A Change of Guard

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Thursday 11 April 2013

Leaks tell Cham general’s tale [Was this Cham general trying to establish a Cham nation within Cambodia with the help of Muslim countries?]

Last Updated on 11 April 2013 
Phnom Penh Post 
By Joe Freeman
2 cham general
Cham leader and Lon Nol military official Les Kosem poses for a portrait with his family in the early 1970s. Documentation center of Cambodia
In early February of 1974, about 10 months before the Khmer Rouge takeover, Brigadier General Les Kosem and other leaders of Cambodia’s half million Cham Muslims gathered in Phnom Penh and made a public appeal for help.

Kosem read a resolution condemning Khmer Rouge atrocities against Sunni Muslim Cham, Cambodia’s largest ethnic minority. Muslim nations were also urged to assist in brokering peaceful negotiations.

The details of this long-ago event were embedded in thousands of previously unclassified but hard-to-access US diplomatic cables published on Monday by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Dubbed the “Kissinger Cables” after then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, they shed light on the lead-up to the fall of Phnom Penh, but also on once-prominent Cambodians who, like Kosem, may have slipped through the lines of most history books.

Kosem was close to the military apparatus supporting Lon Nol after the 1970 coup. He left Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge seized the capital and died abroad under mysterious circumstances. In the dwindling months of Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic, he kept busy by trying to build diplomatic ties with Muslim countries.

“At our meeting July 25, Prime Minister Long Boret gave me on confidential bases copy of General Les Kosem’s report on the Islamic Foreign Ministers Conference held [in] Kuala Lumpur from 21-25 June which he attended as head of a three-man delegation of Khmer Moslems,” read one cable from US Ambassador John Dean.


Kosem is remembered for his efforts to advocate for Muslims in danger and for attempting to spirit some of them out of the country.

“Despite his death, General Les Kosem is still well-known in the Cham Muslim community for his military position and [as a] representative for the Cham Muslim community at that time,” said Farina So, head of the Cham Oral History Project at the Documentation Center of Cambodia. “Cham Muslim leaders were trying to seek help from Malaysia, a Muslim country which is close to Cambodia, in the 1970s to help rescue the people from the communist control, but it did not work, because the situation was already worse, there was limited support and a lack of political will.”

After Phnom Penh was evacuated in April of 1975, the Khmer Rouge enlarged existing policies targeting religious groups. Seen as enemies, the Cham were hunted down, persecuted and killed by the thousands, their deaths serving as part of the basis for genocide charges in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Case 002.

According to So, the Khmer Rouge told some of the Cham that they were headed for Muslim countries in an exchange for oil, when they were really headed for work camps.

Kosem’s widow, Meidine Natchear, who runs a resort in Kampot, said her husband’s plan at the time was to bring all of the Cham to Malaysia. She says he succeeded in helping a couple thousand make the trip by boat with a stop in Thailand.

“He would never think about leaving Cambodia without his people,” she said.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cham State inside Cambodia, what kind of an idiot idea ?

Cambodia and not Malaysia is the home of the Khmer Cham.

He must be a very dangerous person he did a great trouble not only for hime and his familiy, but also for other innocent Khmer Cham.

Anonymous said...

Like in nowadays Cambodia, there are aid and donation from Moslim foreign countries to strengthen Moslim communities and spirit (like Vietnamese in Cambodia). Once they are strong enough, they would do something against Khmer local people, at least fighting, prejudice, racist, religionism or separatist movement, chaos between Khmer, Vietnamese and Charm will happen in Cambodia. That's why foreign countries pay much attention over this issue.

Anonymous said...

As I said a long time ago, Cambodia will be divided along Viet, Chen, Lao, Khmer, Cham, Thai. Just watch and see.

Anonymous said...

None sense...stop insighting more problems in Cambodia. Khmer and Champ been living together peacefully. Champ communities are treated really well in Cambodia than in Thailand. They are Khmer citizens anyways.

Anonymous said...

If you were so good in seeing the future ! Why don't you foretell that you should go get an educations you idiot. Your dream of us Khmer nation exiting WILL NEVER HAPPEN. As long as still ONE Khmer left your dream WILL NOT COME TRUE YOU IGNORANT, UNEDUCATE. SILLY, LOW LIFE PEASANT, LOW CLASS TRAITOR. WHY DON'T YOU GO FUC YOURSELF OR YOUR MOTHER.

Anonymous said...

What the hell! Khmer territory is for the Khmer people. If these Chams want to act up, then they need to get the hell out of Cambodia for good! F*cking Chams. They don't assimilate with any of us and they are completely different, yet we continue to consider them as brothers and sisters of the greater Khmer family. It is time to look at the devils in their true form. Even the f*cking Lao inside the Khmer territory is are acting up. It is time for a new policy. Dr. PeangMeth is a Cham but he is a patriotic Khmer though. So not all Cham are disgusting as that Les Kosem dude.

Anonymous said...

The issue with the Cham people is that they have identity problem. With the loss of their Champa to Vietnam and got themselves kicked out, Cambodia is their saviour for their smelly life style, be that in Chhrui Changva or Chhrang Chomress.They never establish themselves as Khmer although Khmer gave them livelihood and no one else give a hood even their beloved Malaysians. And they maintain this attitude anywhere they go - case in fact this idiot named Sos Farib a cham from chhrui changvar got Colombo Plan scholarship for Khmer students to New Zealand still acting for cham's interest in the past 40 years - I say send all them back to Champa and let yuon eat them!!!

Anonymous said...

Remember in the 1850s, the Cham population in Oudong rebelled against King Ang Duong. King Ang Duong was not able to crush them before he died. The Cham rebellion was only crushed by King Norodom when he came to the throne in around 1863.
See, Cambodia gave them a place to live after their country, Champa, was swallowed by Vietnam and later they wanted to takeover Cambodia. Lucky, the Cambodian army at that time was able to crush the rebellion. I think what this general wanted to do was trying to secure the financial and military help or assurances from Muslim countries, particularly Malaysia, and then launch another rebellion when Cambodia was in chaos/turmoil due to the fighting with the Khmer Rouge. Bad luck they were not succeeded in doing so.

Anonymous said...

Cambodia should be divided up among Viet, Thais, Laos, Chams, and Hmong. Viet should take east Cambodia, Thais take west Cambodia, Laos take north Cambodia, Chams and Hmong can divide south Cambodia among them.

Anonymous said...

6:09 pm is an idiot, if you wish it so much, why don't you organize a rebellion and or lead a war against the state of Cambodia right now as you speak. I bet your head will be hacked off your body, your blood will be drained, and your internal organs will be boiled, and your flesh will be fish fillet and your bones ground up. That is your fate, you idiot.

Anonymous said...

The article says nothing that he wanted to create a Cham State in Cambodia. All it states is his determination to preserve the lives of his people. Some people here should get their facts right. I ain't no Cham, but seriously enough of this division, amongst our people and citizens. DCPP GUY