From: vinsight@netcom.com (Vietnam Insight)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: VI: Cambodian Impasse can be solved
Date: 7 Nov 92 02:57:35 GMT
Reply-To: vinsight@netcom.com
Organization: Vietnam Insight



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Cambodian Impasse can be solved
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The two million Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia, confirmed by the U.N.
peace-keeping task force, pose a genuine threat to the natives in the
upcoming election. This is also one of the reasons that the Khmer Rouge
refuses to cooperate in the peace process. This fear of and opposition
to Vietnamese participation in the polls are legitimate despite the
fact that many Vietnamese have established themselves on this land for
many years: these two million Vietnamese voters represent one-fourth of
the Cambodian population.

Outside observers charge that the Khmer Rouge is using the Vietnamese
settlers as an excuse for its political advancement. Others condemn the
Cambodians' anti-Vietnamese sentiment as pure racial discrimination.
>From the perspective of the Cambodian government, there is a deep
concern that the nation's sovereignty is at stake as one-fourth of the
electorate is Vietnamese, a people whose government invaded and occupied
Cambodia for years until being forced out by international pressure. It
would be virtually impossible to convince the Cambodian people that
these Vietnamese settlers are not Hanoi's agents for its continuing
domination. And even those who have settled in Cambodia before Hanoi's
1978 invasion would be suspected to cast votes for a pro-Vietnam
government.

But to exclude these Vietnamese settlers from the election is to
violate the democratic spirit of the free election. To include them is
to challenge the Khmer Rouge's protest and maintain the current impasse,
or to go ahead with the election without the Khmer Rouge and revive the
deadly civil war.

A seldom mention solution, probably due to the unlikelihood of its
happening, is the volunteer repatriation of the Vietnamese from
Cambodia. As anti-Vietnamese sentiments rose with eight gruesome
killings recently, why would the Vietnamese be reluctant to return to
their homeland?

Clearly there are two interrelated reasons: political and economic.
There are Vietnamese Communist Party members who have been planted in
Cambodia to continue the party's interest on this foreign soil. There
are people being sent to Cambodia during Hanoi's invasion and found
themselves economically better off as a privilege class of the
dominators. Also, there are settlers who have become acclimated to their
new surroundings, choosing to remain there and raise their families.
Except for the first category, the majority of Vietnamese Cambodians
(including those who have been settled here for generations) are looking
forward to breathing the air of freedom brought by the peace process and
election.

Why should they return to a Vietnam ridden with economic hardship and
political oppression without any fundamental change in sight?

Despite Vietnam's record on rice export in recent years and its booming
economic activities on the surface, the majority of people are facing
starvation and economic difficulties. The nation's wealth is
concentrated in the hands of the privileged few. Malnourished and
homeless people fill the country's corners and streets. The old
communist system; which cares more for its survival than the people's,
which had utterly mismanaged the nation's resources and now starves its
citizens to export rice for debt payment; is still in charge. Thus there
is no optimism for a way out. In Cambodia, however, at least they can
see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Vietnamese would not think twice about leaving Cambodia for home had
Vietnam provided at least an equal opportunity for their future.

In this regard, Hanoi can more than help resolve the Cambodian impasse.
Its withdrawing of troops, even if as accurate as it claims, is not
enough. It can recall its party members and cadres planted in Cambodia
under civilian clothes. It can implement the most crucial and fundamental
change in Vietnam: restoring the people's rights and the nation's
freedom. Only under this condition, can genuine economic reforms work
and relations with the rest of the world be improved to bring Vietnam out
of the economic quagmire. Only under this condition, can the Vietnamese,
not only in Cambodia but also elsewhere in Asian refugee camps, see a
future in their homeland to voluntarily return.


-- 
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese