Khmer Krom
ជនជាតិខ្មែរក្រោម ( Khmers, Northern Khmers |
---|
The Khmer Krom (
In Accordance to Resolution 117-CT/TƯ issued September 29, 1981 of the
In
Khmer Krom people have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization since 15 July 2001.[8]
According to the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) "the Khmer Krom people face serious restrictions of freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, and movement".[9]
Demographics
The majority of Khmer Krom live in Southern Vietnam. According to Vietnamese government figures (2019 census), there are 1,319,652 Khmer Krom in Vietnam. Their distribution is as follows: Sóc Trăng (362,029 people, constituting 30.18% of the province's population and 27.43% of all Khmer in Vietnam), Trà Vinh (318,231 people, constituting 31.53% of the province's population and 24.11% of all Khmer in Vietnam), Kiên Giang (211,282 people, constituting 12.26% of the province's population and 16.01% of all Khmer in Vietnam), An Giang (75,878 people), Bạc Liêu (73,968 people), Bình Dương (65,233 people), Hồ Chí Minh City (50,422 people), Cà Mau (26,110 people), Đồng Nai (23,560 people), Vĩnh Long (22,630 people) each constituting less than 10% of all Khmer in Vietnam.[1]
Other estimates vary considerably, with the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation claiming that there are about 7 million Khmer Krom.[3] A significant number of Khmer Krom also fled to Cambodia, estimated at 1.20 million by one source.[10]
In other parts of the world, there are approximately 40,000 Khmer Krom emigrants notably in the United States (30,000), France (3,000), Australia (1,000), Canada (500).
Origins
The Khmer Krom identify ethnically with the Khmer people, who founded the Khmer Empire under the rule of King Jayavarman II in 802 C.E.[12] They retain deep linguistic, religious, customary and cultural links to Cambodia.[13] The Mekong Delta region constituted for more than 800 years an integral part of the empire and the subsequent kingdom.[14] The region's economic center was the city of Prey Nokor, now Ho Chi Minh City.
History
Absorption of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam
In the 17th century a weakened Khmer state left the Mekong Delta poorly administered after repeated warfare with
In 1698 the
With the loss of the port of Prey Nokor, then renamed
After establishment of the Nguyễn dynasty, emperor Minh Mạng enacted compulsory assimilation policies upon the Khmer such as forcing them to adopt Sino-Vietnamese surnames, culture, and clothing. Minh Mang sinicized ethnic minorities including the Cambodians, in line with Confucianism as he diffused Vietnamese culture with China's Han civilization using the term Han people 漢人 for the Vietnamese.[16] Minh Mang declared that "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Han [Sino-Vietnamese] customs."[17][18] These policies were directed at the Khmer and hill tribes.[19]
Separatist movements
Khmer nationalist
During the
The anti-Communist prime minister of the Khmer Republic (1970 - 1975) Lon Nol planned to recapture the Mekong Delta from South Vietnam.[22]
After the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and the Communist take-over of all of Vietnam, the Kampuchea Krom militia found itself embattled with People's Army of Vietnam. Many of the fighters fled to Khmer Rouge-controlled Democratic Kampuchea hoping to find a safe haven to launch their operations inside Vietnam. The "White Scarves" arrived in Kiri Vong District in 1976, making overture to the Khmer Rouge and appealing to the leader Khieu Samphan directly for assistance. The force was disarmed and welcomed initially. Subsequent orders from the Khmer Rouge leadership however had Samouk Sen arrested, taken to Phnom Penh, tortured, and killed. His force of 67 Khmer Krom fighters were all massacred. During the following months, some 2,000 "White Scarves" fighters crossing into Kampuchea were systematically killed by the Khmer Rouge.[23]
In the late 1970s, the
Human rights
Many independent NGOs report that the human rights of the Khmer Krom are being violated by the Vietnamese government. Khmer Krom are reportedly forced to adopt Vietnamese family names and speak the Vietnamese language.[24][25] As well, the Vietnamese government has cracked down on non-violent demonstrations by the Khmer Krom.[26]
Unlike some other minority people groups in Vietnam[
The "Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Working Group" was visited by the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation.[27]
Notable people
- Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum, Prime Minister of Cambodia (1962)
- Ieng Sary, Khmer Rouge member and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Democratic Kampuchea
- Son Ngoc Minh, co-founder of the Communist Party of Kampuchea
- Son Ngoc Thanh, Prime Minister of Cambodia (1945) and the Khmer Republic (1972)
- Son Sen, Khmer Rouge member and Minister of National Defence of Democratic Kampuchea
- Tou Samouth, co-founder and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (1951–1962)
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-604-75-1532-5.
