KHMER KROM

The Khmer Krom (Khmer: , Vietnamese: Khơ Me Crộm) - Khmer people living in the Delta and the Lower Mekong area. Mostly regarded as the indigenous ethnic Khmer minority living in southern Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known as Khơ-me Crộm or Khơ-me dưới, which literally means “Khmer from below” (“below” referring to the lower areas of the Mekong Delta).

Origins
The Khmer Krom are ethnic Khmer who inhabited that area long before the arrival of the Vietnamese. According to Vietnamese government figures (1999 census), there are 1,055,174 Khmer Krom in Vietnam.


History

Flag of Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF)

Beginning in the early 17th century, colonization of the area by Vietnamese settlers gradually isolated the Khmer of the Mekong Delta from their brethren in Cambodia proper and resulted in their becoming a minority in the delta.

Prey Nokor was the most important commercial seaport to the Khmers. The city’s name was changed by Vietnam to Sài Gòn and then Hồ Chí Minh City. The loss of the city prevented the Cambodians access to the South China Sea. Subsequently, the Khmers' access to the sea was now limited to the Gulf of Thailand. It began as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese.

In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia (1618-1628) allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh-Nguyễn War in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor, and to set up a custom house at Prey Nokor. Increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers, which the Cambodian kingdom, weakened because of war with Thailand, could not impede, slowly Vietnamized the area. In time, Prey Nokor became known as Saigon.

In 1698, Nguyen Huu Canh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyen rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. Since 1698, the area has been firmly under Vietnamese administration. The Vietnamese became the majority population in most places.

When independence was granted to French Indochina in 1954, the Mekong Delta was included in the state of South Vietnam, despite protests from Cambodia. In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer those areas of the delta still predominantly inhabited by Khmer Krom people, but this military adventure was a total disaster and precipitated the invasion of Cambodia by the Vietnamese army and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge, with Vietnam occupying Cambodia.

Son Ngoc Thanh, the nationalist Cambodian, was a Khmer krom, born in Trà Vinh, Vietnam. Cambodia got independence in Geneva, 1954, through the Vietnamese struggle in the First Indochina War. In 1757, the Vietnamese colonized the provinces of Psar Dèk (renamed Sa Đéc in Vietnamese) and Moat Chrouk (vietnamized to Châu Đốc).


Human Rights
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2007). Khmer Krom boatMany independent NGOs report the human rights of the Khmer Krom are still being violated by the Vietnamese government. Khmer Krom are reportedly forced to adopt Vietnamese family names and speak the Vietnamese language. {2} The education of the Khmer Krom is neglected and they face many hardships in everyday life, such as difficult access to Vietnamese health services (recent epidemics of blindness affecting children have been reported in the predominantly Khmer Krom areas of the Mekong delta[citation needed]), difficulty in practicing their religion (Khmer Krom are Theravada Buddhists, like Cambodian and Thai people, but unlike Vietnamese who are mostly Mahayana Buddhists or few Roman Catholics), difficulty in finding jobs outside of the fields, and societal racism. The Khmer Krom are among the poorest segments of the population in southern Vietnam.

Unlike other minority people groups of Vietnam, the Khmer Krom are largely unknown in the Western world, despite efforts by associations of exiled Khmer Krom such as the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation to publicize their issues with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation. No Western government has raised the matter of the Khmer Krom’s human rights with the Vietnamese government.

The Khmer Krom culture could become better known through its tourist sites in the Mekong Delta. Khmer Buddhist temples located in places such as Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, and Soc Trang are now very popular as tourist destinations.

Republished by CI, Cambodia.

Cochinchina = Indochina

Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam whose principal city is Saigon. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1948. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam. In Vietnamese, the region has been called Gia Định (1779-1832), Nam Kỳ (1834-1945), Nam Bộ (1945-48), Nam phần (1948-56), Nam Việt (1956-75), and currently Miền Nam. (Nam Bộ is still in unofficial use.) In French, it was called la colonie de Cochinchine..

