National Assembly office for reception of public complaints in Ho Chi Minh City, awaiting official responses to grievance petitions they had submitted to the government.[118]

On July 18, 2007, police forcefully dispersed the protesters in Ho Chi Minh City. It is thought that the government decided to move against the protesters after prominent Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do from the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) left the pagoda where he has been detained for much of the last 20 years to distribute food relief and publicly express his support for the farmers.[119]

Despite the dispersal of the Ho Chi Minh City demonstration-- and the fact that the government severely restricts public protests in general in Vietnam--Khmer Krom villagers continued to conduct land protests.[120] Several Khmer Krom farmers were threatened with arrest after they attempted to demonstrate during the October 2007 visit to the Mekong Delta by representatives of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom.[121] On December 14 and 15, 2007, several hundred Khmer Krom demonstrators from An Giang and Soc Trang provinces protested at the National Assembly building in Ho Chi Minh City after unsuccessfully trying to get a response to their complaints from local officials.[122] Police broke up the demonstration by hitting and shoving the protesters into vehicles transporting them back to their homes.

Khmer Krom villagers say they are protesting in order to demand back or receive just compensation for land that corrupt officials have confiscated in recent years, or that was taken from them by Vietnamese cadre and civilians when Khmer Krom were forcibly evacuated from their land near the Cambodian border in 1977-78.

Farmers from Tinh Bien district, An Giang, explained their grievances in a petition to government authorities in January 2008:

We demand the return of our confiscated farmland because we currently don't have enough land for farming. We have been waiting since we were evacuated to Hau Giang Province after the Vietnam-Cambodia War. Since the evacuation, we have lost all our land and lived in poverty.[123]

The government response to land rights protests in the Mekong Delta became increasingly harsh during 2008.[124] On January 9, 2008, police used electric shock batons to forcefully disperse more than 60 Khmer Krom farmers from Tinh Bien district who had gathered in Long Xuyen city, An Giang, to deliver their petition to the Peoples' Committee.[125] The same day approximately 40 Khmer Krom farmers in Soc Trang marched to Can Tho City to voice their land rights complaints.[126]

Violence broke out again on February 24, 2008, when police reportedly set fire to the home of a Khmer Krom family resisting eviction and arrested the brother of the house owner.[127]

During February 2008 farmers from An Hao village in Tinh Bien district, An Giang, gathered at the village office, with some camping out there for several weeks, to press for compensation they said authorities had promised them for their land. On February 26, 2008, police used dogs and electric batons to break up the protest and force the demonstrators into vehicles to take them back to their homes. Several protesters were injured, and two women, Neang Don [Yon] and Neang Duon [Yuon], were arrested and imprisoned on charges of causing public disorder under article 245 of Vietnam's Penal Code.[128]

Nonetheless, on February 28 more than 100 Khmer Krom farmers from Tinh Bien marched to the village center again. While police blocked them from entering the village office, district and provincial officials came out to talk with the farmers, according to one of the protest leaders:

The police were armed with short guns, short knives on their belts--which they did not use. There was no violence, no one was wounded on either side, we just talked. We said we had complained for a long time, but there had been no results since December.[129]

In March 2008 more protests took place when Khmer Krom farmers from Chi Ka'eng village marched to Chau Laing commune center in Tri Ton[130] district, An Giang, to demand the return of 4,000 hectares of farmland belonging to 500 families.[131]

The demonstrations in An Giang came to a head in April 2008, a week before the traditional Khmer New Year celebrations on April 14. On April 7 there was a confrontation between several hundred Khmer Krom farmers and local authorities in Chi Ka'eng after authorities destroyed a bridge that villagers had built to provide access to their rice fields.[132] At 2 a.m. on April 8, 10 truckloads of riot police, as well as some soldiers, surrounded the village. Using teargas, they broke into the homes of two villagers they suspected of being ringleaders, ransacking their homes and severely beating family members with wooden and electric shock batons.[133]

Afterwards many villagers fled Chi Ka'eng, some going into hiding and others finding temporary refuge in the local pagoda, where the abbot tried to facilitate a solution with the local authorities, who reportedly promised to resolve the land issue within three days.[134] In an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA) on April 10, a Khmer Krom woman protester said:

Everyone is afraid--the Vietnamese authorities have soldiers monitoring us after cracking down against those who protested or who are helping people in hiding. There are soldiers with electric shock batons everywhere. We are afraid to celebrate Khmer New Year [in mid-April], go to the pagoda, or visit friends because we are afraid the police will crack down again or arrest us.[135]

Another protester told RFA:

Now we land protesters don't dare go anywhere. They [police] are following us all the time, even at night, thinking that we will start another demonstration. I'm afraid they'll mistreat me. Some people have fled to the forest, afraid of being charged with leading and organizing a violent demonstration.[136]

During a visit to An Giang Province in May 2008, government official Son Song Son[137]--member of the Party Central Committee and permanent vice chair of the National Committee for Ethnic Minorities--threatened to defrock the abbot and other monks at the local pagoda in Chi Ka'eng, accusing them of sheltering the two main protest leaders (who had already gone into hiding elsewhere).

