Cambodia Threatened by Vietnam’s Expansionist Policy by the Back Door - Request for Special Examination and Help
Cambodia Threatened by Vietnam’s Expansionist Policy by the Back Door - Request for Special Examination and Help
November 12, 2005
The Secretary-General Kofi Annan
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Subject: Cambodia Threatened by Vietnam’s Expansionist Policy by the Back Door - Request for Special Examination and Help
Dear Mr. Kofi Annan,
We, the representatives of the below Cambodian organizations, and other Cambodians abroad wish to draw your particular attention about the predatory nature of Vietnam’s policy towards Cambodia, which is in total contradiction with the protection of the most fundamental human rights cherished unconditionally by the United States, and also with the respect of Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity stipulated in the international laws and the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement that Vietnam has also signed with other signatories countries.
Contrary to its official commitment signed with the international community to leave Cambodia in 1989, Vietnam has been implemented insidiously by the “back door” its expansionist policy which threats directly the very existence of Cambodia. As it is mentioned in the US Task Force report, Vietnam is evidently moving to consolidate its control over Cambodia through its allie’s regime in Phnom Penh.
As it is stated by Sire K. L. Bindra, formerly Chairman and Secretary General (1964-67) of the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Cambodia, set up under the 1954 Geneva Agreement to verify Cambodia’s territorial integrity, in his letter and article sent to the Cambodia Daily, Vietnam is being to proceed to the forced Vietnamization of Cambodia concomitantly through the massive immigration of Vietnamese politically organized and the continual displacement of the border lines into the Cambodian territory. As it is largely reported by the press, Vietnam is being to legalize the 1982, 1983 and 1985 illegal treaties imposed during its presence in Cambodia through the recent additional convention to the 1985 treaty border signed on October 10 2005, which are totally contrary not only to the international laws but also to the agreement made by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Central Committee of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front in June 1967 in their recognition of Cambodia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.
From 1979 to now, the Vietnamese illegal immigration has reached an alarming rhythm. These illegal settlers represent now 33% of Cambodia’s total population, approximately 4 1/4 out of the population of 13 1/2 million. With full voting rights granted to these illegal Vietnamese and the whole control over the structure of command within Hun Sen’s current administration, Vietnam is in measure to subjugate all Cambodian governing system and to violate Cambodia’s territorial and maritime integrity without being worried by the international community because of the internal nature of the affairs between the Cambodian government and the Vietnamese authorities. Due to the lift of the parliamentary immunity of the opposition as a premeditated action and the recent arrest of Mr Mam Sonando, the Manager of an independent radio station, Beehive FM 105, and Mr Rong Chhun, President of the Independent Cambodian Teachers Association, any protest is any more possible. Whereas the civil society taken hostage by the extreme poverty is not able to exercise freely its political duty.
In the border zones encroached, Cambodians are now forced to adopt the Vietnamese citizenship and Vietnamese name. Otherwise, they must leave their villages and cede their land to the Vietnamese settlers.
As it is stipulated in the article II of the 1948 UN convention, these colonial practices are liable to crime of genocide. Like what happened with Cham, the descendants of the Kingdom of Champa today completely disappeared from the world map, and Khmer Krom, the Cambodian Indigenous People of South Vietnam who have bravely fought at the side of the free World to defend the universal value of democracy, Cambodians in Cambodia are becoming victims of a “silent genocide” at the nationwide and will witness surely the same destiny as the Cham, who have no country anymore and are forced to search refuge abroad, and Khmer Krom, who are systematically persecuted by the Vietnamese authorities as it is stated in the recent report of the UN Economic and Social Council, issued on March 10th 2005.
In order to avoid another human tragedy in a large scale and the same destiny witnessed by the Cham and Khmer Krom, we, Cambodians, wish to appeal the United Nations and the international community for help and duty of interference to stop the authoritarian drift and the “silent re-invasion” of Cambodia by the back door.