In the 17th century, Vietnam was divided between the Trịnh Lords to the north and the Nguyễn Lords to the south. The northern section was called Tonkin by Europeans, and the southern part called Cochinchina by most Europeans and Quinam by the Dutch.

During the French colonial period, the label moved further south, and came to refer to the southernmost part of Vietnam, controlled by Cambodia in prior centuries, and lying to its southeast. Its capital was at Saigon. The two other parts of Vietnam at the time were known as Annam and Tonkin.

The name "Cochin" derives from the Malay Kuchi which referred to all of Vietnam. This term was in turn derived from the Chinese jiao zhi, pronounced giao chỉ in Vietnam. "Cochinchina" derives from the need or desire to distinguish this Cochi/Kochi/Kuchi from the city (and princely state) of Kochi in India.[1]

Pre-colonial history


The conquest of the south of present-day Vietnam was a long process of territorial acquisition by the Vietnamese. It is called Nam Tien by Vietnamese historians. Vietnam (then known as Đại Việt) nearly doubled its territory in 1470 under the great king Lê Thánh Tông, at the expense of the Champa. The next two hundred years was a time of territorial consolidation and civil war with only gradual expansion south.


Cochinchina was the southern third of VietnamAs a result of a civil war that started in 1520, the Emperor of China sent a commission to study the political status of Annam in 1536. As a consequence of the delivered report, he declared war against the Mạc Dynasty. The nominal ruler of the Mạc died at the very time that the Chinese armies passed the frontiers of the kingdom in 1537, and his father, Mạc Đăng Dung (the real power in any case), hurried to submit to the Imperial will, and declared himself to be a vassal of China. The Chinese declared that both the Lê Dynasty and the Mạc had a right to part of the lands and so they recognized the Lê rule in the southern part of Vietnam while at the same time recognizing the Mạc rule in the northern part, which was called Tunquin (i.e. Tonkin). This was to be a feudatory state of China under the government of the Mạc.

However, this arrangement did not last long. In 1592, Trịnh Tùng, leading the Royal (Trịnh) army, conquered nearly all of the Mạc territory and moved the Lê kings back to the original capital of Hanoi. The Mạc only held on to a tiny part of north Vietnam until 1667, when Trịnh Tạc conquered the last Mạc lands.

In 1623, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, the lord of the (then) southern provinces of Vietnam, established a trading community at Saigon with the consent of the king of Cambodia. Over the next 50 years, Vietnamese control slowly expanded in this area but only gradually as the Nguyễn were fighting a protracted civil war with the Trịnh Lords in the north.

With the end of the war with the Trịnh, the Nguyễn were able to devote more effort (and military force) to conquest of the south. First, the remaining Champa territories were taken; next, the areas around the Mekong river were placed under Vietnamese control.

At least three wars were fought between the Nguyễn Lords and the Cambodian kings in the period 1715 to 1770 with the Vietnamese gaining more territory with each war. The wars all involved the much more powerful Siamese kings who fought on behalf of their vassals, the Cambodians.

In the late 1700s, Vietnam was briefly unified under the Tây Sơn. These were three brothers, former peasants, who succeeded in conquering first the lands of the Nguyễn and then the lands of the Trịnh. But final unification came under Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, a remarkably tenacious member of the Nguyễn noble family who fought for 25 years against the Tây Sơn and ultimately conquered the entire country in 1802. He ruled all of Vietnam under the name Gia Long.


Map of "Annam" drafted by Alexandre de Rhodes (1651) showing "Cocincina" (left) and "Tvnkin" (right).Gia Long and his successors (see the Nguyễn Dynasty for details) conquered more lands from Cambodia and even annexed Phnom Penh and surrounding territory. However, the Vietnamese were forced to relinquish these conquests in the latter part of the 1800s.


