United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Fourth Session
New York, 16-27 May 2005
Item 4(a): Human Rights

Statement by Sothy Kien, representative of the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation

Madam Chair:

In consideration of other Indigenous people, on behalf of Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, we make the following recommendations:

1. That the United Nations and the world community send aid and missions to review the conditions and reasons for thousands of blinded Khmer Krom people who are facing starvation and homelessness.

2. To place a team of WHO professional doctors, scientists and human rights defenders to study and investigate the cause of the blind and deadly diseases facing the Khmer-Krom people.

3. To send a team under the auspices of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Kampuchea-Krom to verify and report these human rights violation of the Khmer Krom people.

4. To explore the creation of a Special Rapporteur on Viet Nam to improve the daily human rights of my people. Recommend the WHO, United Nations, World Bank, IMF, ADB, and international donors to stop their economic aid and investment in Viet Nam for their non-compliance with their promise to improve their treatment on the Khmer Krom and other indigenous people.

5. Request the existing Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) & various UN specialized agencies to establish their bases in the local areas where the Khmer Krom live and to work directly with them, and not with the Vietnamese Government in Hanoi. Our people have never received any benefit from the international humanitarian organizations that work with the high level of the Communist authority in Hanoi. The assistance needs to reach our people on the ground.

6. Request the Permanent Forum to advise the United Nations Decolonization Committee to re-inscribe Kampuchea-Krom on the List of Non-Self-Governing Territories as well as to assist the Khmer Krom Indigenous People with the UN processes and mechanisms to achieve their long-standing goal of Decolonization and Self-Determination from Viet Nam.

The Vietnamization of our people must stop today. The Khmer regions have been re-named to Vietnamese. Additionally, the Khmer people are forced to change family names. I could not say what I am saying here at the UN in my own homeland. Now the Vietnamese Government does not want me to speak here as you have just heard.

Madam Chair,
The Viet Nam Government continues to participate in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. However, it refuses to recognize the existence of indigenous peoples and our basic human rights to self-identify. We suggest if the government has an issue with ethnic minorities they should attend the UN Working Group on Minorities and when they officially recognize us, the Khmer Krom as indigenous peoples they can return to the PFII so we can have a dialogue to work in cooperation for the promotion and protection of the human rights of Khmer Krom peoples.

Thank You