Published: 31/08/2009
Newspaper section: News
Four Muslim Cambodians have been arrested while crossing the Thai-Cambodian border into Sa Kaeo province.
Authorities said the four were heading for the deep South.
Paramilitary rangers yesterday spotted five "suspicious passengers" on a bus about to leave Rong Klua market in Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo, which was destined for Bangkok.
One of the suspects escaped as authorities were about to board the bus, but the four others were captured, arrested and searched.
Authorities said their interrogation of the suspects revealed the Cambodians came from Kampong Cham province. They did not have passports and crossed the border through a fruit market behind the Rong Klua market to board the bus.
The suspects were identified as May Sen, 18, Sarae Mosa, 18, Guy Ma, 20, and El Sen, 20. May Sen had two pieces of paper wrapped around his arms. They featured diagrams and Malay messages.
Capt Charn Wongwaimethee, a company head from the Burapha Task Force, said the four Cambodians refused to answer questions.
In another development, health concerns and terrorist attacks are understood to have reduced the hotel room occupancy rate for Malaysian visitors in Songkhla's Hat Yai district by about 20%.
Hat Yai-Songkhla Hotel Association president Somchart Pimthanapoonporn said Malaysians normally crowded Hat Yai from Aug 29 to 31 during celebrations for National Day in Malaysia.
He said Malaysian tourists had booked rooms in Hat Yai but 20% of reservations had been cancelled because of fears of the type-A (H1N1) flu pandemic and continuing terrorist attacks in the South.
Mr Somchart said that with the remaining 80% occupancy rate, visitors were expected to spend at least 50 million baht during the Malaysian holiday.
In Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district yesterday, defence volunteer Makorseng Maniding, 50, was shot several times at 3.45pm by a pillion passenger on a motorcycle.
He died from his injuries.
Newspaper section: News
Four Muslim Cambodians have been arrested while crossing the Thai-Cambodian border into Sa Kaeo province.
Authorities said the four were heading for the deep South.
Paramilitary rangers yesterday spotted five "suspicious passengers" on a bus about to leave Rong Klua market in Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo, which was destined for Bangkok.
One of the suspects escaped as authorities were about to board the bus, but the four others were captured, arrested and searched.
Authorities said their interrogation of the suspects revealed the Cambodians came from Kampong Cham province. They did not have passports and crossed the border through a fruit market behind the Rong Klua market to board the bus.
The suspects were identified as May Sen, 18, Sarae Mosa, 18, Guy Ma, 20, and El Sen, 20. May Sen had two pieces of paper wrapped around his arms. They featured diagrams and Malay messages.
Capt Charn Wongwaimethee, a company head from the Burapha Task Force, said the four Cambodians refused to answer questions.
In another development, health concerns and terrorist attacks are understood to have reduced the hotel room occupancy rate for Malaysian visitors in Songkhla's Hat Yai district by about 20%.
Hat Yai-Songkhla Hotel Association president Somchart Pimthanapoonporn said Malaysians normally crowded Hat Yai from Aug 29 to 31 during celebrations for National Day in Malaysia.
He said Malaysian tourists had booked rooms in Hat Yai but 20% of reservations had been cancelled because of fears of the type-A (H1N1) flu pandemic and continuing terrorist attacks in the South.
Mr Somchart said that with the remaining 80% occupancy rate, visitors were expected to spend at least 50 million baht during the Malaysian holiday.
In Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district yesterday, defence volunteer Makorseng Maniding, 50, was shot several times at 3.45pm by a pillion passenger on a motorcycle.
He died from his injuries.
7 comments:
Let me make it clear to the world, there are no such things as Khmer Muslim. Muslim living in Cambodia are Cham of Champa. Chams' homeland used to be in central Vietnam. Vietnam robbed Chams of their territory in the mid 17th century using the same tactics as currently being used on Cambodia. What's left of Champa people sought refuge with Khmer. Vietnam told Hun Sen to refer to Chams as Khmer Muslim. The knowing of Champa existence hurts Vietnam to the core because of the history. Vietnam had been very successfully force assimilated these people to become Vietnamese. All the territories of Champa had names changed to Vietnamese. In the future, Cambodia could suffer the same fate as Champa. As Khmer consider yourself be warned. Vietnam is a dirty devil.
I think what they mean by "Khmer Muslim" is to refer to any Muslim people, Chams or any race, living in Cambodia. Khmer used to call the Muslim or Cham people as "Khmer Islam"- a Khmer or Cham who practice Islam religion.
Somehow I detect a drift from this siem report is trying to imply. They use the words, capture, arrest, and terrorist attacks. They try very hard to link these Cham folks with their own unrest in the south to use as a pretext for whatever. On the other hand, Vietnam is trying their very best to cover up that they had swallowed Champa a few centuries ago.
just as an input, as far a i know, chams living in cambodia are muslim. chams had much connection with modern day malaysia and indonesia. champa was a colony of java empire during funan and chenla era. because of champa, chenla(land&water)was invaded by java. javanese took hostage of chenla's king, jayvaraman I and prince jayvaraman II( a founding father of khmer kingdom). just a brief history to the connection between khmer and champa.
i hope cambodian don't get confuse that any person of muslim religious background are chams. chams are an ethnic minority sought refuge in cambodia after their country had been taken over by vietnam. chams living in cambodia always associated themselves with islam religion, prior to islam, chams religion was hindu, like khmer. they were master carvers, check out their ruins temple and sculptures in MI SON, VIETNAM.
the name "khmer islam" or " khmer muslim" is something new that i'm not aware of. just as ah K-WAK (hun sen) wants khmer to call vietnamese, "vietnam" instead of "youn", which most khmer prefer to call due to the historical bitterness with viet. i thought most khmer are buddhist, i don't know how many khmer had been converted to islam. if that is the case, that would be something new to me.
One of those singers from the Lon Nol era always introduced himself as Khmer Islam over the radio. But he was a Cham ethnic. Technically he was a Khmer because he was born in Cambodia. It is probably very very rare or non-existing at all to find a Khmer person converts his religion so he can be Cham. But may be there is an exception here and there where a Khmer guy falls in love with a Cham girl and wants to marry to her. The Cham side would want him to convert. Usually that kind of reunion wouldn't last too long.
There is no derogatory to terms youn and siem. The guilty party, youn, has been calling Khmer as Mien or salvages in Vietnamese so instinctively they would think Khmer in turn call them with a derogatory name when we call them youn. The siem call us Khaman (something like that). Don't know what the heck wrong with them, may be god has cursed them a stiff tongue, they can't pronounce Khmer. The surprising thing is youn call siem, siem too just like Khmer. And siem in turn call youn, youn too, again like Khmer.
Just wanted to let you guys know that there is a such thing as "khmer islam". Cham is a whole different ethnic group with language, history and even customs. When Javanese people (from the island of Java - Indonesia) came and settled in Cambodia, they reference themselves as "khmer islam".
by the way I am a cambodian muslim. I am not cham, and was never converted. I was born and raised, 5 generations of it.
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