Colonial Cochinchina (1864-1949)



For a series of complex reasons, the French government of Napoleon III, with the help of Spanish troops arriving from the Philippines (which was a Spanish colony at the time), decided to take over the southern part of Vietnam. In September 1858, France occupied Đà Nẵng (Tourane). On 18 February 1859, they conquered Saigon and three southern Vietnamese provinces: Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Dinh Tuong; on 13 April 1862, the Vietnamese government was forced to cede those territories to France.

In 1867, the provinces of Châu Đốc, Ha Tien and Vĩnh Long were added to French controlled territory. In 1864 all the French territories in southern Vietnam were declared to be the new French colony of Cochinchina, which would be governed by Admiral Jules Marie Dupré from 1868-1874.

In 1887, it became part of the Union of French Indochina. Fifty-one Vietnamese rebels were executed following the 1916 Cochinchina uprising. In 1933, the Spratly Islands were annexed to French Cochinchina. In July 1941, Japanese troops were based in French Cochinchina (a de facto occupation). After the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, Cochinchina was returned to French rule.


1886 map of colonial CochinchinaThe "Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina" (République Autonome de Cochinchine), a French puppet state, was proclaimed June 1, 1946 to frustrate the Vietminh's desire to rule all of Vietnam. War between France and the Vietminh followed (1946-54). Cochinchina was renamed the "Republic of South Vietnam" in 1947, the "Provisional Central Government of Vietnam" in 1948, and the "State of Vietnam," with former emperor Bảo Đại as head of state, in 1949. The Bảo Đại government received international diplomatic recognition in 1950. France and the Vietminh concluded the Geneva Accords in 1954. As a result of this agreement, the southern half of the French protectorate of Annam was merged with the State of Vietnam, with the resulting state commonly referred to as South Vietnam. Meanwhile, northern Annam and the protectorate of Tonkin were awarded to the Vietminh. This area was afterwards known as North Vietnam.


1558-1976 summary



The Nguyễn Lords ruled the southern provinces of Vietnam from the city of Huế (in what was later called Annam by the French, though Annam historically refers to the northern part of modern Vietnam). The Tây Sơn also ruled the south but not from Saigon, instead they ruled from Đà Nẵng. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh ruled the united country of Vietnam from his ancestors’ capital of Huế. Cochinchina was never a single united administrative unit until the French seized it in the 1850s. Cochinchina was occupied by Japan during World War II (1941-45), but was restored to France afterwards. In 1955, after the French-Indochina War, Cochinchina was merged with southern Annam to form the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).

Republished by CI from Google, Cambodia.

Cambodia History Scholar Denies Importance of June 4, 1949

According to The Cambodia Daily Newspaper, Volume 42, Issue 58-On Friday, June 5, 2009.
For an estimated 1 million Khmer Krom living in Cambodia, Thursday marked the 60th anniversary of the moment when their homeland in the Mekong Delta disappeared from the map at the stroke of a pen. It was on June 4, 1949, that the French parliament transferred the territory of Cochinchina, which they had ruled as part of French Indochina, to Vietnamese administration.
Known as Kampuchea Krom, or lower Cambodia, to Khmers, the loss of the territory to Vietnam is still a highly emotive issue for many, but there is much debate as to the significance of June 4, 1949 as the date the territory was lost. "Today is a very important day for Cambodia's territory... We have to join together. My father, Samdech Son Sann, usually said that if Khmer break with Khmer they will die. But when Khmer combines with Khmer they will win," Constitutional Council member Son Soubert said Thursday at a Phnom Penh ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversity.
The annual remembrance service in Phnom Penh's Wat Botum park brought together more than 2,000 people, including a majority of Khmer Krom monks, as well as association, parliamentarians and ordinary citizens, who still long for their native soil and hope to see it retured one day. "This is the day the French gave away our land," said 27-year-old Buddhist monk Pich Siha. "We want to get that land its independence."
However, others challenge that version of history, saying that land was lost to Cambodia hundrends of years before June 4, 1949. Henri Locard, an associate lecturer of history at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and a respected scholar on Cambodia, said that Cambodians living in the region were far outnumbered by Vietnamese settlers at the time of the French transfer in 1949. According to a 1902 French census of Cochinchina, there were more than 2.6 million Vietnamese and 224,000 Khmers in the territory.
The area was undrained marshlands dotted with small fishing villages that was still unexploited by its inhabitants and slowly came under the auspices of Vietnamese settlers, he said. "It is completely untrue," Mr Locard said Thursday concerning the blame laid on France for the loss of the territory. "I just think the fourth of June, 1949, is not a date of any importance for Cambodia," he said.
Mr Soubert, who comes from an old Kampuchea Krom family, denied Mr Locard's readings of history. He said Cambodia has always laid claim to the region and that the French gave the land away for political reasons--to curry favor from the Vietnamese. "The interpretation of these historical facts by Mr Henri Locard is rather biased and groundless," Mr Soubert wrote in a letter Wednesday.
Expressing his respect for Mr Soubert and his desire not to enter into a debate on the issue, Mr Locard said discussion about present-day Cambodia would better serve the country. Cambodia "should not worry about the past but rather concern itself with the person," he said.

