A Change of Guard

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Friday 14 May 2010

Khmers in Norway commemorate the deaths of Khmer refugees dumped in Dangrek Mountains by Thai troops

By Khmerization
Source: RFA

More than 100 Khmer expatriates living in Norway have on 8th May held a Buddhist ceremony to commemorate and pay homage to thousands of Khmer refugees who had tragically died in Dangrek Mountain ranges after Thai troops packed them into trucks and buses and dumped them in minefields on top of Dangrek Mountains near Preah Vihear temple in 1979, reports Radio Free Asia.

When the Vietnamese army drove the Khmer Rouge out of power in 1979, tens of thousands of Khmer refugees fled to Thailand. Thousands have died after they have been inhumanly forced back on foot into Cambodia through thick minefields.

Mr. Ear Channa, Secretary General of the Cambodian Watchdog Council for the Norwegian city of Christiansand, the organiser of the event, said the event is to remember the tragic deaths of tens of thousands of Khmer refugees when Thai troops dumped them on top of the mountains and forced them at gun points to walk into minefields back to Cambodia. "(They) were sent back by Thai soldiers so they can get killed (by landmines). Some people were shot dead by Thai soldiers and other fell to their deaths (from the mountain cliffs). They (ceremony participants) want to participate in the ceremony in order to pray to the soul of those who died so their spirit will reach a peacful world", he said.

The UNHCR's report, on page 494, written in 1979 stated that Thai troops forced about 45,000 Khmer refugees, including the old, the young, the sick and women, at gunpoints to walk back to Cambodia through minefields near Preah Vihear temple. The report quoted Thai Prime Minister Kriangsak Chomanan as saying that Thailand was forced to take the steps to repatriate these refugees back to Cambodia because the international community did not come to their aid fast enough and had left Thailand to deal with these refugees alone.

Mr. Ear Chhana said he is trying to make efforts to take a class action against Thailand in the International Criminial Court in The Hague, Netherlands. "Thai leaders at that time massacred the Khmer people using the pretext that the UN did not come to help the Khmer refugees fast enough, so this is a really inhuman act. They should think of us (Khmer) as their fellow human-beings. They should help to save us and allow us to live (in Thailand) until the UN can come and help us. But they didn't think like that. They knew many Khmers have been killed inside our country (by the Khmer Rouge) and we just want to escape death in order to survive and they (the Thais) killed us again. The Khmer race had nearly become extinct! So, this is another genocide against the Khmer people, if we think carefully about it", he said.

Mr. Khoeun Samkhann, a Khmer-American who is the editor and publisher of a poetry book "Oh! Maha Mount Dangrek!" which describes about Khmer refugee's suffering in the Dangrek Mountain ranges at the hands of the Thai soldiers, said the commemoration service by Khmers living in Norway is a good example. "That (the commemoration) is a good thing to do. It is the best thing we can do. I think that what they are doing now is an eternal remembrance, especially for those compatriots who have died. Another thing is that it is a very good testimony", he said.

Mr. Samkhann encourages all Khmers around the world to hold this sort of ceremony to commemorate their spirit or to remind about the tragic event. He urged all families or relatives of the victms of that event to compile the documents or write their testimonies to tell the world on how the Thai soldiers pushed them down of the Dangrek Mountains into minefields so that they can fid justice for them.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sending tens of thousands of helpless people across known minefield is a crime against humanity. I was one of the survivors.

Anonymous said...

I would love to have a picture like that for a reminder at Thai boarder.
Yes, I read about those horrible accounts in William Shawcross book The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust & Modern Conscience (1984).

Anonymous said...

This is Siam, why would they care about us? We have been enemy for 1000s years. Taking them to court sound nice.

Anonymous said...

My family and I walked to Nong Chan with hundreds if not thousands of other Khmer refugees. On the way there we were all robbed by Thai robbers. They knocked people's teeth out to get gold or silver fillings, they raped some women and young girls. They wore so many Buddha idols around their necks, but they were the most barbaric, savages i had ever met. The Thais soldiers were quite far behind them, and did not move forward to stop anything. Although the Thai soldiers did not rob us, they too were savages. They beat anyone who stepped out of line. To them, the beatings were just sport. They represented the true meaning of uncompassionate animals.

