On the Margins: Rights Abuses of Ethnic Khmer in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

Map: 2008 Human Rights Watch

First the police interrogated me every day, then a couple of times a week. Sometimes they questioned me from morning until 10 p.m. at night--I wasn't allowed to go home.… They slapped the back of my head with their palms and hit me with rolled-up paper. They asked many questions and tried to frighten me by showing me handcuffs.… The confession letter was already written. They forced me to copy what they wrote. If not, they would not allow me to eat or go home. I am not against the Vietnamese government. I abide by Vietnamese law. But they said I was not loyal to the nation.

--Ethnic Khmer Buddhist monk defrocked and placed under house arrest after participating in a peaceful protest in Soc Trang Province in 2007

On February 8, 2007, long-simmering discontent among ethnic Khmer Buddhists in Vietnam over government restrictions on religious freedom and inadequate Khmer-language education led to a rare public protest. Riding on the back of motorcycles and streaming on foot out of a Buddhist Pali School, more than 200 Buddhist monks took to the streets in Soc Trang provincial town. Although the protest was conducted peacefully and lasted just a few hours, the government responded harshly, arresting and dismissing at least 20 monks from the monkhood, and imprisoning five.

The government's response to the protest provides a window into the severe and often shrouded methods used by the Vietnamese authorities to stifle dissent, particularly ethnic-based grievances and demands for religious freedom.

This report details ongoing violations of the rights of the ethnic Khmer minority in southern Vietnam--commonly referred to as Khmer Krom--and the ramifications for ethnic Khmer living across the border in Cambodia and Khmer Krom seeking asylum there.

Drawing on eyewitness interviews in both countries and internalVietnamese government documents, our research shows that Khmer Krom in the Mekong Delta face serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, and movement. The Vietnamese government prohibits most peaceful protests, bans the formation of independent associations advocating for human rights, and tightly controls all religious organizations. Wary about the possible nationalist aspirations of the Khmer Krom, the Vietnamese government is quick to suppress peaceful expressions of dissent. Adding to tensions in the Mekong Delta, increasing numbers of Khmer Krom farmers are protesting and petitioning the government about the loss of their farmland.

Restrictions on the rights of Khmer Krom in Vietnam have consequences across the border on Khmer Krom who have moved to Cambodia.[1]As a nation whose majority ethnic group is Khmer, the Cambodian government has traditionally been tolerant of Khmer Krom from Vietnam, allowing many to freely cross the border to live, work, or study. The Cambodian government has repeatedly stated that it considers Khmer Krom who have left Vietnam and moved to Cambodia to be Cambodian citizens, which means they should be subject to full protection by the Cambodian state under its Constitution and laws. Yet the Cambodian authorities often react harshly when Khmer Krom become too critical of Vietnam, a close ally of the Cambodian government. After Khmer Krom activists in Phnom Penh conducted a series of demonstrations in 2007 calling for the release of Buddhist monks imprisoned in Vietnam, the Cambodian government began to forcefully disperse such protests and tighten up on other basic freedoms of Khmer Krom living in Cambodia.

The crackdown in Vietnam

The Khmer Krom monks who protested in Vietnam in February 2007 were calling on the government to lift restrictions on the number of days allowed for certain Khmer religious festivals and to allow Khmer Buddhist leaders--not government appointees--to make decisions regarding ordinations of monks and the content of religious studies curricula offered at pagoda schools. The monks also called for more Khmer-language education, primarily at the secondary level, and for course material to include Cambodian culture, history, and geography.

Despite pledges by officials during the protest to address the monks' concerns, within days police surrounded the pagodas of monks suspected of leading the protest and ordered the monks to remain there. Sending a strong message to those who had joined the protest, local authorities and government-appointed Buddhist officials subsequently defrocked at least 20 monks and expelled them from their pagodas. The decision to force a Buddhist monk to give up his saffron or burgundy robes, thereby dismissing him from the monkhood, is traditionally made by the Buddhist community of monks (sangha), and not government officials.

