(www.radicalparty.org) DOCUMENTS ON: RADICALS / DOC.TYPE: LETTERS
send this page | invia questo testo


20/07/2004 | UN: Open letter by Kok Ksor to the members of the UN Economic and Social Council

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
OTHER LANGUAGES
Lettera aperta di Kok Ksor ai membri del Consiglio Economico e Sociale Dell’ONU