Economic and Social Council

Distr. General

E/CN.4/2005/NGO/177

10 March 2005

English only

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Sixty-first session

Item 15 of the provisional agenda

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

Written statement* submitted by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), a non-governmental organization in special consultative status

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31. [10 February 2005]

* This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).

SITUATION OF KHMER KROM PEOPLES IN VIETNAM

1. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUMASIA), a non-governmental organisation in special consultative status, in cooperation with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, wish to draw the attention of the 61st Commission on Human Rights on the situation of Khmer Krom Peoples in Vietnam.

2. While the human rights situation in Viet Nam has been raised at the UN Commission on Human Rights, very little is known about the oppression of the indigenous Khmer Krom people in this country who lived in the former Cochin China, now in the southern part of present-day Viet Nam.

3. The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) while considering Viet Nam’s second Periodic Report, requested the country “to provide information on minorities in Viet Nam, including the Khmer Krom community.”

4. The assurances provided, in Viet Nam’s response to the HRC dated 23 April, 2002, contrast sharply with the actual reality of Khmer Krom situation. Having endured immense human rights violations, subjected to ethnic, religious, and cultural discrimination and grievous oppression, they remain too terrorized to speak out about their sufferings to the world. Efforts to use domestic remedies have resulted in increased repression and retaliation, as indicated in the report, Vietnam: The Silencing of Dissent, by Human Rights Watch of 1 May 2000.

5. Gross and systematic human rights violations have been inflicted upon the Khmer Krom people by Vietnamese authorities. This has been the strategy of Viet Nam after it occupied Khmer Krom homeland. In this strategy countless Khmer Krom leaders have faced summary executions. Others faced involuntary disappearance or remain incarcerated for life. In terms of prison atrocities, unknown substances to impair a Khmer Krom individual’s brain functions were applied with detainees then being released mentally immobilised.

6. The Khmer Krom people are farmers and as such securing their land rights becomes a crucial issue. Unfortunately, their lands have been confiscated by the Vietnamese authorities to build roads and irrigation systems or handed over to Vietnamese farmers. No compensation has been provided to the Khmer Krom people. On the contrary, if they wish to use the water from the irrigation facilities, they must pay for it.

7. Around 95 percent of the Khmers-Krom people practice Hinayanna Buddhism, whereas most Vietnamese practice Mahayanna. On this issue, Viet Nam continues to violate the rights of Hinayana Buddhists. The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, in his report to the fifty-fifth session of the UNCHR said: “The Special Rapporteur went to the place where a private meeting was to take place with representatives of the Khmers Krom, but the people he interviewed were unable to communicate any information whatsoever. After the visit, non-governmental sources indicated that the Khmers Krom representatives' failure to make statements had apparently been due to pressure from the security services.”

8. Similarly, HRC Concluding Observations of 26 July 2002 noted that Viet Nam had provided insufficient information for the Committee “to have a clear view of the situation in Viet Nam with regard to religious freedom. In the light of information available to the Committee that certain religious practices are repressed or strongly discouraged in Viet Nam, the Committee is seriously concerned that the State party's practice in this respect does not meet the requirements of Article 18 of the Covenant. The Committee is deeply concerned by allegations of harassment and detention of religious leaders and regrets that the delegation failed to provide information relating to such allegations. In this context, the Committee is concerned at the restrictions placed on outside observers who wished to investigate the allegations.”

9. The Viet Nam’’s Ordinance of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly regarding religious belief and religious organizations of 18 June, 2004 assures a degree of religious freedom. However, in practice temples have been used as prisons. Authorities dictate how Buddhism should be practiced with police stationed at Buddhist to enforce the government’s policies. Land owned by Buddhist temples has been seized to provide housing for Vietnamese settlers. The imposition of restrictions on the importation of Pitakas (Buddhist religious texts) from Cambodia for use by the Khmer Krom people remains a serious concern. Similarly forcing Khmer Krom monks to join the Vietnamese army is creating a vacuum in the Khmer Krom’s Buddhist clergy strength to serve the religious needs of the Khmer Krom people.

