Nation - Religion - King

On December 17, 2007, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, about 50 Khmer-Krom Buddhist monks with a petition marched to Vietnamese Embassy. The petition called to the government of Vietnam to firstly, release Venerable Tim Sakhorn who was defrocked and deported from Cambodia and imprisoned in Vietnam; secondly, release five Khmer-Krom Buddhist monks who are imprisoned in Khleang (Soc Trang) province, thirdly, resolve the conflicts of Khmer Krom land confiscated by the Vietnam government in the post 1978; lastly, for the Vietnam government to respect the rights of indigenous people. The monks were abruptly stopped by sixty Cambodian police armed with shields, wooden and electrical batons, and some armed with pistols and assaulted Ak-47 rifles.

Since the Vietnamese Embassy refused to take the petition, the determined monks then seated in front of the embassy and began to chant, after awhile the monks seeing that it is hopeless to wait any longer and decided to return to their pagoda. But for some of the monks they did not want to relinquish so they tried to move closer to the embassy. Unfortunately, the monks were stopped aggressively by Polices, beaten and electrocuted with the batons. The helpless monks tried to depart back to their pagoda as fast as they could run. The police chased the monks for more than four blocks, along the way the police either kicked the monks with their boots or beat them with their batons.

According to Article 4 of Cambodia Constitution “The Motto of the Kingdom of Cambodia is: Nation, Religion, King” and in Article 43 “Buddhism shall be the State religion.” Even when the King of Cambodia meets a monk; he still has to show his respect because it is a state religion. Unfortunately, on December 17, 2007, Cambodia Police violently broke the motto of the nation to deliberately beat the Buddhist monks.

It is appalling to see pictures of Cambodian armed police kick a powerless monk trying to escape so hard that he ascended into the air and to see monks electrocuted so severely that caused them to faint. Is it true that in Cambodia, the law enforcers are allowed to beat helpless Buddhist monks?

Surprisingly, according to Radio Free Asia, on the same day, there were 39 Vietnamese who live in Cambodia without permission from Cambodian government came to protest in front of Chinese Embassy because China just took over the Spratly and Paracel islands. None of the Vietnamese protestors were harmed by Cambodian law enforcers. The question is why did the Cambodia polices just stop and beat the Khmer-Krom Buddhist monks who just tried to submit the petition to the Vietnamese Embassy, but they did not do anything to the Vietnamese who protested against China in front of the Chinese Embassy?

The Khmer-Krom Buddhist monks escaped Vietnam to seek refuge in our brother country, Cambodia, hoping that they will have their rights protected. Unfortunately, they even got beat-up by their own Khmer polices who tried to please the Vietnamese Embassy. With this heartbreaking incident, it seems that Cambodia is not an independent state.