- ^ a b c d e "Khmer Krom Background". Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- ^ a b "The Culture of the Khmer-Krom". KKF | Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation. December 29, 2012.
- ^ "Dân tộc Khơme (Khmer people)" (in Vietnamese). Nhân Dân. October 24, 2022. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Chỉ thị của Chủ tịch Hội đồng Bộ trưởng số 122-CT ngày 12/5/1982 về công tác đối với đồng bào Khmer, Văn phòng Quốc hội, cơ sở dữ liệu luật Việt Nam[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b "Reconceptualizing Southern Vietnamese History from the 15th to 18th Centuries Competition along the Coasts from Guangdong to Cambodia by Brian A. Zottoli". University of Michigan. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ "Mak Phœun: Histoire du Cambodge de la fin du XVIe au début du XVIIIe siècle - According to Cambodian oral tradition, the marriage was because a weak Cambodian king fell in love..." (PDF). Michael Vickery’s Publications. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
- Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation. Jan 30, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2019.
- ^ "Khmer Krom in Cambodia Mark Loss of Their Homeland". Radio Free Asia. June 4, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- ^ a b "Khmer Krom People Statistics". KKF | Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation. Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF). Jan 3, 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
- OCLC 49942929.
- ^ Stuart-Fox, William, The Murderous Revolution: Life & Death in Pol Pot's Kampuchea, Alternative Publishing Co-Operative Limited, 1985, pp. 6.
- ^ "Reconstituting the "Un-Pereson": The Khmer Krom & The Khmer Rouge Tribunal". Singapore Year Book of International Law and Contributorsb. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- ^ "Memorandum By Cambodia on Her Territories in South Viet-Nam..." (PDF). caraweb. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 9, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- ISBN 9781118350447. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8248-2890-5.
- ISBN 978-1-84545-452-4.
- ^ Ta, Van Tai. "The Vietnamese Tradition of Human Rights" (PDF). Indochina Research Monograph. Institute of East Asian Studies ^§V) University of California, Berkeley: 134.
- ISBN 978-1-134-23881-1.
- ^ Vietnam Studies, U.S. Army Special Forces 1961-1971, CMH Publication 90-23, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C. 1989 (First Printed, 1973)
- ^ Radu, M. The New Insurgencies, Transaction Publishers, 1990, p.202
- ISBN 9780300102628.
- ISBN 978-0-300-14434-5, 1996
- ^ a b Human Rights Watch: "On the Margins: Rights and Abuses of Ethnic Khmer in Vietnam's Mekong Delta" Archived 2013-04-23 at the Wayback Machine 2009
- ^ "Rearhoo (The Dark Age) - KKF". 6 August 2009. Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ "On the Margins". Human Rights Watch. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation.
External links
- Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF)
- Khmer Krom news and information network
- Khmer Krom news and information in Khmer language
- Khmer Krom: A Royal Solution for a Nationalist Vietnam reported by Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation
- Video clips of Rebecca Sommer's film "Eliminated without Bleeding" documenting human rights violation claims of the Khmer Krom in Vietnam
- March 2007- Article on religious oppression by Vietnam