Land rights protests by Khmer Krom farmers waned after the April 2008 confrontation in An Giang. One of the protest leaders told Human Rights Watch:

They violate the rights of the ethnic minorities. We have no right to protest about the confiscation of our land. If I demand my land back, they say I want to overthrow the government, start a political movement.[138]

On October 15, 2008, the An Giang People's Court sentenced nine Khmer Krom farmers from Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts to prison terms of six months to two years on charges of destruction of property and disturbing social order for their involvement in land protests during 2008. The two women arrested after the February 26 protest in Tinh Bien¾Neang Don [Yon] and Neang Duon [Yuon]¾were sentenced to terms of two years and 18 months respectively, but released for time served. The other seven were pardoned and placed under the authority of the local People's Committee for re-education.[139]

During the final weeks of 2008 several small land protests flared up again in An Giang Province. Groups of farmers gathered to submit their grievances about confiscation of their land during the week of December 22 in Cha Lang and An Cu communes in Tri Ton District and An Hao commune in Tinh Bien district.[140]

Restrictions on religious freedom

In contrast to Kinh people, most of whom follow Mahayana Buddhism[141] or Roman Catholicism, Khmer Krom follow Khmer Theravada Buddhism, which they see as the foundation of their distinct culture, religious traditions, and ethnic identity.[142] All religious organizations in Vietnam must obtain legal authorization from the government in order to operate. The government officially recognizes six religions-- Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao Buddhism¾and 29 "religious organizations," including Theravada Buddhism, which was recognized in February 2008.[143]

The government-controlled Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha (VBS) Executive Council (sometimes referred to as the Vietnamese Buddhist Church)[144] presides over all Buddhist organizations and "sects" in Vietnam other than the Hoa Hao.[145] Defined as a "religious organization" and not a "religion,"[146] Theravada Buddhism falls under the oversight of the VBS Executive Council. The VBS oversees all Buddhist pagodas, places of worship, and Buddhist educational institutes and approves all Buddhist ordinations, donations to pagodas, language training programs, publications, and temple expansions.[147]

According to Buddhist scholar Ian Harris, government authorities in the Mekong Delta prohibit some monks from reading or holding in their pagoda libraries Khmer-language books and publications, other than Buddhist scriptures or publications translated from Vietnamese.[148] Harris reports that monks are required to study Ho Chi Minh's biography and teach Vietnamese history, with many pagodas maintaining shrines to Ho Chi Minh and displaying Communist Party posters on pagoda walls.[149]In addition, the government has authorized construction of non-Buddhist buildings and in at least one instance, even a canal, within some Khmer pagoda compounds, sometimes causing structural damage to the pagodas, according to Harris.

Like other officially-recognized religions in Vietnam, Khmer Theravada Buddhists must request permission prior to conducting many specific activities. Some Khmer monks feel that Buddhists elders¾and not government appointees--should oversee and regulate Buddhist religious ceremonies. At times such requests for permission are not granted, a Khmer Krom Buddhist monk from Soc Trang told Human Rights Watch:

In my temple we were told to request official authorization when we wanted to open a course of study on the Buddha's code of law at our temple's Buddhist school in 2005. The request, which the monks submitted to both the district and provincial levels [of government], was never approved.[150]

Even when authorization is given, strict restrictions can still be imposed. For example, when the Soc Trang Bureau of Religious Affairs granted approval for a pagoda to conduct a ceremony to inaugurate a new temple building in March 2008, the officials instructed the pagoda's abbot to invite only participants from certain provinces, impressing upon him that it was his duty to ensure public safety during the ceremony.[151]

Khmer Krom believe that the government's suppression, modification, or co-optation of traditional Khmer religious and cultural practices, festivals, and ceremonies--which are often intrinsically linked to Khmer Buddhism or the Buddhist calendar--aims to forcefully assimilate Khmer Krom into mainstream Kinh society and culture and destroy Khmer culture.

Oft-cited examples include the government's reduction in the number of days allowed for observance of religious ceremonies such as the annual Kathin celebration,[152] in which lay people give new robes and other offerings to Buddhist monks,[153] and the annual Pchum Ben festival commemorating the ancestors.

