Khmers Krom in Moat Chrouk Province Protested About Lands

27th March 2008
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

About 100 Khmers Krom from Svay Tong district, An Giang, or as Khmers called it Moat Chrouk, Province have on Thursday peacefully protested on their lands to request the Vietnamese authority to return their lands back to them.

In the mean time, there are about 500 other Khmers Krom protesting for the same reason in front of the city hall of Chau Laing commune, Svay Tong district of An Giang province of Vietnam for the return of 4,000 hectares of their farmlands which belonged to 500 families.

Mr. Chau Hen, a Khmer Krom living in Chau Laing commune of Svay Tong district, An Giang province told Radio Free Asia by telephone from the protest site on Thursday that: “We have come down to our ancestral lands to request for their returns. The Vietnamese government didn’t want to return these lands to us. They have promised to resolve this issue by harvest season (November) but they just lied to us in order to exploit us, but they did not resolve anything for us.”

A woman, whose name is Neang Hean, who is also protesting, has described about the reason for the protest like this: “We have come to protest about our lands. Everyday, I don’t have any lands to farm so I have to work for other people. They didn’t resolve the issue for us.”

According to the sources, those more than 500 Khmer Krom families have lost approximately 4,000 hectares of their lands since 1975 when they escaped to Cambodia due to fighting between the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces. In 1980 and 1981 they returned to their ancestral lands but their lands were confiscated. Their fights for the returns of their lands have begun since 2001 but there was no resolution.

Mr Trinh Ba Cam, spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, said: “The problems of land disputes happened everywhere due to developments, but they are not due to the confiscations of lands or other issues.”

In relation to the above Khmer Krom protests, Mr. Thach Setha, chairman of the Khmer Krom Association in Cambodia said: “The claims that there are no confiscations of lands from the (Khmer Krom) people are incorrect because these actions have been carried out since 1976, 1977, 1978. Especially in 1978.”

According to the sources, these peaceful protests by the Khmer Krom to request for the returns of their lands on the morning of Thursday went on for about 5 hours and the protests were called off when the local Vietnamese authorities in Chau Laing commune did not show up to resolve the issues or receive their complaints. And there were about 10 Vietnamese government secret agents who were sent to take photographs of the protesters, but there were no violence or crackdown. //