Radio Free Asia
Khmer Krom monks pray at a pagoda in Phnom Penh at a 2007
rally to demand the release of a monk arrested for allegedly organizing
an anti-Vietnam demonstration in Cambodia.
AFP
AFP
Cambodia has detained a group of four ethnic minority Khmer Krom
from Vietnam and two locals accused of terrorism and plotting armed
revolt against the Cambodian government in charges that have been
rejected by rights groups.
The men were arrested in Thailand and deported to Cambodia last week,
National Police Commission spokesman Kiet Chantharith said Tuesday.
He linked the men to an alleged terrorist group, saying police are preparing to make further related arrests.
"We are investigating the Khmer Front Movement. We have a list of suspects and we are working on the case," he said.
Cambodian authorities say the Khmer Front Movement is an armed group
based in southern Cambodia’s Takeo province seeking to liberate the
Khmer Krom ethnic minority in Vietnam.
Kiet Chantharith said the six men had been arrested on a warrant
based on their suspected involvement in terrorism, distributing
anti-government leaflets, and illegal establishment of an armed force.
They appeared twice last week before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, which on Tuesday ordered them detained pending trial.
Four of the six suspects are ethnic Khmer Krom from Vietnam who had
moved to Phnom Penh and then fled shortly before their arrest to seek
asylum in Thailand.
The Khmer Krom minority, from southern Vietnam’s lower Mekong delta
region which Cambodians sometimes call "Kampuchea Krom" or "Lower
Cambodia, are ethnically similar to most Cambodians and considered
outsiders in Vietnam, where they face social persecution and strict
religious controls.
Many Khmer Krom move to Cambodia, where they are often perceived as
Vietnamese and are regarded as one of the country’s most disenfranchised
groups.
Chan Tha, the wife of one of the four detained Khmer Krom, said their
family fled to Thailand because of their economic situation and
government suppression in Vietnam.
Her husband Thach Ty was not involved with any crime or
anti-government movement, she told RFA’s Khmer Service from Thailand,
adding that he was arrested by Thai police on March 6.
The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, an international group
representing Khmer Krom around the world, rejected claims that the six
are connected with anti-terrorist activities or anti-government armed
forces.
The group’s Cambodia director Taing Sarak said Tuesday that he hoped the men would receive justice.
"The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation will monitor the case to see if
the law is breached or not. But if they have been framed, they must be
provided justice,” he said.
He said one of the six men had been detained once and jailed for two
years on charges of distributing anti-government leaflets. He was
released in January.
A Cambodian rights activist for the Cambodian League for the
Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) was also imprisoned in
the case, in a conviction that drew international scrutiny because of
legal proceedings rights groups said were “outrageously flawed.”
The Licadho staffer, Leang Sokchouen, was originally convicted on
charges of disinformation and later handed a prison term for helping
distribute leaflets critical of celebrations of the January 7, 1979,
invasion of Cambodia by Vietnamese forces, before his release May last
year.
Reported by Sonorng Khe for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
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