Buddhist monks on their way to Soc Trang town,where they conducted a peaceful protest in February 2007. ©2007 Private

The authorities then sent the defrocked monks to their home villages, where they were placed under house arrest or police detention, without issuing arrest warrants or specifying the charges against them. During interrogations, police beat some of the monks. On May 10, 2007, five monks were sentenced to prison terms of two to four years by the Soc Trang Provincial Court. Another 25 monks were expelled from the Pali School and sent to their home pagodas, where they were placed under surveillance.

The monks' demonstration came at a time of growing desperation by Khmer Krom farmers in the Mekong Delta who are increasingly facing landlessness and poverty. Lacking effective and equitable legal recourse to contest government confiscation of their land-Vietnam does not have an independent judiciary--in 2007 and 2008 Khmer Krom farmers increasingly began to conduct land rights protests in the Mekong Delta, with clashes breaking out on occasions when police officers forcefully dispersed the demonstrations. For example, on February 26, 2008, police used dogs and electric batons to break up a land protest in An Giang Province. Several protesters were injured and nine arrested.

These events were little noticed outside the area at the time. This is not surprising, as they took place in a remote corner of southern Vietnam where there is no independent media and few outsiders venture. Numbering at least one million, the Khmer Krom live in the Mekong Delta region in the southern tip of Vietnam. In contrast to the vast majority of Vietnamese--ethnic Kinh people, who mostly follow Mahayana Buddhism or Roman Catholicism--Khmer Krom are Theravada Buddhists. Many see this form of Buddhism as the foundation of their distinct culture, religious traditions, and ethnic identity.

After the 2007-2008 demonstrations by Khmer Krom Buddhist monks and farmers, the atmosphere became more tense and repressive in the Mekong Delta. In addition to arresting monks and land rights protesters, authorities instituted stricter surveillance of Khmer Krom activists, restricted and monitored their movements, banned their publications, and bugged their telephones.

The most negative impact of the government's response, one Khmer Krom Buddhist abbot from Vietnam told Human Rights Watch, was the arrest and defrocking of the monks. "It is very painful for Khmers when monks are arrested," he said. "Monks are the symbol, the heart of the Khmer people."

Ethnic grievances

Vietnam's official stance towards the ethnic Khmer minority, as one of the country's 54 officially recognized ethnic groups, is to support their right to use their own languages, encourage the preservation and promotion of their ethnic identity and traditions, and implement poverty reduction and economic development programs in areas where they live. In the Mekong Delta the government has provided land and housing to low-income Khmer people, supported industries to create more jobs for Khmer workers, and made financial contributions to some Khmer Buddhist pagodas for renovation.

While some Khmer Krom acknowledge these efforts by the Vietnamese government to support their culture and improve their livelihood, all of the  Khmer Krom Buddhist monks and activists interviewed by Human Rights Watch stressed that fundamental issues have yet to be resolved. Compared to Vietnam's seven other geographical regions, the Mekong Delta has the largest number of low-income people in Vietnam (4 million), the highest rate of public school drop-outs, and the second-highest level of landlessness in the country.

Khmer Krom interviewed by Human Rights Watch say that discrimination against them by the Vietnamese government denies them equal rights and opportunities afforded to the majority Kinh population. They say the government bans Khmer-language publications about their history and culture, places restrictions on Buddhist practices, punishes them for peaceful protests or contacts with Khmer Krom advocacy groups abroad, siphons off development aid intended for low-income  Khmer Krom farmers, fails to provide sufficient Khmer-language public education, and offers virtually no legal recourse or compensation for confiscation of land.

Religious freedom

In Vietnam, freedom of religion is perceived as a privilege to be granted by the government rather than as an inalienable right, and religious activities deemed to threaten the authority of the Vietnamese Communist Party are banned or carefully monitored and controlled.