As if that was not enough, they then sent us all back via Dorng Rek. I remember some of the older people being happy saying that we were being moved to a safer place. The next morning we were met by more animals in Thai uniforms forcing us to climb the gentle slop to the top, and then grappled with vines down the other side. Elderly people who could not walked were forced to be left by their families, some with a little water, some with nothing at all. The rest of their families climbed down. What fate awaited those innocent, scared elders, I never found out. No one talked. Knowing the savagery of the Thais, I have no doubt in my mind how their lives ended.

The mine fields were something else. Those who got to the mountains first got the brunt of it, as they just walked striaght in.

Because of this experience, I will never forgive the Thai as a people. The rest of the Western World may know them as a smiling people. I know them as true savages, with not a drop of human blood in them. And to now know how their PM justified that action, they disgust me even more.

Anonymous said...

It's too bad , I ever never know about Siam was force refugees to walk across the minefields like that, Why they can do it with the human like this?
I though now is suitable time to get they sins that they were done with Khmer people.

Anonymous said...

We were hungry and staving to death. Thousand of Khmer refugees left the country in 1979-1982 did not intent to go abroad,but to look for food and a haven from the fighting in Cambodia, but the condition inside were too bad.

Hanoi denied all food aids from UN. Why? for two years, despite the world knew about stavation in Cambodia. Did they try to save us? or to finish us off so that they can grab our land?.

All Khmer should remember that, we are living between the crocodile and the tiger. If we keep forgeting the suffering of our people we are going to suffer further in the future .

Still remeber Te ong ? How the Viet used to make tea out of our ancestors heads as stoves.

And we also should remember that the war and suffering of 2.5 millions of lifeves lost was the plot of Hanoi during the Indochina war. It was Hanoi that used Khmer land to wage war with south Vietnam in the broad day light in 1969, so that the conflict and war could spread into Cambodia.... That was how it begun.
Anyway, we are lucky, without the collapsed of the communist block today Cambodia could have been called a New Ho Chiming state.

True Khmer

Anonymous said...

The story is very sad, it remind me of the very step I try to flee...but the saddest part is how Mr. Khoeun used the two Cambodia kids from Cambodia during this book tour. I found out from many sources and I had to trash the book and disc. Why these kids have to go through Oh! Maha Mount Dangrek! in 2010 to raise money for Mr. Khoeun?

Anonymous said...

a friend of my stated the same thing. that poor cambodia kids was here for a book tour when back home with empty handed....poor kids

Anonymous said...

I was one of the tens of thousands of people forced back across the border to Cambodia through jungle littered with landmines.The young, the old and the sick were forced to walk through thick jungle back to Cambodia. People stepped on landmines and maimed and killed. A heavy oxcart behind me drove over an anti-tank mine, it exploded and the oxcart, the oxes and the riders were all blown into pieces. Luckily, I was far enough not to get hit. It was a tragedy. Many people died of hunger also. This is a crime against humanity.

Anonymous said...

I'm Anonymous #1... Overwhelmed to see so many people shared their experience here.
I remember hearing gunshots and refugees panicking then I saw a Thai soldier squatting with his gun aiming at us. I thought he was trying to shoot at whoever was shooting at us and it took me a long while to realise he was the original gunman. He said something in Thai and someone who knew the language said he wanted us to leave him Thai money for him since it would be useless in Cambodia. What an animal!
Some unfortunate soul stepped on a mine about 10 metres from my family and we were covered with fine mince meat and blood but otherwise unscratched. It was for the reason that so many people packed together in that space of 10 metres - up to 30 deep, and we were sheltered by them.
_______
I should make a point that I am forever grateful to a small group of young Thai citizen who ran the gaunlets with the police and traffic to hand us water and food as they herded us back toward Preah Vihear. I don't know how we would survive without their gifts, and this was the only food source we had until we reached the Viet food distribution camp weeks later.

Anonymous said...

A little clarification:
"....ran the gaunlets with the police and traffic to hand us water and food as they herded us back toward Preah Vihear" should read:

""....ran the gaunlets with the police and traffic to hand us water and food as their government herded us back toward Preah Vihear"