Republished by CI, Cambodia.

12 and a half rules to be a good journalist

12. DO WHAT YOU LOVE: Be passionate about what you choose to do. Remember: If there’s no love in the kitchen, there is no taste on the table. Never reject the impulses of your youth. Be responsible for your life, don’t blame others for what you become or don’t become.

11. WAKE UP ANGRY, AMBITIOUS: Get the fire in your belly to do something, set things right. Respond to injustice, inhumanity, corruption. Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable. Don’t think it is somebody else’s job. Be the change you want to see.

10. DON’T BE THE LOYAL MEMBER OF ANY PARTY, GROUP, CLUB, NGO: Credibility is everything. Retain your independence, be skeptical not cynical. Don’t mortgage your integrity. It’s like virginity—once you lose it, you have lost it forever.
9. BE CATHOLIC OF WRITERS AND WRITING: Read newspapers, magazines, books across the board. Admire writers/writing irrespective of ideology. In the age of the internet, you have no excuses for your ignorance.

8. FIND YOURSELF A ROLE-MODEL/MENTOR: Have a hero or heroine who has been there, done that. Keep in touch with people who will help you achieve your aims. Meet at least one new person every day.

7. BE A THRIVER, NOT A SURVIVOR: Don’t coast along, don’t be afraid to try out something new. Aim high, dream, have an ambition, set yourself a goal. Take a risk, think big, think differently, don’t be predictable.

6. NEVER WORK WITH SUCCESS/ REWARD IN MIND: Work for fun and the satisfaction, the rewards will come on their own. Don’t fall for cheap praise and don’t be stalled by even cheaper criticism.

5. WRITE, DRAW, SHOOT, CREATE EVERY DAY: Eventually your habits become you. Practics makes you perfect. Develop the three Ds—discipline, dedication, determination—and reward and recognition will naturally follow.

4. KEEP LEARNING EVERY DAY: You cannot learn eerything in the classroom or the newsroom. It’s a constantly changing business, keep learning. Again, in the age of the internet, you have no excuse not to do so.

3. FEAR NOBODY, QUESTION EVERYTHING: You are in the business to get the answers. Don’t be in awe of big names, power, reputations, status. This business is all about meeting total strangers and asking them questions you wouldn’t ask your parents.

2. NEVER BE EMBARRASSED TO ASK STUPID QUESTIONS: There are no stupid questions, only dumb answers. Talk less, listen more. Be humble of your ignorance.

1. CHASE YOUR DREAM: Stop living for others, avoid temptation, life is not all about money. Let your reputation never be under question. It’s true—it’s possible to earn decently and live honourably as a journalist.

Republished by CI, Cambodia.