Many Khmer Krom also resent the government's modification of the Khmer's customary Boat Festival (Bon Om Tuk) into a "multi-cultural sporting event" for all ethnicities in the Mekong Delta, including boats sponsored by ethnic Vietnamese, Cham, Chinese, and Khmer.[154] Rather than the Buddhist calendar determining the date for the annual festival, it now takes place several times a year, providing entertainment during political holidays in Vietnam such as Liberation Day (April 30) and National Day (September 2).[155]

For many Khmer Krom Buddhists, such government interference strikes at the core of their ethnic and cultural identity. As an ethnic minority living in a region that many Khmer consider part of their cultural heartland, Khmer Krom in Vietnam place a strong emphasis on preservation of Khmer traditions and ethnic identity through their Theravada Buddhist practices.[156]

Because of restrictions imposed on their religious practices, some Khmer Krom Buddhists seek to operate independently of the VBS and other government institutions, which they feel are corrupting and altering traditional Khmer Buddhism. A Khmer Krom activist explained:

Our religion is managed under the control of the Vietnamese religion. We want the right to practice our own Buddhist religion--the real Khmer Buddhism--not the Vietnamese style. We want the Vietnamese government to separate and detach the Khmer religion from Vietnamese religions.[157]

Khmer Krom Buddhists should be allowed to manage their own religious affairs, explained a Khmer monk from Soc Trang:

We monks should be allowed to select our own leaders--they should not be appointed by the government. If we commit an infraction against Buddhist rules, we must be judged and punished by monks, not government authorities.[158]

From the Vietnamese government's perspective, religious groups that seek to operate independently of government-authorized committees and manage their own affairs undermine the authority of the Vietnamese Communist Party. An official government publication on religious issues states that the "plot" to separate the Khmer Theravada Buddhist "sect" from the VBS is linked to activities of "reactionaries abroad" to form a "Khmer Krom State."[159]

In 2004 the United States State Department designated Vietnam a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for its violations of religious freedom. After Vietnam released a number of religious prisoners and passed new legislation streamlining the religious registration process for churches, the US removed Vietnam's CPC designation. However, freedom of religion continues to be perceived as a privilege to be granted by the government rather than as an inalienable right, and religious activities deemed to threaten in any way Communist Party popularity or control are banned or carefully monitored and controlled.[160]

In May 2008 the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a governmental body created by the US Congress, recommended that the US re-designate Vietnam as a country of particular concern for religious freedom violations, asserting that the decision to lift the designation had been "premature."[161]

Restrictions on freedom of movement

Religious authorities and local officials often do not allow Buddhist monks to travel freely, transfer to another pagoda, change their place of study, or conduct ceremonies without official permission. A young monk told Human Rights Watch:

If we want to move to another pagoda to study we need to write a letter and get permission. We are unable to study freely. For any ceremony, you have to apply for permission two months in advance.[162]

Khmer Krom monks are also effectively denied the right to study in Cambodia, a major study destination for generations of Khmer Krom up until 1975. Khmer Krom who travel to Cambodia to study are subject to police interrogation and threats upon their return to Vietnam. "Vichika," a Khmer Krom monk studying in Phnom Penh who returned to Soc Trang for several days for the funeral of his grandfather, said that provincial police summoned him twice for interrogation about his activities in Cambodia and information about activist monks there. He was told that the authorities in Vietnam were aware that he had joined some of the protests in Phnom Penh during 2007, and threatened to arrest him should he return to Cambodia:

The police told me not to return to Cambodia. If I did, they said I would never be able to return to my birthplace and see my parents again because they would arrest me.[163]

Restrictions on freedom of expression

In Vietnam, where all media is controlled by the government or the Vietnamese Communist Party, criminal penalties apply to publications, websites, and internet users that disseminate information deemed to oppose the government or party, threaten national security, or reveal state secrets. In the Mekong Delta, Vietnamese authorities require a cumbersome vetting of all Khmer-language print materials originating in Vietnam or imported from Cambodia.

Peaceful activism and expressions of dissent by Khmer Krom (as with other ethnic groups, political activists, and members of independent religious organizations in Vietnam) are seen as a threat to "national unity." National security provisions in Vietnam's Penal Code and in press and publication laws effectively criminalize peaceful freedom of expression.[164]

After a visit to Vietnam, including the Mekong Delta, in October-November 2007, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that while the Vietnamese government recognizes diversity among different Protestant congregations, allowing most to operate legally, it has a more repressive stance regarding Buddhists:

[A]mong the Buddhists, peaceful demands for independence are treated as a threat to government control. In addition, peaceful expression of views or demonstrations for greater religious freedom--and the legal and political reforms needed to ensure it--are treated as a challenge to the government's authority…. These actions are indefensible: the government of Vietnam cannot repress religious freedom because it fears a loss of authority.[165]