Some Khmer Krom Buddhists say they would like to be able to manage and conduct their religious activities under their own monastic code, rather than being required by Vietnamese law--like all religions in Vietnam--to come under the oversight of a government-appointed committee. For Buddhists, this is the Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha (VBS) Executive Council, an organization dominated by government-appointed Mahayana Buddhist officials. It is the VBS--and not Khmer Theravada Buddhist leaders--that makes decisions regarding ordinations, religious ceremonies, and the content of religious studies curricula offered at pagoda schools.

As is the case with other religious adherents in Vietnam, government authorities impose restrictions on Khmer Buddhists, such as not allowing them to travel freely or transfer to another pagoda without official permission. As a young monk told Human Rights Watch, "If we want to move to another pagoda to study we need to write a letter and get permission; we are unable to study freely. For any ceremony, you have to apply for permission two months in advance."

From the Vietnamese government's perspective, religious groups that seek to operate independently of government-authorized committees and manage their own affairs undermine the party's authority. Vietnamese authorities respond harshly to demands for religious independence, particularly in regions such as southern Vietnam where religion has historically been perceived as linked to political movements or foreign powers that challenge the Communist Party's sway over popular allegiance.

Khmer Buddhists say that the defrocking of activist monks in Vietnam's Mekong Delta in 2007 was a serious breach of the Buddhist code, an issue beyond the scope of this report. However, government authorities, and not just Buddhist officials, took part in the decisions to defrock, with police cordoning off pagodas and providing security during monks' defrocking and placement under pagoda arrest. In analyzing defrocking as a human rights abuse, when conducted by government officials rather than a religious organization, it can constitute interference or limitation of the right to practice religion and religious belief. It can also be tantamount to a punishment imposed without any due process, and when conducted violently or in a particularly humiliating way, constitutes inhumane or degrading treatment.

The defrockings carry very serious social consequences as well. Monks interviewed by Human Rights Watch describe the process as extremely degrading, since it implies a very serious moral transgression. One monk was so distraught that he prepared himself for self-immolation. Monks were also filled with outrage at not being allowed to speak or defend themselves in front of their pagodas' congregations, as allowed by Buddhist monastic code. The defrockings also deprived the monks of the privilege of being supported and educated by the monastery, requiring them to support themselves while trying to continue their education in another fashion.

Cambodia's repression of Khmer Krom activists

In Cambodia, the Khmer Krom issue plays to one of the key flashpoints of Cambodian politics: intense and historical popular fear and resentment of Vietnam, and the fact that many Cambodians believe that the Cambodian People's Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen--installed after Vietnam's 1979 invasion that toppled the Khmer Rouge--continues to be under the political control of Vietnam. The Vietnamese issue, and in particular the sense that the once-glorious Angkorian Empire has been weakened over the centuries by Vietnam's acquisition of Cambodian territory, is the fault line on which virtually every popular opposition movement in Cambodia attacks the government, and an issue on which the Cambodian government is extremely sensitive.

Cambodian riot police chased and beat Khmer Krom Buddhist monks after they tried to deliver a petition to the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh calling for greater religious freedom for Khmer Krom in Vietnam. ©2007 Heng Chivoan

Because of the affinity between most Cambodians and the Khmer Krom from Vietnam, Cambodian government officials have tolerated a degree of political activism by Khmer Krom in Cambodia--as long as it does not anger or jeopardize Cambodia's relations with Vietnam. However, after Vietnam's harsh response to demonstrations by Khmer Krom monks and land rights activists in 2007, the Cambodian government launched its own crackdown on peaceful protests by Khmer Krom monks after some fled to Cambodia and began to publicly denounce the abuses they had experienced in Vietnam. The murder of Khmer Krom monk Eang Sok Thoeun after he participated in a demonstration in Phnom Penh in February 2007 and the Cambodian authorities' involvement in the arrest, defrocking, and deportation to Vietnam of Khmer Krom abbot Tim Sakhorn in June 2007 sent a chilling message to Khmer Krom in both Vietnam and Cambodia. After being returned to Vietnam, in November 2007 a Vietnamese court sentenced Sakhorn to one year in prison under article 87 of Vietnam's penal code for "undermining national unity."