10. In terms of economic, social and cultural rights, there are no health care facilities, no doctors or health workers, no prenatal care for expectant mothers, no vaccinations for children. As a result infant mortality rate is high. One of the major health crisis, faced by thousands of Khmer Krom people is blindness of undetermined origin in one or both eyes, for which no treatment is available.

11. Clinics and hospitals in the urban areas generally refuse to treat Khmer Krom people because they cannot pay medical bills. Since 2003, the epidemic of blindness has spread throughout Kleang Provinces. Viet Nam, however, has failed to address the problem by making no serious effort to find the causes and remedies.

12. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in its Summary Record of the 848th Meeting of 22 January 2003, acknowledged that children in remote areas of Viet Nam had less access to social services than children in urban settings. This applies generally to Khmer Krom children. Deficiencies in education for the Khmers Krom children relate closely to religious-cultural discrimination and socio-economic marginalisation. Instead of promoting the tradition and culture of Khmer Krom people as an integral part of educating Khmer Krom children; Viet Nam has looked upon the Khmer Krom language, culture, and tradition with consistent disdain. As such, there is no center for Khmer Krom studies or library in the Khmer language anywhere in Viet Nam. Teaching of the Khmer language in public school is inadequate. The Khmer Krom Buddhist clergy are forced to study new books and materials that are devoid of their cultural values.

13. The Vietnamese population generally enjoy far better educational opportunities and programs than the Khmer Krom people. In a Khmer Krom population estimated by some international sources as 8 million (1.3 million, according to the Government of Viet Nam), no one holds a Ph. D. and only 6 individuals hold Masters Degrees. Many Khmer Krom who hold undergraduate degrees remain unemployed.

14. Khmers Krom people are forced to adopt Vietnamese culture, forced to use only the Vietnamese language in official business, forced to subordinate their traditions to the economic interests of the State (as in conducting the traditionally-annual boat-racing festivals more than once a year, so as to provide more tourist-generated income for the government). Social and cultural activities of the Khmer Krom people are controlled and managed by Vietnamese authorities. The Khmer Krom people are denied the right to wear traditional clothing and the right to build cultural museums.

15. Another serious problem faced by the Khmer Krom people is the State-supported settlement of Vietnamese in the Khmer Krom homeland. This brought about grave consequences upon our culture. The Concluding observations Viet Nam of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD),, of 15 August, 2001, included the following expression of concern: “The Committee is further concerned about the alleged population transfer to territories inhabited by indigenous groups, disadvantaging them in the exercise of their social, economic and cultural rights.”

16. In conclusion, our organisations calls upon the Government of Viet Nam

i. To invite the World Health Organization (WHO) and relevant thematic mandates of the UN Commission on Human Rights, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health and the Special Rapporteur on human rights of indigenous peoples, on official missions, including to the homeland of the Khmer Krom people.

ii. To take effective measures in implementing the recommendations of the following treaties bodies

a. Concluding observations of the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Vietnam 15/08/2001 especially

i. Paragraph 424: “The Committee recommends that State party strengthen the education of the society in a spirit of respect for human rights and in particular the rights of members of ethnic minorities.”

b. Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Vietnam 26/07/2002 especially

i. Paragraph 19 “The State party should take immediate measures to ensure the rights of members of indigenous people communities are respected. Non-governmental organizations and other human rights monitors should be granted access…”

c. Concluding observation of the Committee on Rights of the Child: Vietnam 18/03/2003 especially

i. Paragraph 14 “The Committee recommends that the State party pay particular attention to the full implementation of article 4 of the Convention by prioritizing budgetary allocations to ensure implementation of the economic, social and cultural rights of children, in particular those belonging to economically disadvantaged groups and living in rural or mountainous areas,…”

18. We call on the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples of the Sub-Commission to take into consideration the plight of Khmer Krom people in their continuous study on lands rights and Indigenous peoples.

19. We call on the Permanent Forum of the Indigenous Peoples to pay attention in their discourse to this highly marginalized Khmer Krom Peoples in Vietnam.

Source: OHCHR