STATEMENT: Khmer Kampuchea Krom Brothers and Sisters Struggle to Create a New Future From the 76 Years of Vietnamese Colonialism(04 June 1949 – 04 June 2025)

The National Council of Resistance (CNRC) calls on the international community and the United Nations to pay attention to the extreme suffering of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom people due to the cruel abuses of the Vietnamese communist government authorities. The Vietnamese communist government is ruling over the Khme Kampuchea Krom territory in a neo-colonial system that is committing crimes against the Khmer-Krom people.

We would like to emphasize that more than 10 million Khmer Kampuchea Krom people, who are the indigenous people of lower Cambodia, must be respected and have the right to determine their own destiny without being subjected to oppression of the new colonial communist political system of the Vietnamese government. It is very painful that in recent times, the Vietnamese government, 15 Khmer Krom monks and citizens were arrested and imprisoned, all for exercising their rights to speak Khmer, practice Buddhism, and express their traditional Khmer cultural identity, and the right to express their traditional Khmer cultural identity, which is their basic freedom as an indigenous people.

The Cambodia National Resitence Council would like to appeal to the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Japan, the European Union, France, Germany, and all states that value human rights and freedoms while investing in major investment projects worth billions of dollars in Vietnam, should not overlook the Vietnamese government’s systematic human rights abuses against the Khmer Krom people. We urge these countries with global political and economic influence to urge the Vietnamese government to release 15 Khmer Krom monks and citizens from prison and to grant freedom to the Khmer Krom people to be worthy of their dignity as indigenous people and owners of the land.
June 4, 1949, 76 years ago, was a day of great pain and suffering for the Khmer people when the French colonialists unjustly transferred sovereignty over the territory of Cochinchina (or Kampuchea Krom). of the Kingdom of Cambodia under the control of King Bao Dai of Annam (present-day Vietnam). In addition, the Khmer Krom people also suffered more and more terrible pain. For 76 years, the Vietnamese communist authorities have controlled the Khmer Krom people with a neo-colonial approach, “a form of eradicating the Khmer Krom identity and attempting to eliminate the Khmer Krom race.”

This new Vietnamese colonialism inflicts torture, abuses the law, and violates the basic principles of international human rights on the Khmer Kampuchea Krom people in general. Vietnamese authorities persecute the Khmer Krom people by not allowing the practice of Khmer traditions, not allowing freedom of religion, destroying monasteries, and not allowing the study of Khmer literature openly. Vietnamese authorities seize farmland and suppress the freedom of expression of the Khmer Krom people.

The Khmer Krom people truly need a thorough, decisive, and necessary intervention from the international community, the United Nations, and foreign states that promote human rights and freedoms.

The Cambodia National Resistance Council (CNRC) is committed to fighting with our Khmer brothers and sisters in Kampuchea Krom. In the face of the situation where our Khmer brothers and sisters live facing discrimination and countless threats from the Vietnamese authorities, we, the Khmer people around the world must also be standing up and help our fellow Khmer Krom who are struggling to create a new future to achieve the goal of “determining our own destiny with freedom and justice.” We are one Khmer, we must be committed to helping each other in all circumstances, while we must also increase our joint and diverse demands for the international community to pay attention to helping our Khmer brothers and sisters, the owners of the land of Kampuchea Krom.

Paris, France, June 4, 2025

CAMBODIA NATIONAL RESISTSNCE COUNCIL
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