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UN:
Open letter by Kok Ksor to the members of the UN Economic and Social Council
to vote against the recommendation to suspend the Transnational Radical Party
at the United Nations
to the urgent attention of:
the Ambassadors to the UN ECOSOC
My name is Kok Ksor, and I am taking the liberty to write to
you today, to seek your support for a non-governmental organization called the
Transnational Radical Party (TRP), which consultative status with the UN Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC) might be suspended if a recommendation for sanction
will not be rejected by the ECOSOC next week.
The TRP is running the risk to be excluded from the works
of the UN, because they graciously allowed me to address the Commission on Human
Rights on different occasions. I am accused of being a terrorist that is pursuing
the creation of an independent ethnic state, and that an organization I founded
some 12 years ago, that goes by the name of Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI),
which is incorporated in the State of South Carolina, is fomenting violence
in Vietnam's Central Highland, where the hill tribes also known with the French
name of the Montagnards still live today.
Right after the end of the Vietnam War, I moved to the United
States, where I was granted citizenship, and where I started to work to raise
public awareness on the need to preserve our indigenous culture, tradition and
customs. For these reasons, in 1993, Professor Erica-Irene Daes invited me to
participate in the UN-sponsored Working Group on indigenous issues. For all
these years, I have tried to make my contribution to the international process
that eventually lead to the establishment the Indigenous Forum bringing to the
attention of UN experts the dire situation in which my brothers and sisters
have been living for decades now, briefing them on our history and compiling
reports on human rights violations.
In 2001, while in Geneva for the Commission on Human Rights,
I came across the TRP, and finally found an organization which was genuinely
interested in what I was saying. A few months later, they invited me to join
their organization and urged me to fully participate in their non-violent activities.
Our peaceful nature found in non-violence a new way to seek support for our
decennial plea for international help. Thanks to the TRP the UN, but also the
European Union and the United States have started to pay closer attention to
the issue of the Montagnards.
Your Excellency,
Which terrorist organization would call on the United Nations
to send a mission to investigate the violation of indigenous rights? Which terrorist
group would alert diplomats and the press on the eve of a series of demonstrations?
How can I possibly establish an independent ethnic State in South Carolina?
Where are the armies of terrorists obeying my command? And why several other
internationally renowned NGOs such as Amnesty International or Human Rights
Watch concur with what we say?
The aim of my organization, as well as the one of the people
with whom I work, or are in contact with, is to finally obtain the recognition
of our indigenous prerogatives in full compliance with the international instruments
of human rights that dozens of countries have adopted. I respectfully invite
you to visit the web page of the MFI at www.montagnard-foundation.org to read
my public statements to get the sense of what we do, how we do it and with whom.
I know that some of the sections of our website have been
used to demonstrate the existence of the Front Unifié pour la Liberation des
Races Opprimées (FULRO). I cannot deny that I was a member of FULRO in the 1960s,
if I did that I would be lying to you, and that is contrary to my principles
and my religion. That information is taken from a section of the MFI's Internet
page that talks about events happened in the past and concern FULRO not the
MFI. I wish to take this opportunity also to emphasized that the MFI never endorsed
any of these objectives of the FULRO's platform.
I have stated time and again, at the UN and elsewhere, that,
since the end of the war, the nature and scope of my actions is seeking the
respect of our indigenous rights and the freedom to worship God without fearing
persecution.
If the TRP will be suspended for three years, nobody else will
assist us - nor dozens of other peaceful oppressed groups-, in alerting the
UN whenever the situation is turning for the worse and, unfortunately, it has
been turning for the worse systematically over the last few years.
For all these reasons, I urge you to vote against the recommendation
to suspend the TRP, they do not deserve it, as their generosity towards those
who suffer has been exemplar in many parts of the world.
Confident in your understanding, I shall look forward to your
vote next week.
God bless you,
Kok Ksor
President
Montagnard Foundation
Member General Council
of the Transnational Radical Party
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