Cambodia Has Among Highest Levels of Graft

According to The Cambodia Daily Newspaper, Volume 42, Issue 57-On Thursday, June 4, 2009.
Almost half of Cambodian families have paid bribes in the last year, as did a whopping three quarters of those who dealth with the country's judicial system, according to an international corruption survey released Tuesday. Forty-seven percent of Cambodians surveyed in Transparency International's 2009 corruption barometer said that someone in their household paid some form of bribe in the last year. Only Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cameroon had higher rates of reported graft.
The prevalence of petty bribery in low-income countries like Cambodia is "compounding the already difficult situation of low-income households, as jobs and income dwindle in the release accompanying the Transparency International survey said. The survey was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,019 Cambodians in December. The TI report did not specify the amount of money involved in the bribes. Across the Asia-Pacific region, a mere 10 percent of people reported paying bribes in the last year. Only Indonesia came close to Cambodia, with 29 percent reporting that a household member has paid a bribe.
When asked to identify the most corrupt sector in the country, 62 percent of Cambodians interviewed by Transparency pointed to the judiciary, and 74 percent of people who had dealt with the judicial system said that a member of their family had paid bribes. In second place in the corruption perception stakes, 23 percent of those interviewed said public officials and civil servants, followed by political parties, business and parliament, which all scored in the single digits.
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan did not dispute the country's high prevalence of bribery when contacted by telephone Wednesday. "No one understands exactly what's going on with that one," he said, but stressed that "the government pays much attention about reform." He said that the government's draft law on anticorruption, which has been promised since the 1990s, and the establishment of an anticorruption unit, are proof that the government is working to crack down on graft by public officials.
Mr Siphan acknowledged that some members of the Cambodian judicial system take bribes, but added, "All the lawyers and all the judges are not corrupt. We have still a majority that are not corrupt." He stressed that Cambodia is not the only country dealing with corruption within the judiciary. "This is not a perfect world... This corruption is epidemic in the world. We cannot run away from it." An assistant for Justic Minister Ang Vong Vathana referred questions to Phov Samphy, director-general for the ministry's department of research and judicial development Mr Samphy could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Despite the high rate of reported bribery in the country, 67 percent of Cambodians interviewed by Transparency said they believe the current government has been effective in combating corruption. In contrast, only 2 percent of US residents reported paying bribes in 2008, but 73 percent felt their government was ineffective against corruption.
Mr Siphan said he was pleased with Cambodians' perception of the government's anticorruption efforts. "That is a message that shows the government's support for fighting corruption," he said. The results of the Transparency survey were meant to be announced at a press conference today, organized by the NGO Pact Cambodia, but in an e-mail Wednesday, the organization announced until further notice." Pact Cambodia Country Director Paul Mason said by telephone Wednesday that he would not comment on the reason for the postponement, or whether it was influenced by the government's strong response to a recent speech by US Ambassador Carol Rodley regarding corruption.
On Saturday, Om Yentieng, head of the government's anticorruption unit, held a press conference Tuesday calling for the ambassador to retract her statement. The Councilof Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both sent out terse statement rejecting Ms Rodley's comment. US Embassy spokesman John Johnson said Wednesday that he had no comment about the US embassy's response. Mr Yentieng could not be reached for comment on the Transparency report Wednesday.

Republished by CI, Cambodia.

