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Official discrimination against ethnic Vietnamese was policy under Norodom Sihanouk. In the period from 1953 to 1975, Cambodian Government established “Fiche de Controle du Vietnamien”, a special ID document for the purpose of discrimination against ethnic Vietnamese. After the coup by Lon Nol in March 1970 Vietnamese were called "hereditary enemies". A massacre of 100 civilian ethnic Vietnamese men, women and children was committed at Prasot Takeo, Kampot. Further killings were committed on the houseboats on river in Phnom Penh. One French Priest counted over one thousand bodies in the Mekong River. Over the next months and years about 300,000 ethnic Vietnamese were evacuated to South Vietnam, while others were held in detention until 1975. [Cambodia: Report From a Stricken Land — by Henry Kamm]

Just as they rejected currency, the Khmer Rouge regime rejected personal identity documents. Nevertheless, the regime established a classification system. Furthermore different clothing rations based upon the classifications made people's category identifiable by the appearance of their clothing. In 1978, however, the KR introduced new blue and white "kroma" scarves and sometimes blue pants and shirts, which became the "killing sign" used by cadres to identify persons relocated out of the Eastern Zone who were marked for death. The ethnic minorities were almost always classified in the lowest category as "new people." The work assignments, living conditions, minimal food rations, harsh penalties and sometimes massacres imposed on them caused mass death among persons classified as "new people." In 1977 and 1978 ethnic Vietnamese were increasingly targeted. These and others considered to be associated with them became the primary target of the genocidal mass killing. [Blue Scarves and Yellow Stars — by Gregory H. Stanton; The Pol Pot regime : race, power, and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge — by Ben Kiernan]

In 1993, ethnic Vietnamese Cambodians were issued new white cards called "Certificates of Recognition for Overseas Vietnamese Person". The documents renew an earlier practice from the 1950s and ethnic Vietnamese are sometimes called by the pejorative term "youn." About the same time, the KR committed multiple massacres of Vietnamese farmers and fishermen. Large massacre 7-23-92 in Kampot Province and another on 3-10-93 at Tonle Sap Lake (about 100 killed) causing mass flight to Vietnam. No Cambodian leaders condemned these crimes. Later they prevented these persons from returning.[Cambodia: A shattered Society — by Marie Alexandrine Martin]

(Source: Prevent Genocide International)



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