The UNPFII Experience: Samon Thach

Armed with a 5 year old laptop, a cell phone, a pen, and the determination to succeed, I participated for the second time at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has been following our Khmer Krom movement. I am very glad and appreciative to be enthusiastically involved within the movement itself. At times things may seem overwhelming and disorganized, I believe that the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation has come very far from a grass-root organization to a well known and respected non-profitable organization in the past 4 years.

There have been countless non-profit organizations that claim to work for the common interest of the Khmer Krom people such as the Khmer Krom Liberation Front, the Khom, the Khmer Krom Community and now the Khmer Krom Government in Exile. In my opinion these organizations have done little to nothing to help out the indigenous Khmer Krom people of current day South Vietnam except claiming Khmer Krom Federation (KKF) works as their own.

The movement of indigenous peoples across the global to create the UNPFII has been going on for over 24 years. In 2002, the Permanent Forum was established within the UN body. Luckily, KKF has participated within four of the sixth session.

KKF has determined to work hard and fast to bring human rights abuses to the international attention. KKF believes that in order to empower our Khmer Krom brothers and sisters back home, people overseas need to advocate for them. The Vietnamese government signed treaties with the United Nations to guarantee all citizens are treated equal. But in reality, the VN government does not do what they have agreed on to do. Therefore, it is up to all of us to bring rights to the people back home, in which they already have but does not allow exercising their rights.

For those of us that are living overseas, we are fortunate to be able to enjoy all that a democratic society has to offer. We can conduct demonstrations without fear of prosecution or intimidation by the ruling governments. We can even sue the governments if they injure us in anyway. A good example was during a World Trade Organization protest in Seattle, Washington. Thousand of protesters took to the streets and a small riot broke out and dozens of arrests were made. Later the citizens who got arrested filed a major lawsuit against the city of Seattle and won. Therefore, armed with this knowledge, I am going to dedicate my spare time to help fight for what’s right and I hope you will too someday.

As a member of the Khmer Krom Federation Youth Committee (KKFYC), I would say this year UNPFII has taught me greatly. I have become more open to what the world has to offer and as a result it made more confident in what I do as a Human Rights advocate. Some say that what I am doing is politically motivated. They do entitle to his/her opinion. But I do not let their opinion stop from what I am currently doing, which is to bring freedom to our people back home through the use of peaceful means.

This year was awesome. As part of the KKFYC, we all had fun roaming the streets of New York City thanks to the kindness of the Khmer Krom families in New York City who provided a place for us to stay. If it was not for their generosity, we all would have to drive back to Philadelphia and then come back the next morning.

All in all, I would to extend many thanks to everyone in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York for providing our youths with the foods and a safe place to rest. We are pleased to see many more Khmer Krom people reach out a helping hand to another and it sets a very good example for our younger generation to follow.

I hope to see more new and old faces in the next UNPFII of May 2008. Like our KKF – President said, “Do not afraid of the fact that VN stops you to visit our homeland; be afraid that we will not have a homeland to visit”. I really truly believe that statement. If we stop ourselves from helping our relatives back home because we are fear that the VN government will not let us visit then in the near future we won’t have a place called Kampuchea Krom to visit.

To those who doesn’t believe what KKF is doing, please be careful. If you don’t believe in something, you will fall for anything.