The repression of Khmer Krom activists in Cambodia and Vietnam had the desired effect of stemming the wave of public protests that in both countries occurred during 2007 and 2008. With neither Vietnam nor Cambodia providing sufficient protection for the basic rights of Khmer Krom, and government authorities in both countries continuing to harass, threaten, and monitor Khmer Krom activists, increasing numbers of Khmer Krom, including close to 50 Buddhist monks and 100 civilians, have fled to Thailand to seek refugee protection there.

The 2007-2008 Mekong Delta protests by Khmer Krom Buddhist monks and farmers, and the Vietnamese government's response to them, are not unique. In many parts of Vietnam, farmers are protesting the loss of their land and local corruption. Followers of other religions, such as Hoa Hao Buddhists, members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, as well as Protestants, Catholics, Mennonites, and Cao Dai, face ongoing government restrictions on their religious activities and freedom of assembly. Ethnic minority communities who, like Khmer Krom Buddhists, seek to manage their own religious affairs, such as Hmong and Montagnard Christians in the central and northern highlands, continue to come into conflict with local authorities.

In Vietnam, where independent civil society organizations are not allowed to operate and freedom of association is sharply curtailed, religious organizations sometimes fill unmet needs. Independent religious leaders--such as Thich Quang Do of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Mennonite pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, or Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly--double as human rights defenders, often paying the price by being sent to prison. Religious gatherings, whether they are Buddhist festivals, Catholic prayer vigils, or Montagnard house church meetings, serve religious functions while also providing the space for networking, leadership building, and discussions about social issues.

In the parlance of the Vietnamese Communist Party, popular expression of grievances and any form of social unrest is blamed on conspiratorial plots by "hostile foreign forces" who misuse democracy, human rights, land conflicts, and religious freedom to manipulate and stir up opposition to the government among disaffected and marginalized groups.

The Vietnamese government tends to treat the phenomenon of ethnic-based grievances as evidence of separatist or irredentist movements. Indeed, many Khmer are fiercely nationalistic and resent the loss of ancestral territory in the Mekong Delta to Vietnam. In internal documents, the Vietnamese government has justified its efforts to infiltrate and undermine Khmer Krom groups in Vietnam by claiming they are demanding the creation of an independent nation. By conflating the numerous but localized land rights protests by Khmer Krom farmers in the Mekong Delta with separatist plots, the Vietnamese authorities have not only obstructed justice but set back the prospects of achieving their goal of national unity.

In addition, there is no evidence that the Khmer Krom monks who demonstrated in February 2007 were demanding territorial independence from Vietnam. To the contrary, the five monks were imprisoned on charges of causing public disorder by disrupting traffic, under article 245 of Vietnam's Penal Code, and their detailed indictment makes no mention of separatist demands (see appendix A).

Human Rights Watch takes no position on questions of self determination or the merits of arguments by ethnic Khmer who advocate return of the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam to Cambodia or those of the Vietnamese government that the delta is an integral part of Vietnam. We do, however, support the internationally-recognized right to peaceful protest, a right that Vietnam has also recognized by being a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The existence of separatist aspirations expressed peacefully is no justification for breaking up demonstrations, defrocking monks, or imprisoning activists.

In December 2008 the Vietnamese government once again called on the national police force to strengthen measures to protect national security and social order, by thwarting public demonstrations and other "peaceful evolution" plots.

Until the Vietnamese government allows the right of peaceful dissent and independent religious and political activities, the situation is only likely to worsen. It should make a determined effort to create space for peaceful dialogue--rather than confrontation or crackdowns--in its relations with the Khmer Krom.

Source: HRW