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Untitled Document
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Fourth session
New York, 16-27 May 2005
EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER
Statement by Hoang Duong, representative of the of the
Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation
Madam Chairperson, distinguished members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen:
On behalf of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, I would
like to address to the forum on the issue of extreme poverty and hunger. We,
the Khmer Krom are the indigenous people in Mekong Delta Southern Vietnam. The
world organization lacks awareness of the Khmer Krom people due to suppression
by the Vietnamese Communist Regime. The Vietnamese’s government continued
with their cruel policy towards the Khmer Krom people, which are lead to the
major reason for the extreme poverty and hunger.
Currently, we are facing with fierce cycle that adversely affects
our ability to eradicate poverty and hunger experienced by the Khmer Krom people:
1. The Khmer Krom people are being deprived of their status
within the Vietnamese society as a legitimate citizen.
2. The Vietnamese government in controls the Khmer Krom homelands and being
confiscated by force, leaving thousands of the Khmer Krom homeless and hunger.
3. Civil rights are denied to the Khmer Krom people, and the land-grabs committed
by the Vietnamese authorities and by the State on the Khmer Krom defenseless
people.
4. Our rights to dignity and decent life are nowhere to be found. Khmer Krom
people continue to live in an abject poverty and hunger.
5. Lack of Education limits the economic well being of the Khmer Krom people.
6. Lack of proper agricultural training and no viable technologies have resulted
in low yields and poor crops.
7. Khmer Krom farming communities from generation to generations trapped in
diminishing farmers’ enslavement.
8. There is a healthcare crisis directly amongst the Khmer Krom community, which
is resulted by poverty.
9. There are no healthcare or clinic facilities being provided to the Khmer
Krom people at the affordable level.
10. Epidemic blindness disease has stricken more than 3,000 Khmer Krom poor
across the provinces of Soc Trang and Tra Vinh due to the toxics wastes by the
Vietnamese’s government.
Ladies and Gentlemen, before I end my speech today, I would
like to bring your attention from the former South Africa’s President,
Mr. Nelson Mandela, at the Summit in London, England
described: “poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome
and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not
a gesture of charity. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the
right to dignity and a decent life.”
For this reason, we Khmer Krom people seek nothing more than
our rights to social and economic justice in our ancestral homelands, Kampuchea
Krom (south Vietnam); which has been deprived and neglected by the State of
Vietnam far too long and far too devastating to our Khmer Krom society.
Madam Chairperson, distinguished members of the Forum, and
honored guests, for allowing me all this time to present my speech on behalf
of the Khmer Krom people. I am strongly praised the Forum initiatives and your
roles on the “eradicating extreme poverty and hunger” and on all
other issues. It is with our highest regards, my people and I, once again, thank
you for your noble cause for humanity as a whole.
Hoang Duong
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