Last Updated on 26 June 2013
Phnom Penh Post
By Phak Seangly
More than 100 monks and other demonstrators railed against the Vietnam
government’s continued incarceration of two monks for their alleged
affiliation with Kampuchea Krom organisations yesterday.
Protesters
at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park held banners and portraits of three monks –
one of whom was released – who, their supporters say, were arrested and
tortured, by Vietnamese police on May 21 in an area of southern Vietnam
that was once part of the Khmer empire and is referred to by some as
Kampuchea Krom.
“We need freedom to live, like Vietnamese people
and other nations on the world,” Thach Setha, Executive Director of the
Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community said at the rally. “Living without
freedom is meaningless.”
On May 21, Kleang provincial police
forces in Vietnam surrounded the Prey Chhop and Serei Tasek pagodas,
arresting five monks and two members of the pagodas for allegedly
associating with foreign Khmer Krom Associations. All were released,
except monks Liv Ny and Thach Thoeun.
“Police forces defrocked
the monks and put them in rice sacks and then loaded on a truck,” a
petition the group handed over to a Phnom Penh Municipal Hall employee
for delivery to the Vietnamese embassy says. “Monk Ly Chenda who was
freed lost memory . . . we suspect that he was punished [with] drugs
that cause him lose memory.”
Signs held by demonstrators bore
slogans including “Vietnam has to show respect toward Kampuchea Krom
indigenous people” and “Vietnam authorities have to stop threatening
Kampuchea Krom monks and people.”
“[We] are ready to sacrifice
our lives for protecting our religion and race,” venerable Seang
Sovannara, 38, shouted to the crowd through a microphone.
Ket
Che, administrative director of Phnom Penh Municipal Hall, said the
group’s petition will be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which
will then forward the document to the Vietnamese embassy.
The Vietnamese embassy could not be reached for comment.
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