Government authorities strictly restrict all publications in Khmer, other than Buddhist scriptures. Khmer Krom monks and lay people are not allowed to read Khmer-language books and other publications unless they have been translated from Vietnamese. It is exceedingly rare to find any publications in Khmer imported from abroad, other than Pali texts. According to Buddhist scholar Ian Harris, authorities have confiscated Khmer-language literature from many monastic libraries, sometimes detaining monks who secretly read or keep such publications, particularly magazines about the situation in Cambodia or the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam.[166]

Authorities ban and confiscate Khmer-language publications and films that are perceived to contain anti-government content, such as bulletins and videos produced by the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF). Those who distribute such publications are subject to arrest and interrogation. A Khmer Krom farmer activist from An Giang, in response to a question as to whether he had ever seen any of the videos produced by KKF, told Human Rights Watch:

There are no KKF videos in my village--we cannot look at such things. They would arrest and beat us. In the past it was forbidden to listen to RFA or VOA. Now if they hear us listening, they insult and scold us, saying we are listening to lies.[167]

Police have searched the pagodas and computers of Khmer Krom monks suspected of submitting articles to the KKF Bulletin or distributing the publication. For example, in February 2007 police in Tra Vinh Province detained Thach Thanh for three days after he picked up copies of the KKF bulletin (see section III, above).[168]

"Kakada," another monk from Tra Vinh, told Human Rights Watch that his problems with local authorities escalated after they found KKF newsletters, including articles he had written for the publication, on his computer. Already under police investigation for having protested the detention of another monk in January 2007, the monk was subsequently defrocked and placed under house arrest:

They weren't happy that I had taught people about Khmer history. They accused me of keeping documents about Khmer history--DVDs, magazines, the KKF bulletin--and disseminating information to the public. They accused me of writing an article in the KKF bulletin about the situation of the Khmer Krom people. It was indeed true. They found the article in my computer. In that article I said that they violate religious rights and there is no land for Buddhist pagodas as well as for rice fields. I wrote what I saw.[169]

"Seyha," who was deputy abbot at his pagoda in Soc Trang, told Human Rights Watch he was branded a troublemaker after authorities caught him reading a KKF bulletin:

They tried to create disturbances in my temple. They used hooligans-- drug addicts, glue sniffers, people drinking alcohol--to create a bad image for the monks and reduce the confidence of the people in me. As deputy abbot, I was the main one targeted. When I tried to defrock or evict the people who were drinking and taking drugs, they called their gang to beat me. I locked my door and they were unable to get in, but I felt very unsafe there.[170]

Before the harassment escalated further, "Seyha" fled from Vietnam.

Khmer Krom activists in Vietnam also come under surveillance and questioning if they are suspected of being in contact with, or members of, international organizations such as the KKF. The indictment of Tim Sakhorn, for example, charged that in addition to distributing copies of the KKF bulletin from his pagoda in Cambodia, he was vice president of the KKF in Phnom Penh and had incited Khmer Krom to conduct land rights protests in An Giang and Ho Chi Minh City.[171]

Statelessness

As one of Vietnam's officially-recognized ethnic minority groups, ethnic Khmer in Vietnam are generally recognized as Vietnamese citizens. According to UNHCR, there are 23,000 stateless people from Cambodia living in Vietnam, including 10,000 refugees, of whom 2,300 live in four UNHCR camps established in the late 1970s in southern Vietnam.[172]The majority are ethnic Chinese or ethnic Vietnamese born in Cambodia who fled to Vietnam during the last 40 years to escape the Khmer Rouge, civil war, and ethnic violence.[173] Some are also ethnic Khmer from Cambodia who remained in Vietnam after being forced across the border in the late 1970s during cross border fighting between Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge troops. UNHCR considers all 10,000 as stateless persons because they cannot return to Cambodia, resettle abroad, or obtain citizenship in Vietnam, according to UNHCR's latest Country Operations Plan for Vietnam:

The possibilities of any long term durable solutions either through repatriation or resettlement is not in the offing and they remain in a vulnerable situation due to their stateless situation.[174]

Until an amended Nationality Law was passed in October 2008,[175] Vietnamese law has required people desiring to naturalize as Vietnamese citizens to obtain written documentation that they have renounced their former nationality.[176] This has posed a stumbling block for individuals from Cambodia living in Vietnam because it is often difficult or impossible, as well as expensive, to obtain such documentation from the Cambodian authorities.[177]It is possible that the status of stateless persons in Vietnam may change after passage of the new law, which provides for dual citizenship and may ease the naturalization process for stateless persons in Vietnam, since they will no longer need to obtain a certificate confirming that they have renounced their Cambodian nationality.