[Vietnamization] "Comrade Tourists", "Comrade Merchants", "Comrade Soldiers" - examples from Kep, Kirirom [commentary by Ms. Theary C. Seng]

Russia May Aid ‘Comrade Tourists’ Who Were Really Soldiers

The Soviet Union managed to sneak thousands of soldiers into Syria in 1983 during the Lebanese civil war, in which Syria, their ally, was involved.

International New York Times | 19 December 2015

Seen and heard on Ms. Theary C. Seng's Facebook accounts: 
www.facebook.com/theary.c.seng

www.facebook.com/theary.seng.7 

What Vietnam is doing in Cambodia since the beginning of occupation in January 1979. It took more care to conceal the ongoing Vietnamization after its 10-year occupation was forced to end with the dismantling of the Soviet Union, its patron, as it still had its puppet Hun Sen who it had first propped up as Foreign Minister at the impressionable age of 28 years old, meeting every morning with the Vietnamese Ambassador to get his instructions from Hanoi. Several years later, Hanoi appointed him Prime Minister after Hanoi had arrested its 1st-appointed PM Pen Sovan (Hun Sen led the Vietnamese soldiers to Pen Sovann's home) and murdered its 2nd-appointed PM Chan Si.

Within the past two years, first in Kep and now in Kirirom (Kampong Speu province), I can attest first-hand to the "demographic Vietnamization" of "Comrade tourist" and "Comrade merchant", both assisted by the tycoon of dual Vietnamese-Cambodian nationality Sok Kong who owns the petrol company Sokimex, until a few months oversees the ticketing of all temples via the Apsara Authority, owns the Sokha resort in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kampot, Sihanoukville and Kirirom.

My neighbors here in Kirirom are Vietnamese "mango merchants", mainly men in their 30s, 40s and 50s. I'm told in "hundreds, if not thousands". They are assisted by the district offices where they are given accommodation. Others stay in the mango orchards. I've seen the empty trucks in the day time. I'm told if I go to these district offices in the morning around 6 am or so I can see them leave for the orchards and return in the evening around 5 pm or so. Most speak Vietnamese with hardly any speaking Khmer. They buy mangos very cheaply as they are assisted by the higher authority; they only use chemicals brought in from Vietnam, which according to the Cambodian locals are very expensive. They transport the mangos via Takeo.

Then there are the outright soldiers in their trucks without license plates. They are ostentatiously here EVERY YEAR going to each orchard and looking for "remains" of their soldiers from the Vietnam War and subsequent years. Several military bases are located here in Kampong Speu.

It's worth "several" investigative news stories for the courageous journalists.