Subject: Yuon Dot Khmer
From: Baphuon@aol.com (Baphuon)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.cambodia Organization: http://clubkhmer.com/

That Betrayal Day was known to Khmer Krom as the day of "Yuon Dot Khmer" (Vietnamese torched Cambodian). Maybe a dozen witnesses of "Yuon Dot Khmer" are still alive today: five are living the States including my brother Dara and Thanh a former Para officer, and four living in Cambodia. But the Vietnamese let the world know it as the Day of "Khmer Dot Yuon." The Vietnamese made the switch that transformed the criminal perpetrators into innocent victims.

Until today, the Vietnamese continued to eliminate who whoever and whenever told that story of "Yuon Dot Khmer". The family victims were terrorized and silenced forever. Would be eliminated those who dared to talk. The Vietnamese don't want witnesses alive. They would like to erase the "Yuon Dot Khmer" story from Cambodia History.

General Duong Sam Ol knew very well this story of Yuon Dot Khmer, and so did King Sihanouk. We should invite General Duong Sam Ol to tell us his point of view of Cambodia history. His historical witness will be extremely valuable.

We need someone to write this part of Cambodia History. We need a scholar to write an academic thesis (D.E.S.) or a PhD thesis on this subject. The French journals, France Soir, Le Parisien and the French communist party, l' Humanité, had surely related this story of "Khmer Dot Yuon" at that time according to my brother Dara.

Kung Sim, my father, was governor (Chauway Srok) of Preah Trapeang, home of Khmer intellectuals of Kampuchea Krom. Preah Trapeang was also the province of the decedents of Royal families of Khmer King King Chey Chetha II who lost Khmer Land to Vietnam. My father was an engineer and an alumni of French Government School (Ecole Nationale d' Administration). He lost his job after Youn Dot Khmer. He organized Khmer revenge. He fled to Battambang, Cambodia. He kept secret his identity. He was recruited by French administration just after his arrival in Battambang to build the railway from Battambang City to Poipet.

At Battambang, in 1947, he find that the Vietnamese organization to swallow Cambodia was already much more advanced and stronger than the one he knew very well in Kampuchea Krom.

Battambang was stratified in four levels: At the top was the French administration. After the French, were the Vietnamese officers of French administration and team leaders of every French support-organizations. There were already Vietminh villages well organized in Battambang since Thailand occupation of Battambang.

At the third level was Khmer. Khmer represented the majority of Battambang people. The majority of Battambang people were Khmer Krom from Preah Trapeang. At the fourth level were people pro-Thai. That fourth popular couch had no strong link to Cambodia.

Chinese people considered themselves as immigrant who came to live in harmony with Khmer people and did not want to get involve in political activity. But Chinese people living in Cambodia were strong supporters of Cambodia.

Finally, in other word, in Cambodia, all governmental decision was hold in French hand through Vietnamese. Vietnamese officers were therefore in influential position to shape French policy in Cambodia.

Khmer Krom and Buddhist monks brought to Cambodia their know how of village organization, their motto, hold on our own hand the destiny of our village. Samdech Sangh Raja Chuon Nath, Samdech Sangh Preah Wannarat Iv Tuot, Lok Krou Achar Souk had to hide their origin of Preah Trapeang. They were erudite of government thinking and military organization.

Samdech Sangh Chuon Nath always advised us to take care of the people, the grass-root organization, take care of the village, assure and provide services, especially security, administration, economic, health, education and public works. Take initiative. Don't wait. You should not wait for help from the royal government, the central power. Very often, you should act as if the central government were defeated by our traditional enemies. The government will need you anyway to do thing. All in all take full control of the village. That is the fundamental basic of any political activities, said he. Remember Utah. Utah is the state of Mormons. The Mormon controlled any grass-root organization, even the small social units of Utah. Therefore, the Mormons controlled the State of Utah.

My father came two times to Cambodia, the first time, in 1941, with a dozen of his friends. Khmer Krom had established during century a network helping each other to return back to live on the land of our ancestors, in Cambodia or Thailand. Cambodia and Thailand were the refuge for Khmer Krom, a kind of Khmer Krom save-haven. When the repression in Vietnam was extreme, Khmer Krom fled to Cambodia or Thailand to escape the repression.

Khmer Krom network spread from Kampuchea Krom to Thailand, Surin. The network assured the logistic support by providing foods, a place to sleep and information, who to contact. My father carried my brother Dara on his shoulder and his companions walked from Preah Trapeang to Svay Daun Keo, the last village frontier Cambodia/Thailand.

Khmer Krom network introduced my father and his group to Khmer Krom in Battambang under Thai administration. There, he met Khmer-Thai families, Ta Chea, the father of the famous or infamous Nuon Chea and Mor Phuc (Phuc, MD) the father of Sarit Thanarat, the future Prime Minister of Thailand. Nuon Chea and Sarith Thanarat were cousin.

In 1941, it was the World War II. French government mobilized Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotians to fight for France. France administration had imposed a quota for Vietnam. In Kampuchea Krom, Vietnamese leaders did not want Vietnamese to die for France because they prepared to fight France already. So they avoided the mobilization. Therefore, to fill the quota, Vietnamese officers of the French administration had forced Cambodian citizens to go to fight Germany in their place. Young Khmer Krom generation was decimated by war and some were taken prisoner of war in Germany.

Immediately after the World War II, General De Gaulle came to Kampuchea Krom and met Khmer Krom leaders, and Khmer Krom prisoners in Germany to thank them. De Gaulle told them that you should organize military, create a good army because if you didn't, you would lose your land of your ancestors in the near future.
Baphuon - (Update Jan-Fev2005)