Kong Korm's Letter

SENATE
Of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Nation-Religion-King

Paris, October 26th, 2007.

To the attention of Mr. Christian PONCELET
President of the Senate of the French Republic

In my capacity as President of the 7th Commission of the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia, at this moment, host of the Senate of the French Republic in Paris,

I have the honor to present my respects and my most sincere thanks to Mister President of the Senate of the French Republic for his warm reception as well as his contributions in the friendship and in the cooperation between the French Senate and the Cambodian Senate.

I would like to take this opportunity to call from your high benevolence the favor to revise the Law N° 49-733 of June 4th, 1949 modifying the status of Cochin China in the French Union (done in Toulon, on June 4th, 1949) signed by Vincent AURIOL, 1st President of the IVth Republic, in particular the article 3: in case of the change of the Vietnam Status, the Status of Cochin China will be the object of a new consideration of the Assemblies foreseen in the article 75 of the Constitution (Title VIII: Of the French Union) etc. …

I please you, at the same occasion, to allow me to remind you that, since the promulgation of the Law Nۜ°49-733 of June 4th, 1949, the territory and the population of Khmer origin of Kampuchea Krom, in particular their culture, their language, their religion, their customs and traditions, their ancestral rights are threatened and destroyed bit by bit. The policy of vietnamization of the territory and the Cambodian population of Kampuchea Krom and the pursuit of aggression on the territory of Cambodia remaining, led by the Vietnamese government as showed in the attempt of annexation of Cambodia of January 7th, 1979, would constitute as a the danger of disappearance of Cambodia if there was no agreement of Paris of October 23rd, 1991, recognized by the UN of the Federation of Khmers of Kampuchea Krom as the member of the Autochtonous Peoples recognized by the organization UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization) of the same Union as the member of Right. The law relative to the persons belonging to national and ethnic minorities voted by the UN on September 13th, 2007 constitutes the most solid base in favor of Kampuchea Krom and of her population of Khmer origin.

According to the maps of Indochina published in 1638 and 1850, Kampuchea Krom was really a part of the Cambodian territory. I would please you to refer to the letter N° 1 dated November, 1853 and the letter N° 2 of November, 1856 of Her Majesty Ang Duong, King of Cambodia, communicated with the emperor Napoleon III, telling the sovereign power of the Kingdom of Cambodia on the territory of Kampuchea Krom. On the same pattern, King Norodom Sihanouk, on June 18th, 1949, wore in the knowledge of the emperor of Japan, the letters of the King Ang Duong to the attention of Napoleon III. During his intervention by the 16th General assembly of United Nations, King Norodom Sihanouk considered the French-Vietnamese Agreements of 1948 as nil and void as well as the French Law of 1949: he asserted fiercely that the territory of Kampuchea Krom was always the justifiable property of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

In my capacity as President of the 7th Commission of the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia in charge, among others, of the culture and thus the history, I would bring my support without reserve to the resolution of June 4th, 2003 elaborated by the Cambodian Community of Kampuchea Krom reitering to the Parliament and to the French government to cancel the Law N° 49-733, resolution was also supported by King Norodom Sihanouk in the name of her People and was brough in the knowledge of the Cambodian public on June 8th, 2003.

Against the strategy of more and more wild destruction and, ultimately oppression of the Cambodian population and the race of the Kampuchea Krom, stirred up by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

In the name of the Cambodian population of the Kampuchea Krom origin and the Khmer People of Cambodia,

I would emphatically ask to the Senate, to the National Assembly as well as to the French government, in their quality of former Defender of Cambodia and recently of Co-president of the Paris Agreements of 1991, to revise, to resolve the problem of Kampuchea Krom territory, on her population of Cambodian origin and on the Kingdom of Cambodia to assure and insure their perpetuity.

In the strong hope to improve the cooperation between France and Cambodia, allow me to express my thankful to you, and I would like to please you to accept, Mister the President, the expression of my distinguished consideration.

KONG Korm
The former Minister of the Foreign affairs
President of the 7th Commission of the Senate
of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Copy to :
- The UN
- Government of the French Republic,
- UNPO
For exam and resolution
- Norodom Sihanouk,
- Permanent committee of the Senate,
- Cambodian community of Kampuchea Krom
For support for the royal message of June 8th, 2003

Unofficial translation and Posted by Khemara Jati
khemarajati@googlegroups.com