INTERNATIONAL: China's Leaders and Protest Movement in 1989

According to The Cambodia Daily Newspaper, Volume 42, Issue 57-On Thursday, June 4, 2009.
China's 1989 pro-democracy movement split the Communist Party leadership and triggered a power struggle that ended in a bloody crackdown on student protesters in the pre-dawn hours of June 4 that year. Following are brief profiles of government leaders and key members of the protest movement at the time:
DENG XIAOPING, then the power behind the throne in China, sent in tanks and troops to crush the student-led demonstrations for democracy centered on Beijin's Tiananmen Square. He died on Feb 19, 1997, aged 92, after reviving the economy with a dramatic tour of the south in 1992.
ZHAO ZIYANG was toppled as China's Communist Party chief after challenging Deng's decision to crush the protests. Zhao died in Beijing in 2005, after 15 years under house arrest. His secret memoirs were published last month.
JIANG ZEMIN rose from Communist Party boss of Shanghai, where he ended parallel protests without bloodshed, to oust Zhao as national Party chief in 1989. Jiang held on to power for 13 years before retiring in 2002.
LI PENG is known as the "Butcher of Beijing" for declaring martial law on national television days before the crackdown. Reviled by many, Li remained premier until 1998. Writing in retirement, Li has reportedly sought to clear his name, but the Party has banned publication of his memoirs.
HU JINTAO, now China's top leader, was Party secretary in Tibet in 1989. He declared martial law in Lhasa in March 1989, following clashes between Tibetan protestors and police.
WEN JIABAO, Zhao's chief of staff, accompanied him to Tiananmen Square when Zhao tearfully appealed to students to leave. Zhao was ousted, but Wen became premier in 2003.
BAO TONG, Zhao's top aide, was the most senior official jailed for sympathizing with the protestors. Still under constant police surveillance, he is now a critic of China's human rights record and the slow pace of political reform.
WANG DAN, then a 20-year-old Peking University history major, was a high-profile student leader. Jailed twice, he was released into exile in 1998. Wang is now a guest researcher at Oxford University and chairman of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association. He has not been allowed back to China.
CHAI LING, then a 23-year-old psychology student, urged student to stay in Tiananmen Square rather than accept a negotiated withdrawal in May 1989. She escaped China after 10 months in hiding, graduated from Harvard Business School and is now chief operating officer of Jenzabar, a Boston-based firm that develope Internet portals for universities.
WU'ER KAIXI, then a 21-year-old Uighur, was a hunger striker who rebuked then-premier Li Peng on national television. He fled to France and then studied at Harvard University, but came under attack for his extravagant lifestyle in exile. He now works at an investment firm in Taiwan, and China rejected his request to return to visit his aging parents.
FANG LIZHI, a professor of astrophysics, inspired Chinese intellectuals in the mid-1980s by declaring science should not be determined by Marxist theory. He sought and was granted political asylum in the US and is now a physics professor at the University of Arizona.
LIU XIAOBO, a literary critic, led hunger strikes on Tiananmen Square and was subsesquently jailed. He was the most prominent of the signatories of "Charter 08," a manifesto calling for more rights, freedom of speech and muti-party elections. He was detained before its December release and is held in an undisclosed location near Beijing.
HAN DONGFANG, the a 27-year-old railway worker, helped set up the Beijing Autonomous Workers' Federation, the first independent trade union in communist-ruled China, during the 1989 protests. Imprisoned and exiled, Han is now in Hong Kong where he runs China Labour Bulletin, a non-governmental organization that seeks to defend the rights of Chinese workers.

Republished by CI, Cambodia.

National Briefs: Doctors Declare Retired King's Body Weight 'Perfect'

According to The Cambodia Daily Newspaper, Volume 42, Issue 57-On Thursday, June 4, 2009.
Retired King Norodom Sihanouk on Wednesday said he had lost one centimeter in height in the past four decades but has now attained the perfect body weight. The retired King announced in December that he had been diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma for the third time in 15 years. "In 'height,' I measure at the present moment 1 meter 61. It is my advanced age (87 years) that causes me to lose one centimeter," he wrote in an undated message entitled "The Problem of the Weight of my Body" and posted to this website on Wednesday. "Considering at once my age, my cancer, the dietetic rules for my health, my eminent [People's Republic] of China Doctors ask me not to attain, as a bodyweight, 70 kilograms. [...] N Sihanouk being ill with a third cancer (B-cell lymphoma), my most esteemed [Chinese] Doctors inform me that my 'current' weight of 68 kg is 'perfect' (it does not go so far as 'to graze' the 70 kgs and it is far from dropping to 65 kg).

Republished by CI, Cambodia.